Million Ant Moving Company
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
Run a moving/delivery company that employs millions of ants in this wacky physics-based game.
Made in 48 hours for#BonfireJam. Theme: "You can't do it alone."
Controls
Action | Control |
Move ants | Left Mouse drag. |
Expand/Shrink Selection Circle | Mouse Scrollwheel up/down |
Move camera | WASD or Arrow Keys |
Quit | ESC |
Skip to next level | Forward Slash |
Hints (do not read these):
1. Ants continue to move to the last place you sent them to, even after you release the mouse. They'll stubbornly try to stay there if pushed.
2. Drag a group of ants upwards into the air, and they will slowly form into a column. Columns/towers are very useful for getting past low lasers.
3. Ants can climb other ants, and can climb walls.
4. Ants are very strong.
5. Sometimes you need multiple groups of ants with their separate instructions to achieve a level's objectives. You can use one group of ants to create a ramp, while other ants push the item up the ramp.
6. If an ant or item falls into a chasm or gets fried by a laser, it will respawn at the start point.
7. Glitch in the matrix: Sometimes you can make the ants leap/fly when carrying an object. Not sure how this is done, but I've seen players do it to great advantage.
Tools: Unity (game engine), Tiltbrush VR (for making 3D artwork), Blender (for cleaning up meshes), Tiltbrush Toolkit/SDK for Unity (importing Tiltbrush drawings).
Third Party Assets:
MUSIC: "Attic Secrets" by Rafael Krux (CC 4.0); "Dawn of the Apocalypse" by Rafael Krux (CC 4.0); "Days of Glory" by Rafael Krux (CC 4.0);"Ghost Town" by Rafael Krux (CC 4.0); "Hillbilly Swing" by Kevin MacLeod (CC 4.0);
SOUND FX: Ants by Manuel Calurano (CC0); Electric Zap by michael_grinnell (CC0)
Download
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Comments
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so unique!!! and so fun!!!!!
When I move out, I hope I, too, can have a million big burly bug boys to help me. ;{)
Thank you for playing and making a video!
My pleasure man! You've got some bangers under your belt!
I guess animating each of those ants was quite longer than recording the trailer? Ants smehow sound rare in games so far, in a positive way :-)
Amazing concept and execution. I did break the last level, when I accidentally took one painting so far right that neither the cursor nor the camera would allow me to send some ants to get it back. So I only got 2/3 paintings, and I wasn't going to spend another 45 minutes replaying everything, but the forward slash allowed me to see the victory screen at least. This is very funny and endearing.
Really fun game! I really enjoyed toying with the physics of how the ants get to places or carry things, or just try to let them flow like liquid, but also don't behave like liquid at all. The mechanics are easy to pick up but I found it difficult to get the ants to do what I wanted them to, or how I expected them to act, physics-wise. But I guess the game is designed that way, so I'll enjoy it as it is! I didn't quite finish the game, because I accidentally hit ESC on the last level, and I didn't know there was a Level Skip button. Oops! Anyway, great game!
Please check out the video and my channel: VladMan. Thank you!!
Thank you for the video!!
This is pretty great. Very unique gameplay. Would love to see more.
Thank you Rob!!
This game is amazing. The simple act of moving the ants is sooo satisfying and I feel like the core idea has real legs. Well done =)
With the amount of objects you've got running around, I'm guessing this is using the DOTS framework?
Thanks! Yes it's using Unity's DOTS framework and the DOTS Havoc physics for more stability with the collisions.
Nice. How many agents are running at one time?
There are 1000 ants on each level, but it could probably handle more without much problem.
Cool =)
I've used DOTS a couple of times based on tutorials on YouTube (CodeMonkey for example), do you have anyone on YT or anywhere else that you'd recommend for up to date tutorials on DOTS?
Up to date? Sadly, no. I learned my DOTS in a course on Udemy (here) when it was on sale, but the course was already out of date by the time it launched. It allowed me to learn the underlying fundamentals of it though.
ECS/DOTS has been so troublesome this way. I think it still has a heck of a long way to go before it can replace the simplicity of normal Unity stuff with regards to physics. A simple one line collision check in normal Unity physics can take dozens of lines inside of ECS/DOTS. Procedurally adjusting colliders in DOTS physics is like trying to figure out a cryptic magical incantation, with the current scarcity of examples/documentation. Don't even get me started with scripting triggers in DOTS physics. Unless you really want/need to use it now, I'd recommend waiting a bit longer, at least until they have everything out of preview.
Weirdly, I love the concept and think it would make for a great game once everything gets refined.
Show post...
funny
Thanks for playing!
i love the ant art heist! :)
The game is rly fun with great gameplay
This is really cool! I love the mechanic of moving all those ants around. That level with the lasers is REALLY hard.
Thanks! Heh you made it to the Heist level aready? I didn't get to test the Heist level before submitting - it requires some deep strategy, dexterity, and patience to get across.
Hint: Make little towers of standing ants, higher than the low lasers, and pass the painting across the towers using a separate group of ants. Keep in mind that the ants respawn at the start point if they get lazed.
Cheat key: forward slash to skip to next level.
oh that cheat is helpful :D .