Set in the world of ants, Empires of the Undergrowth is a real-time strategy with extensive nest building and management features. Below ground, workers maintain nest operations while you control armies of ants in battle against rival colonies, armoured insects, hungry amphibians and other critters.
Recent Reviews:
Very Positive (147) - 93% of the 147 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive.
All Reviews:
Very Positive (7,669) - 94% of the 7,669 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date:
Dec 1, 2017
Developer:
Publisher:

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Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Since releasing our first demo we have received mountains of feedback from the community, which has been constantly shaping the game’s core mechanics and features. We feel this has ultimately resulted in a much better game and we want to continue moving forward with help and suggestions from players, and this has worked so well we're likely to continue that even after early access!

A side effect of this iterative community focused development, is that whilst we have been putting more time into tweaking the game’s inner workings to create the ideal mix of ant colony realism and compelling gameplay, it has put us behind schedule in terms of producing a final product that we can label complete.

While we are confident about the state of the game’s mechanics, and the amount of playable content currently available, there are additional game modes, creatures and abilities that we are still working on. All of these will need balancing, and that process works best with player input.

It seems to make little sense holding back the game’s release for months of development whilst we work on additional levels and features. We would much rather continue our work in the same manner as we have done for the past year: with the help of our enthusiastic ant-loving community.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“As of early 2022, we estimate a further 6-18 months of development to reach our version 1.0. However this can change as game development is by its nature an unpredictable process.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The early access version includes six (soon eight) stand-alone missions with unique creatures, music and narration as well as a “formicarium” story mode which has three (soon four) devious missions to test your colony. This content is considered to be complete and unlikely to be changed significantly between now and final release (except for bug fixes, performance updates etc). Therefore the experience should be similar to the final product. Over the course of early access, we plan to introduce new content as blocks of complete missions, ready to play. We are also releasing periodic extra missions that are not part of the main story campaign.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“We have re-structured some parts of the game specifically for early access. The early access version includes stand-alone missions with unique creatures, music and narration as well as a “formicarium” story mode. This content is considered to be complete and unlikely to be added to between now and final release (except for potential bug fixes, performance updates etc). Therefore the experience should be similar to the final product. Over the course of early access, we plan to introduce new content as blocks of complete missions, ready to play.

Bugs are also an inevitable possibility (the software kind), however we are beta testing separately and will make every effort to resolve issues before pushing early access updates.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“We may raise the price when we leave early access”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We try to facilitate community feedback and engagement wherever possible. Since the early days of the project, we have received thousands of feedback messages through our forums, social media and Discord server. We read all of these and they have significantly shaped the evolution of the game - especially when we start to see the same point raised by multiple people. We have a dedicated community manager who is very involved with the community that has sprung up around Empires of the Undergrowth.”
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Includes 6 items: Against the Storm, Terra Invicta, Old World, Clanfolk, Empires of the Undergrowth, Nebulous

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About This Game

Set in the world of ants, Empires of the Undergrowth is a real-time strategy with extensive nest building and management features: Control armies of ants in battle against rival colonies, dangerous insects and other critters while autonomous workers respond to your high-level commands to maintain nest operations below ground.

Excavate and construct a nest to your design



Command your worker ants to excavate the earth to your exact specifications. Eggs and food need to flow freely throughout the nest, and soldiers should be able to reach the front lines quickly, so planning out highways and connecting corridors is key to overall colony efficiency.

Command your army with pheromone markers



Ants can be assigned to groups and controlled by placing pheromone markers: They head towards their marker gathering resources or fighting enemies they meet along the way.

You can also assign specific behaviours to your groups. For example, passive workers can collect food even when enemies are nearby, while specialised soldiers can be instructed to ignore food, running straight toward battle. Toggling behaviours efficiently can reduce losses, speed up victory and ultimately turn the tide of battle against a superior foe in your favour.

Battle against opposing colonies, huge insects and other critters



Lots of ant species from all over the world feature in the game with stats and abilities based upon their real-world counterparts. For example, wood ants can spray formic acid from their abdomens, making them the artillery of this miniature battlefield. Enemies need to be kept at bay with hordes of disposable melee soldiers to prevent the delicate sprayers being overwhelmed in close quarters combat.

It's even got two minimaps - wow!



Both the underground nest and the outworld are filled with food and enemies – you can see both at a glance with dual minimaps.

When invading enemy nests, minimap tabs give you access to view multiple underground zones so you can run several raids at the same time and keep track of everything. In the example above there are two enemy colonies nearby!

System Requirements

Windows
macOS
    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows 7 64-bit or higher
    • Processor: Intel Core i3-4340 / AMD FX-6300
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: nVidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB / AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
    Minimum:
    • OS: Mac OS X 10.14.6
    • Processor: Intel Core i3-4340 / AMD FX-6300
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: nVidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB / AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
    • Storage: 2 GB available space

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