Ants Save The Queen by Filip Vannfält

[raw]
made by Filip Vannfält for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

The queen has gone missing and the anthill is in turmoil!

Ants Save The Queen is a roguelike in miniature format. Steer your troop of brave ants through treacherous lands, filled with dangerous bugs, to find and save the missing queen. On the way you may find rewards in the form of captured allies or powerful upgrades, but be certain of your choice as you can only pick one of the rewards!

Each ant is both health and ammo, so be careful not to lose too many. We hope you enjoy our game!

gameplayimage.png

Controls:

WASD - control the ants

Arrow Keys - hold down to fire ants in the held direction

ESC - open the pause menu


Gameplay by: deox, Filip Vannfält, Boodle

Art by: Raz253, Boodle, deox

Audio by: Filip Vannfält, Boodle

Music by: Xpizt


(known issues: sometimes when changing rooms some ants can get trapped in the old room behind the rocks, which restricts your movement. You can try to press up against the rocks to go back to the old room)

Ratings

Overall 326th 3.763⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 355th 3.605⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 98th 3.947⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 65th 4.329⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 533th 3.684⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Audio 252th 3.684⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Humor 492th 3.135⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 597th 3.459⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Given 48🗳️ 61🗨️

Feedback

Krabban
08. Oct 2024 · 08:46 UTC
Wonderful little game. One of the few I played to the end:)
Jose Pedro Dias
08. Oct 2024 · 08:55 UTC
Creative approach. Solid implementation. Congrats.
N.O.X
08. Oct 2024 · 08:57 UTC
![sc1.png](///raw/dfb/21/z/67cc4.png)

I saved the queen, great game otherwise!
Marco Santos
08. Oct 2024 · 08:58 UTC
try two times but the armadillos keep yetting all my ants. much fun
Jo Bettaque
08. Oct 2024 · 08:59 UTC
I really enjoyed this! Using the ants ans ammo is great and the bossfight was quite fun.
CrozzY
08. Oct 2024 · 11:44 UTC
I really liked the idea of the game and it was really interesting to go through it, also the style is quite pleasant and the music is not annoying) In general, a cool game
Just a dev
08. Oct 2024 · 13:21 UTC
Pretty creative, I like the idea of using the colony as ammo and health
The art style is also nice, a fun little game overall.
pepnou
08. Oct 2024 · 14:09 UTC
Great game! The swarm system is nice and the game is pretty. I ended with 3 ants in the boss room and one of them died, at 2 ants you almost cant move. Nice entry.
Human Writes Code
09. Oct 2024 · 09:27 UTC
Buying new ants and immediately getting steamrolled by one of those grey bugs... name a better duo. Ugh. Anyway, this is such a great game! The little ants look awesome and the enemies present a good level of challenge so you have to be careful. Really good concept, too. And the music is perfect. Great work!
CodeRaurus
09. Oct 2024 · 09:52 UTC
I like ant swarm gameplay. I played kind of two runs, one where I immediately got stomped by a roller. Next run I completed with little no difficulty. I didn't encounter any upgrades or shops unfortunately, would have been nice to see them.

The game has a nice fitting music and a good climax in the end to wrap up the whole thing. I lost 90% of my swarm in the last room.

Good work, it was enjoyable!
Risminator
09. Oct 2024 · 10:06 UTC
A top-notch game with an innovative idea!

**Regarding gameplay**: Challenging but not too difficult. The idea of ammo = hp is fun and creative, but there is some room for improvement, as it does have a snowball effect: if you don't get hit, you steamroll the enemies. But the less ants (hp) you have, the more difficult it is to fight the enemies, therefore more chances to get hit again, so it's easier to restart the game than to continue with 3-4 ants. The upgrades and more ants that are here are appreciated though!

**The feel**: wow, every system is made with care. The artstyle is consistent, functional and beautiful, SFX helps telegraph the enemy attacks and gives great feedback, the rhytmic but non-interruptive music just makes playing the game a meditative experience.

