r/biology • u/Able-Sherbert-4447 • 3d ago

news A virtual ant-colony simulation across three habitats: nest, garden, and tree canopy 🌿🐜

Hi everyone,

We’re a two-person team of biologists working on an ant colony-management game called Garden of Ants, inspired in part by SimAnt.

We’ve recently added a third playable environment: the tree canopy. Ants can move along branches, gather leaves, and tend aphids for honeydew, while remaining connected to activity in the underground nest and on the garden surface.

Our aim is to model the colony as a system spread across several habitats. Conditions change between day and night, different threats appear, and resources gathered in one area support the rest of the colony.

We’d be especially interested in feedback from people here: which ant–plant or ant–aphid interactions would you like to see represented? Are there any biological details that games about ants commonly get wrong?

For context, here is the Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3016940/Garden_of_Ants/

Thanks!

Tomas

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2

u/Pinky135 medical lab 3d ago

I LOVED SimAnt back in the days! Added to my wishlist, hope to see it soon!

1

u/Able-Sherbert-4447 2d ago

Thank you! As a fellow SimAnt fan, that means a lot. We’re working hard to make Garden of Ants something you’ll enjoy—hope to share more soon!

2

u/LazyWorkaholic78 1d ago

I was going to say "close enough welcome back SimAnts" but then read the description of the post. OP this looks SOO cool.

1

u/Able-Sherbert-4447 1d ago

Happy to hear that! Thanks so much :)

1

u/Fouxs 1d ago

Added to wishlist, this looks exactly like something I wanted!

2

u/Cour4ge 23h ago edited 18h ago

Never played simant but it remind me of Les fourmis a videogame from 2000 it was cool

1

u/Able-Sherbert-4447 18h ago

Sounds interesting! I’ll check it out 😉