I made a Tiny Level Generator for Ants

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[@OrdonWolf]

What is this? A Level Generator for ANTS?

[@Qtlpgt]

no

[@alex.g7317]

@@Qtlpgtspamton

[@The_Takeout_Samurai]

What is this? A dumb QUESTION?

[@thesoupperson.]

@@The_Takeout_SamuraiWhat is this? A bit of SARCASM?

[@The_Takeout_Samurai]

@@thesoupperson. Nope? pure MOKERY?

[@alligatortears5344]

You should add water, obviously water is important recurve for life but also could double as an obstacle, there could be streams that block off areas but you can build a structure that creates ants that (like real red ants) can form together to create an ant boat, allowing access to the resources on the other side :)

[@Prismatic3127]

WOLF PACK: ASSEMBLE INTO: WOLF BOAT

[@mrmurpleqwerty4838]

"I'm a boat!" - Villager #87

[@jacksonmcneil6089]

Or you could build a bridge, even out of ants if that's your thing

[@francosoria4385]

And if fish wants to eat your army? And ants can't attack them with normal wapons becasue fish have scales

[@lillyraisin]

AND THE BOATS CAN ONLY BE ACTIVE FOR A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME OR THEY DROWN SO YOU HAVE TO LOOT QUICKLY

[@M_1024]

Ideas for the game: - Fungus farming: someone suggested this already, but some species of ants in real life bring leafes to farm a fungus that they later eat. - Aphid and caterpillar farming: some species of ants also "milk" caterpillars or aphids which are small green bugs that produce honeydew for ants to eat. Ants also protect aphids from predators and winters. Some aphids can also build little (~1 cm) structures where they live. - Zombie fungus: there is a species of fungus that infects ants and alter their behavior. Infected ant climbs on a plant and die, then the fungus grows out of the ants head and spreads its spores to ants below. You can of course alter this hoever you want. - Termites: I don't have any specific ideas but termites are cool so why not add them to the game? - Venom ants: a new ant type that uses venom to fight. - Some times ants use their mandibles to launch themselves or enemies! - Some ants can commit suicide to spread chemicals and immobilize enemies! - Some ants can produce silk! (But I guess if you wanted silk in game, it would probably be a spider product). - Some ants build nests out of their own bodies! - Some ants live in colonies of other ants, but don't work, just steal food. - The level could end with the queen flying off to make a new colony. No, I am not an ant nerd. Yes, I did just read the Wikipedia page for ants.

[@ethanelainethen2237]

Yes

[@Fighting.Flower]

About your termite idea: since this isn't about regular ants, but ant PEOPLE, maybe termites could be termite PEOPLE as well. Perhaps there could be a structure where ants work as diplomats to negotiate trade between termites for resources that are harder to come by or harvest, like wood fiber, or could have ants work as thieves to steal resources from them. That would be a fun idea!

[@ApexPredator1000]

Could also introduce carnivorous plants (fly traps, etc) as a sort of mimic enemy type; a patch of high value food, but some actually eat. Mechanic would be figuring out how to get the high quality stuff without falling prey to the plants - or can you trick enemies into being eaten, disabling the threat for a time as it feeds; during which, the colony grabs their resource until it becomes an active threat again

[@NeoEvanA.R.T]

Imagine unlocking different civilizations with different power and playstyle, suited for different levels.

[@Chatetchien1]

Woaa, the background is so much more alive now :0

[@afterword4461]

“Building” an Ant Queen to fly off and start a new Kingdom in a new place might be a fun way to cycle through levels with a sense of continuity and progression.

[@Sam510.]

You should add a use for the mini ferns around the map! Maybe a leaf cutter type system where they use the ferns to feed fungus that could go towards the culture!

[@The_Takeout_Samurai]

I love how the buildings aren't just squares, and that you need to place them strategically if you want to fit them in an area!!

[@oatie751]

I love your art style - it’s very clearly yours and it looks great!

[@97P96]

Looks very nice, one thing that might be nice to add is a little mud/ground on the bottom of the models, especially the vegetables. That they are really sticking out of the ground.

[@ToonedMinecraft]

I was thinking with the mushrooms, it might be interesting to add some kind of "necromancer" enemy there that uses the zombie fungus well-known for infecting ants to resurrect killed ants to their side. Another idea that popped into my head was a mimic spider that tries to sneak into your base, but that might be less appropriate as you can't really direct your ants to attack directly.