Love it! Certainly one of my favourites so far. 5 stars is a no-brainer!
Lussard Studio
09. Oct 2024 · 10:15 UTC
Great game ! Loved the fact we control ants team. I would love to see move levels and ennemies, this game has true potential ! :smiley_cat:
hajpappan
09. Oct 2024 · 19:09 UTC
Great entry! Pleasant music and sounds. The system where ants are both health and ammo is both interesting and fun. Great job guys.
Defrag
10. Oct 2024 · 01:11 UTC
Music is great. Gameplay is simple. Others have noted that the difficulty seems directly connected to how many ants you have. I weirdly liked watching my ants get steamrolled by the pillbugs!
Joshua_Reumann
10. Oct 2024 · 09:00 UTC
Nice game entry :) Liked simple tutorial in the startarea
Pierre-Marie
10. Oct 2024 · 11:45 UTC
Nice game! I really like the atmosphere, a bit more bosses and/or upgrades, with a score, and I play it over and over!

Well done!
magopian
10. Oct 2024 · 21:56 UTC
Wow that's a HARD game! It felt like the ants were moving SO SLOW, especially while moving diagonally? Maybe that's just me.
I played a few minutes, and got REKT pretty quick, but I'm very impressed by the concept, must have been complex to make those ants move "together". Congratulations!
MachWerx
12. Oct 2024 · 01:50 UTC
Loved the idea of using the ants as ammo themselves. Also great job with the procedural ant swarm animation and firing. It all felt very fluid. One of my favorite games I've tried out so far!
IronBunny
12. Oct 2024 · 16:19 UTC
Fun game! really liked the graphics and the music! would have liked a bit more feedback when hitting an enemy. great job in the limited time!
Exa
15. Oct 2024 · 14:06 UTC
Omg!!!It is S-o beautiful!!!Nice job 10/10!!!![8636CD31-ED47-43DE-ABA9-89347B5F7F3F.jpeg](///raw/753/16/z/68db2.jpg)
royur
15. Oct 2024 · 20:30 UTC
long live the queen. fun mechanic game.
I thought that you can't shoot when the enemy become ball, turn out you can.


![queen.PNG](///raw/247/9/z/68df0.png)
Drinlan
15. Oct 2024 · 21:16 UTC
Very fun game! Nice art, I liked the enemy sprites. I loved the music too, especially the boss theme!

Interesting mechanic, having the ants be both health and ammo. I sure lost a lot of soldiers during the war, most during the final beetle battle. But in the end, three ants survived and saved the queen. I hope she rewards them for all they went through.

By the way, I got so many fire rate upgrades, I had the ant machine-gun.

![chrome-capture-2024-10-15.gif](///raw/ebd/06/z/68df6.gif)
Zathnic
17. Oct 2024 · 00:25 UTC
Clever and silly idea, it looks pretty funny how the ants are spreading out! I would have liked to see the progression last a little longer before the boss, perhaps by having several upgrade rooms, and then some larger groups of enemies with maybe some obstacles.
Hengen
25. Oct 2024 · 15:46 UTC
Cool game! love the artstyle, and the music is very fitting with its military marching vibe lol. Also, The ants being both health and ammo is super clever.

the fact that every enemy type has their own attack pattern feels super impressive, especially for a ludumdare game! Makes it feel very polished. If i had to add a complaint, it would be that i wish the ants were slightly faster, as it got slightly boring moving between rooms, other than that tho i can't really come up with anything. anyways, had lots of fun playing! Looking forward to see what you guys do next ludumdare!🤟
JustMars
25. Oct 2024 · 17:51 UTC
Good looking pixel art and superb soundscape. Gameplay was well executed and aligned nicely with the theme. Aiming could have been more flexible, maybe even use the mouse instead of arrow keys, but other than that, great work.