liam
Wannabe
Posts: 25 
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Post by liam on Sept 19, 2017 7:15:58 GMT
I am working on a game where you must guide an ant colony to success. I'm not sure what the exact genre is, but it definitely has some similarities to god games, in the sense that you play god over an ant colony. A lot of the game was inspired by Dungeon Keeper, which I was supprised to find no post for here. Actually I would really like to see if I can get it working on my tablet, that would be a good train companion. So anyway, in Empires of the Undergrowth you get underground base building and management which feels similar to Dungeon Keeper, and you also have the overground to explore which looks a little more like a standard RTS, though you have quite limited control so you don't need to worry about putting lots of effort into controling your units. We are planning to take the game to Steam Early Access soon (it's already overdue). This week we are trying to pack as much content and seal the cracks so we can get our beta testers to help us prepare it for Early Access. It's a pretty scary process; the demo was recieved quite well but many of the players seem to have developed their own visions of where the game should be heading. I just hope we don't dissappoint people and the whole thing tanks. I am pretty sure our path finding is more robust than that in "the failure", so at least we have that. Here is the steam coming soon page: store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/You can try the demo here: www.indiedb.com/games/empires-of-the-undergrowth/downloads |
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Post by Deth on Sept 19, 2017 11:06:46 GMT
Very cool looking. Reminds me of my days playing SimiAnt.
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Sept 19, 2017 12:19:23 GMT
I immediately thought of Sim Ant as well. Used to love that game! I am therefore quite curious to have a look at this, but that will have to wait until later when I'm home.
If you think about it, from the view point of a god, people are very similar to ants. So perhaps this could indeed be similar to a godgame.
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liam
Wannabe
Posts: 25
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Post by liam on Sept 19, 2017 13:42:50 GMT
Awesome, there is definitely inspiration from Sim Ant too. It's also been compared to Empire of the Ants; I actually have a copy of it but haven't gotten around to playing yet (it's on a cd and I will probably need to mess around with an old windows emulator to get it working).
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Sept 19, 2017 18:55:33 GMT
I've given the demo a try. Had to switch all settings to lowest in order to be able to play. The mouse pointer was moving really slow otherwise. Not blaming the game mind you, my computer is ancient. Took a bit getting used to. (I refused to watch the tutorial  ) Played the underground level a couple of times. It's fun, but tougher than it looks. Keep getting caught by surprise. |
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liam
Wannabe
Posts: 25
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Post by liam on Sept 19, 2017 19:44:12 GMT
It is quite heavy on the graphics card yeah. Fortunately we now have a hardware mouse (so its not bound to the framerate anymore). Out of interest, what are the specs of your rig?
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Sept 19, 2017 21:18:47 GMT
It is quite heavy on the graphics card yeah. Fortunately we now have a hardware mouse (so its not bound to the framerate anymore). Out of interest, what are the specs of your rig? My rig. Lol! I don't think rig is a fitting word to describe this.  |
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liam
Wannabe
Posts: 25
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Post by liam on Sept 19, 2017 21:38:13 GMT
Aha. Well I wouldn't want to insult GLADOS. It looks like it was a beast 10 years ago. I think that also has a 9600M GT card? I am quite pleased the game even ran!
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Sept 20, 2017 6:01:44 GMT
Aha. Well I wouldn't want to insult GLADOS. It looks like it was a beast 10 years ago. I think that also has a 9600M GT card? I am quite pleased the game even ran!  |
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liam
Wannabe
Posts: 25
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Post by liam on Sept 20, 2017 6:33:09 GMT
Ah well, that card is quite a bit faster than a 9600. I knew I shouldn't underestimate GLADOS. Today we are adding the option to render top hats on all of the spiders in the game, for those with arachnophobia. It's important to prioritize the most important features |
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Sept 20, 2017 13:01:58 GMT
Ah well, that card is quite a bit faster than a 9600. I knew I shouldn't underestimate GLADOS. Today we are adding the option to render top hats on all of the spiders in the game, for those with arachnophobia. It's important to prioritize the most important features As long as you're adding top hats, how about some fluffy foot wear. And scarves. Spiders are adorable with scarves! Hmmm... roller skates! |
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liam
Wannabe
Posts: 25
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Post by liam on Sept 20, 2017 14:43:00 GMT
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Sept 20, 2017 15:41:51 GMT
So how many ants does one require approximately to dissect the legs off that thing? Does the hat remain when the spider has dissolved? |
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liam
Wannabe
Posts: 25
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Post by liam on Sept 20, 2017 18:28:56 GMT
These are all excellent questions. You probably want at least 20 ants for her. The trick is actually catching it though, it runs all over the place far too quickly.
Unfortunately, at the moment half of them are getting stuck trying to get into the anthill. They are either too fat, or the hat is getting stuck.
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Sept 20, 2017 18:39:22 GMT
Lol. Fashion comes at a price.
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myron
Wannabe
Posts: 29
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Myron-BE/
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Post by myron on Sept 22, 2017 7:45:44 GMT
Wow your game looks very cool. I will try the demo when I have a bit of time.  Are you making this game alone? |
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Sept 23, 2017 20:17:47 GMT
I played through the entire demo, but only did the free level on casual settings. It says something about how high a score you can get. Could have left it running indefinitely and it would have raked up points more and more, but I wanted to use my computer for other things and it got tedious.  |
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Post by hardly on Sept 24, 2017 23:06:38 GMT
I've always wanted to play a good ant game, I feel like it is an underdeveloped genre. I haven't really looked at the screenshots as I'm on my phone but I'll check it out. Of course I've pledged to never buy from early access again because of Peter molyneux.
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Post by hardly on Sept 24, 2017 23:07:13 GMT
I've always wanted to play a good ant game, I feel like it is an underdeveloped genre. I haven't really looked at the screenshots as I'm on my phone but I'll check it out. Of course I've pledged to never buy from early access again because of Peter "He Who Shall Not Be Named". I only wrote his name to see what it would change to. GODUS GODUS GODUS |
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Post by 13thGeneral on Sept 28, 2017 2:06:03 GMT
This game looks really cool. I used to play SimAnt a lot, and also always thought the idea could have more merit.
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) Played the underground level a couple of times. It's fun, but tougher than it looks. Keep getting caught by surprise.