[@SadPinkDino]

How lovely! The graphics are really coming along! I think that some lighting could really add a ton of atmosphere to the levels! Like, dappled lighting through tree leaves, big shadows from clouds, and stormy darkness shattered by lightning! Additionally, i would love to see the scale enhanced! Currently all the models are around the same size, and it leaves the ants at an inconsistent scale (ex the tree trunk vs veggies). Obviously the scale doesn’t need to be realistic, but adding much larger obstacles could really set the scene and add atmosphere ^^

[@LycheeGameLabs]

These are all good suggestions

[@xdsloth5199]

looks great! one thing I can recommend is adding some randomized direction to the generation, the sticks in the stump cluster look a bit too perfect for example, same with the flowers and "trees" since the flowers and trees are supposed to stand up though, make the direction random, but limit it to being a smaller value, like 5-10 degrees to the right or left. while the sticks can just be set randomly from 0 - 360 degrees, some different stick sprites, or varying lengths could help spruce up the natural feeling. Well done as always, really looking forward to the next devlog :D

[@TrixterTheFemboy]

The grass looks great on fields of nothing but grass, but when it comes into contact with other terrain types it looks a little too blocky in my opinion. If possible, it might be a good idea to only have the grass tufts start a very short distance in from the grass color, allowing it to have a slight buffer and thus not have the lines of grass extend into mud or sand at the borders.

[@some_RANDOM_dude-pd1lo]

You could add a enemy termite colony to compete for the ressources with the ant one

[@julzbehr6696]

I just wanted to mention that this is truly beautiful, and also that I really really love the dandelion sprite, and really want to see it again

[@thedapperdino746]

Woah! The environment is so much bigger now! That also has me thinking, it would take a really long time to get the ants back and forth from the castle to the edges of the map. Maybe you should add like outposts to stop along the way.

[@ethanelainethen2237]

You should also add bees in the beehives so there would be more creatures which would add up the intensity

[@LycheeGameLabs]

This will come

[@robertvanderleeuw182]

Maybe you could add some fog to the unexplored areas in the map, similar to Age of Empires.

[@togepipokearts4504]

i was about to say this. a fog of war would help encourage exploration

[@nerdbear1842]

maybe instead of a fog it could be blurry outside a particular range from the ants and where they currently explore, also simulating how ants can't see very far (approximately half a meter).

[@M_1024]

Right now the levels are to small for that to be worth adding

[@sharktrap267]

@@nerdbear1842that's an interesting approach to fog of war, I like it.

[@Gnomable]

This looks amazing! I like the in depth explanation of how it's working.

[@LycheeGameLabs]

Glad it was helpful!

[@darkhuntermini3034]

A multiplayer mode where you try and fill the bar before anyone else seems fun

[@MrGlorf]

Looks beautiful! Excited to try the proof of concept version :)

[@rapandrasmus8231]

this game could go a lot of directions, such as like a creative build and explore game reminiscent of terraria/minecraft or a bite-sized level-by-level colony experience just to name a couple examples. im excited to see where this game goes!

[@Chlorine_Trousers]

Looks really good! cant wait for it to be finished!

[@Kinosei30]

That raised the game in so many levels (quite literally)

[@snekk5752]

I'm loving this series! I gotta say, the thumbnail for this video is really good, it's very inviting and pleasing to look at :)

[@14Ghost14]

I dont remenber how you are going to do the main loop of the game, but i think having a radius to where you can build your colony and having to upgrade your castle to enlarge this wold be cool, maybe unlocking more things and etc...

[@karue7581]

The background really adds a lot to the game!

[@themichaelfarber]

maybe in the long run you could add ant classes? like the old warcraft games you could play as human, elf, etc... they all had the same basic buildings but with variations and different play styles. you could do this using different ant types (species?) as inspiration, like fire ants are heat resistant, bull ants are more damage resistant, some ants build those insane water bridges. also, speaking of fungus, adding cordyceps as ant-zombies would be pretty cool. it's so cool watching your insane development in each and every video. really inspiring man! keep it up. looking forward to playing this game some day

[@LycheeGameLabs]

I'd like to add ant species someday

[@LighthoofDryden]

This is so inspiring I had to watch it twice! Love the techniques and also the thought processes

[@deidaraart5]

While the grass looks nice when zoomed in, at full view it doesn’t hold up very well :( you may want to make the lines more wobbly/random if possible! That, or simplify the grass into large chunks of plain color with tufts scattered around. The rest of the generation looks great though :)

[@kelpstorm]

what about a flying/scout caste? the edges of the map could be foggy until theyre explored, and a quick moving (but low hp and unable to attack) flying ant can be sent to explore and look for resources? perhaps itd need to actually make it back to the main castle to 'communicate what it found' (actually get rid of the fog where it explored), and if it died on the journey nothing gets uncovered?? would probably need more balancing but it could be interesting!

[@Lulumoxy]

This was the best description of shaders, I found it super useful thank you.

[@ladahieno2382]

What a wonderful update, great map generation! I still do believe that Mosslings should be back as an ally to the ants!

[@ExploreImagineDefineCreate]

Love the visuals! Very cute and wonderous. The tiny nature aesthetics always fill me with joy and a desire to explore.

