Ant Commander by kernel panic

[raw]
made by kernel panic for LD26 (JAM)
All binaries are bundled together (with Windows DLLs included). Comment if there is a missing DLL.

If you're NOT using Windows, you will need to make sure that you have SDL and SDL_ttf installed.

Well, this one took much longer than it should have, which is ironic considering the theme. This time I put more effort into code organisation than getting results, but I do not regret this decision.

You control an army of ant creatures using pheromones (I say ants because that's what they were going to be until I felt time pressure).

You can also enjoy a fully proceedurally generated "inifite" world.

The (minimalist) objective is to keep your "ants" (orange) alive by leading them to food (green) using your infinite supply of pheromones (dark blue), which may be selected for drawing using M, or erasing using E. Draw using the mouse. Start the game by clicking somewhere to place an ant.

When an ant is full, it will reproduce (don't take this as a science lesson).

Keys:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - Select a game speed.
M - Select pheromone mode.
E - Select erase mode.
H - Display help text.
Home - Go to sector (0, 0).
Left, Right, Up, Down - Move view.
LeftShift + Escape - Quit.

Command Line Options:
./ants [SCALE [FULLSCREEN [SEED]]]

SCALE is an integer specifying the number of pixels per game cell.
FULLSCREEN is either 0 (windowed) or 1 (fullscreen).
SEED is an integer which is used to generate the map.

Examples:
./ants 2
Plays the game with each game cell displayed using 2 pixels.
./ants 2 1
Plays the game with each game cell displayed using 2 pixels in fullscreen.
./ants 2 1 9001
Plays the game with each game cell displayed using 2 pixels in fullscreen, playing on map 9001.

Ratings

Coolness 47% 1316
Overall(Jam) 3.32 200
Fun(Jam) 3.12 187
Graphics(Jam) 2.59 439
Humor(Jam) 1.65 389
Innovation(Jam) 3.47 112
Mood(Jam) 2.39 442
Theme(Jam) 3.39 228

Feedback

Joeslayer97
30. Apr 2013 · 10:27 UTC
Good game... however incredibly hard! Really a game that could become addicting!
Tater_hater
30. Apr 2013 · 20:25 UTC
I love ant sims! This one doesnt dissapoint either
Starspell
30. Apr 2013 · 20:29 UTC
A really interesting take on the theme. It's obvious that a lot of work went into this. I really liked how it was presented but it would have been nice to have some definitive goal to drive you. Would have been nice to have WASD key control as well as Arrow Keys for better two handed play.
loxo
30. Apr 2013 · 20:33 UTC
Interesting idea, I like it. It gets quite hard to manage all your ants over an infinite world.
Atridas
01. May 2013 · 17:04 UTC
The moment you made something sim-ant-resembling, you got me.
EdoMiyamoto
02. May 2013 · 17:50 UTC
I miss SimAnt :( make this project alive !
TheCze
02. May 2013 · 21:09 UTC
Aaah I love games like that. The pheromenes did not really help me but I really love the simulation aspect of your game.
🎤 kernel panic
02. May 2013 · 21:17 UTC
I guess people really want me to make this into something big... You're becoming convincing too...
intripoon
03. May 2013 · 11:26 UTC
Protip: Don't set the speed to slow and try using any of the commands ...
Norgg
03. May 2013 · 11:34 UTC
Yay, another ant game!
LTyrosine
04. May 2013 · 01:23 UTC
This game is amazing. Very cool to find routes to new source of food and growing your colony. There's a lot of room for great ideas and improvements, hope you develop it further.
someone
04. May 2013 · 22:55 UTC
Yay, ants!
ohsqueezy
06. May 2013 · 15:45 UTC
Cool to see experimentation in data structures and algorithms in addition to game design.
sP0CkEr2
18. May 2013 · 00:14 UTC
nice -- gret use of theme -- and it was fun
StMatn
18. May 2013 · 18:22 UTC
Very cool game! It's already addicting, but after a short period of time it got a little bit boring. Some goals would make this even better. Great job!
SnoringFrog
20. May 2013 · 10:22 UTC
Wow. I absolutely love this. I ran for about 18k cycles with a high score of 801 ants before giving up and letting the last 150 or so run amok without any guidance as I typed this. I didn't get bored of playing, I just really need sleep haha.

Great game.