[@SeanStClair-cr9jl]

Love a novel approach to level gen!! This looks so cool! Edit: I also like how each of your videos has a pretty distinct addition to the game. "Level gen," "day and night cycle." It's a really fun development cycle to follow.

[@ballchen4768]

Amazing video! I love how your game is shaping up. It already looks so good. And the insights into the level generation process you implemented are super valuable for me.

[@WLuigi258]

This game looks really fun and etntartaining to play as of now! I always wished to have an ant colony simulator and i cant wait for the full release! A thing you should add: Ants in real life use their jaws to cut moss and grass. They do this in order to clear the path and work more efficently. So in the game you should make that the ants are slow in the grass and add a building for cutting it (like a job). I also think that grass should be a resource wich you could use to make something, but you would need a lot of grass to make it. EDIT: I played the prototype in the description from your first video on this game and it looks AMAZING!! I CANNOT WAIT TO PLAY IT WITH ALL THE NEW STUFF!!

[@Talvara]

Beautiful work, I feel like you broke down the process brilliantly. Inspirational stuff!

[@TitanLordofPizza]

It looks a lot nicer with the new terrain. Although I feel the objects in the scene need more unique texture variances because seeing the same texture multiple times by each other can be kind of repetitive.

[@sonicrocks2007]

Maybe it should have randomly generated short term goals or events. like build this building or bug stampede , etc

[@thejaunecnaguy5113]

what you did is just crazy, it looks so good, good luck to keep going !!

[@tritonis54]

It look pretty cool, but I am just not sure about the bottom of the grass. A straight line looks a bit strange, maybe some cut-in spikes at the bottom for giving an impression of irregularity, or layers of smaller blades of grass around the end, to be more progressive about it.

[@grynte1]

Damn love how the game is going, really hope im going to play it some day, and im happy you got away from where you were before, random game making really does make some good ideas, also please add tophats! on lil ants, on crows, on slimes- just tophats! or even just on the mayor x3

[@simexpo]

Very nice! Also, you might find "wave function collapse" useful for generating levels. But this works well too.

[@zaickho8359]

idk the grass looks a bit too detailed, but also very flat at the bottom, i feel like it could use a different sprite the rest is looking pretty good though

[@SinfulVolcano]

When this comes out, instant wishlist.

[@stevenvasquez9869]

Dude amazing work! Leaps and bounds for you! I saw very briefly, in the beginning you had a time system with a fast forward button and a clock that hit "Evening". I'm going to make an assumption... Hopefully it doesn't sound like an suggestion. During the day it feels like there is a lot to do, and things to get done BEFORE evening. Once evening hits all creatures go inside because it's generally more dangerous at night. During this time, you see (almost like) the world is reversing your progress. Some monsters might come out at night and "undo" some of the work you e accomplished. This might be a time where, you the player are watching and planning your next day.

[@krabstickle]

Maybe instead of placing buildings down you can get the ant peeps to build them? With like a timer and an animation of ant peeps buildin the building in question

[@ronnydarko9046]

I see you really knocked it up a "Notch" in this video... 🤣 Seriously though, I'm loving this whole experience. Watching someone with a laser focused creative process is inspiring. Thank you. ❤

[@timlin.]

Its coming together so well!

[@benLXIX]

not sure how much larger you're planning on making the map, but a minimap with a fog of war effect might be helpful for the player, in the event they manage to get lost scrolling around the world.

[@rutchjohnson]

What an awesome episode! Love the in depth look at level generation and the code behind it :)

[@flairo6605]

If you haven't played Anthill before, it's quite similar conceptually to this game, so might be worth taking a look at :)

[@ayaderg]

while using a shader for the grass is very cool, it may not hurt to explore other options for texturing, as this seems simultaneously very limited and overly complex.

[@PaeanOfAika]

Looking great! It's so fun seeing this game come together!

[@bettercrystal2827]

So underrated...

[@joaquingimenez5343]

It would also be great to add different ceiling heights, with a high one that covers things more and a low one that doesn't cover as much, it would also serve as a transition between one and the other. This game look great 👍

[@namenlos1128]

What would be really cool if you had a multiplayer later and the other players could play other colonies.

[@Orionhart]

"What is this, a world for ants?" - Derek Zoolander

[@erikbautista1032]

They should make a movie called Forest Chunk ^^

[@tommax1626]

Looks way better already, like, fun!

[@gamingtree10]

It would be cool if you added different species of ants that have different abilities like fire ants or something

[@luigiawesome6587]

My friend suggested the stump being a dungeon

[@EmmanuelOyadeyi-bg5dt]

You should start off by making the start gameplay consist of having to be a queen and findin or building a nursery and then slowly build your colony of ant people like in real life

[@monkeyking4753]

Add spiders from the stump(looks a bit like the spider nest from patch quest🙂)

[@PeacockLover127]

This game is so cool I think

[@lucasguimaraes2842]

There are ants named honeypot ants. In this specie, some of the worker ants fill their abdomen with honey (by drinking it) so other ants can drink The honey from The ants instead of having to go where The rest of the honey is. Look it up to understand better, i don't know how to properly explain.

[@mrfatrata7038]

Yes youtube keep recommending game devs to me

[@mrfatrata7038]

Comma after youtube

[@Grantis]

Keep it up! I can't wait to stream your game, I played the beta and had so much fun until I ran into the fertilizer bug tehehe, probably bc I was playing for a while, ya got a fun game here

[@jazzyfailsatlife5141]

i love these kinda games sm

[@Milark]

If they're ant people shouldn't there also be an underground aspect to the game?

[@Mrman-br9mb]

les go new vid, keep going i would love to play the game.

[@Mrman-br9mb]

good vid

[@Mrman-br9mb]

wahoo

[@Mashhul]

This is pretty cool, but it seems cumbersome. How could this work with some layered game of life approach for dynamically generating the buildings, terrains, and resources? This could also add a more dynamic feel to the levels and make them feel alive. Especially if this would be in a constant change. Could make the game feel more unique and there would be a necessity to adjust your strategy according to the environment eliminating repetitiveness and "just use this strategy to finish the game" which could take the fun out of it

[@SS-gt2rk]

I love how it looks but i feel the grass sprite is too sharp for the rest of the style, maybe making grass just a mostly solid green floor texture with a fringe on the edges and occasional horizontal zig zags to imply blades of grass

[@cebesmaymunu]

Wow! These biomes look incredible. I really love how this game is developing. But im not really sure if i like the day-night mechanic. Idk what kind of systems you could make but i would personally prefer a real time base building game

[@AlienXtream1]

compression not liking that grass at all XD

[@Jimmith829]

looks really good

[@Soraphis91]

grass blades should be smaller at the rim of grass patches. the line pattern on the grass feels a bit repetitive, you could make it a bit wavy then in the shader have it rotate over time +- 15° back and forth. and also make it scroll slowly. (to give the impression of gusts of wind blowing through it). ground tiles could have different gameplay effects. slower movement on grass, faster on gravel, reduced building cost on dirt. (maybe add water to the mix, which is impassable?) currently the stuff on the ground looks a bit flat. e.g. the vegetables that are growing out of the ground, maybe add some contures to the bottom part of the texture so they provide the impreesion of forming a mound on the ground!?

[@ChimeratAlpha]

I did not see a difference with and without distortion, but maybe that's because you didn't have them side-by-side for before and after.

[@henryjordan4183]

Makes me excited :)

[@AldenLim-d6k]

The mud is to dark to see the pattern of the mud.

[@wooperfan9875]

LETSGO NEW VID

[@felfar197]

awesome video, thank you for explanation!!

[@CushionSapp]

Sorry your Makeship plushie didn't meet its funding goal

[@LycheeGameLabs]

It's ok, these things happen

[@JoeTheWiltshire]

Aside from what others have said my only comment is that the grass swaying effect is very hard to notice, I feel like it either needs to be more random / fast to be more noticeable, or the rest of the game needs to interact with it in some way to make it more obvious eg. grass rustles as ants move through and around it.

[@vupni]

in my opinion you should add a freeplay mode/option and not do only levels

[@zenon2146]

16:27 i know your obviously going to change this, but just in case, the objects and items feel a bit dull, should be easy to fix with a bit of sway, but the current objects are pretty stiff, but the game does still look alot more alive since last time, think im only noticing this now because there are no funny ants running across the screen also if the enemies had natural selection and evolved to be stronger against your most common type of attack would be cool and encourage variety, but also probably cause development hell

[@tribesofhellmyindiegame7455]

looks so cool

[@ethandolbear3834]

Yessss another vid

[@felfar197]

awesome video, thank you!! incredible suuch a cute and cozy looking game :>

[@Ravioliolio-g3j]

This reminds me of the game pyramida, u could take inspiration from

[@unspi554]

Hi, I dont understand how with the draw call to the CG for the grass, you get grass in front and behind of some element, like a "z-axis" ?

[@user-z5jg3ce1j]

Just remembered my idea for the previous video, what about needing to defeat all enemy's bases in order to win, instead of the boring leveling system?

[@thelightsilent]

awesome!

[@Petulant_Petrichor]

Perfumery + Perfume towers that combo w/pheromone trails?

[@nochtans342]

Fog of war could be nice

[@cjsantiago4035]

Yoooooo sick

[@woodenrailwaystudios70]

Pikmin 5 is looking great guys! jk, but this is looking great!

[@stachman9531]

add a giant enemy spider

[@Mister64the64th]

I have an idea birds

[@LycheeGameLabs]

Birds eat ants, suggestion checks out

[@Mister64the64th]

Yeah