It's been a long time coming. Version 1.0 is coming very soon, so please enjoy this special new gameplay trailer for the whole of the game that reveals the release date at the end of it.

Spoilers for the release date from this point on, so watch the video first!



Empires of the Undergrowth will hit version 1.0 exactly one month from this post, on June 7th 2024! The final story tier of the game will feature the fearsome Matabele ants and their surrounding species. Here's a breakdown of the major features:

• The Matabele ants, termite-eating specialists, feature in 3 brand new fully voice-acted campaign levels in their own environment of the sub-Saharan African savannah!
  
  • Harvest food from the towering spires of the cathedral-like termite mounds, carefully managing this precious resource
    
  • Matabeles have a special medic class, allowing them to revive injured colony members!
    
  • The scorching savannah is rich in biodiversity, and rife with danger
    
  • Encounter marching lines of driver ants & solo-hunting African stink ants
    
  • New huge titans, deadly scorpions, spiders, earwigs, beetles and more!
• New Game Plus mode will activate upon completing the campaign, unlocking new units and new options for further playthroughs
  
• Once you're done in the savannah, return to the lab and add the Matabeles to your home colony for one final climactic formicarium challenge - the REAL final experiment!
  
• Sweeping changes to custom game modes
  
• Many quality-of-life tweaks and improvements

Later on this month there will be a newsletter with an updated roadmap, taking us past 1.0 and into the future for Empires of the Undergrowth.

This long, long journey that we've been on and has transformed our lives is so close to completion now, and the kind patience of our community has allowed us to make our dream game into reality. From the very bottom of our hearts, thank you. We'll see you in the savannah.

Today marks World Earth Day, an occassion where we mark the importance of our planet and the factors that are impacting it. But with human-made issues such as climate change, pollution, overpopulation, lack of sustainability, and conflicts, it's a stark reminder not to take our planet for granted.

That's why we're taking part in Earth Appreciation Fest 2024, which contains both post-apocalyptic games that remind us of what we stand to lose, and nature-based games to help celebrate the incredible bio-diversity of the planet we call home.

You can check out the full range of games taking part in Earth Appreciation Festival here.


Psst! Don't forget Empires of the Undergrowth is also exhibiting at WASD 2024, where you'll be able to try out the latest build of the game from 25th - 27th April!

Every couple of months we like to do a vlog. This is a big one, both literally and metaphorically. It's a big roundup of all the tier 5 news that has been announced over the last few weeks, with a few new tidbits thrown in, as well as having its very own big creature reveal. I was holding one back especially for vlog 10 - and I'm glad I did!



The thumbnail might be my finest work.

The vlog's main focus is Empires of the Undergrowth, but it also has a short section about the other games published (but not developed) by Slug Disco Studios - if you'd like to skip that, then the timecode is 04:00.

Empires of the Undergrowth is now 35% off until April 29th. Command a colony, build, and battle in the bustling world of ants. Every decision, from food collection to frontline combat, matters in the undergrowth empire.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

Just in case the change in the winds isn't perceptible to all yet, I’ll spell it out - we're approaching a point where we'll soon be ready to announce our release date for version 1.0 of Empires of the Undergrowth. Official reveals for the setting and species you'll be encountering have begun, and so this newsletter will focus firmly on that.


What wonders await in the savannah?

The reveals began at the start of the month and since then we've been doing regular posts on our social media (X/Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Discord), usually on a Saturday. A few other content creators are also getting involved in the fun this time around! Let's go through everything that has been revealed so far and give it some in-depth discussion.


The final ants that the player will control in the campaign is the Matabele ant, a large and fierce termite-eating species Megaponera analis. They live in sub-Saharan Africa. We did a 'Creature Feature'-style short video about it, which also begins to show off some of the environment they live in - the grassland savannah.



These ants habitually pillage nearby termite nests - indeed, they are entirely dependent on them (in-game other creatures will be consumable to them, but yield very meagre pickings compared to termites). As obligate termite eaters, they inhabit spaces where they can conduct dusk and dawn raids on nearby mounds.

One of their most interesting qualities is that they are an extremely rare example of helping behaviour in insects. For almost all other eusocial insects, colony members that are wounded in a conflict are left to die. However, Matabele ants that are not mortally injured release a distress pheromone, which attracts their sisters. They're collected and brought back to the nest, where they are nursed back to health.


A Medic ant - someone call an antbulance!

Although the healed ants aren't as strong or fast as their unscathed broodmates, in this way the Matabeles can significantly reduce their foraging losses and have many more productive ants in the colony. In Empires of the Undergrowth, this whole process is represented by a special Medic class of ant that will take injured Matabeles home, where they will be revived in short order to live a second life with some reduced stats. In this way, the Medic class allows you to increase your population beyond its tile limit. It's the Medic class that you'll be able to unlock for your formicarium.


Absolutely central to tier 5 is Macrotermes bellicosus, an African termite. Termites evolved from a cockroach-like ancestor, as opposed to ants who evolved from a wasp or wasp-like ancestor. The Latin 'bellicosus' means combative, or war-like. It's a slightly misleading name in some respects - although they do not usually seek conflict with their neighbours, they are well-prepared for it and have evolved multiple defensive castes involving major and minor soldiers. They build iconic cathedral-like mounds out of clay and saliva, which are cunningly crafted to provide an ideal internal temperature for their brood in spite of the baking daytime savannah temperatures.


Mulch gang for life

They take refuge in their mounds during the warmest parts of the day, and conduct most of their foraging activities when the temperature is more forgiving. They collect mulchy lignocellulose (drying plant material) from the surface, which they process into edible fungus through a partial digestion process. In-game, this gives them a similar yet slightly more complex food production pipeline to tier 3's leafcutter ants.

Termite reproductives mate for life - the queen becomes huge and immobile as she grows, and unlike ants that only mate once during a nuptial flight, a termite king lives alongside his queen for their entire lives. In the 5.x levels this rare example of insect monogamy will be represented by the termite king acting as the queen's fierce protector in her laying chamber.


Some of the only real lovebugs in nature

The Matabele-wielding player will need to conduct raids on termites at opportune times, whilst striking a balance - how many termites should they take, without over-harvesting their most important resource? A dead termite colony cannot produce useful food in the future, after all.


One of the two auxiliary ant species that the player will encounter in tier 5 is the African stink ant, Paltothyreus tarsatus. These relatives of the Matabele are not as dependent as they are on the nearby termite hills but termites still represent an important part of their diet.



Living in a network of shallow tunnels near the surface, stink ants usually hunt or scavenge alone. However, when the odds are against them they will attract more of their nestmates over a significant distance with their powerful pheromones. It's these potent pheromones that give the ants their name - they smell strongly sulphurous to human noses.


Just in case anyone was worried about us forgetting about one of the best things from the last tier (titan-class enemies), we've got you covered. One of the titans you'll encounter in tier 5 is the sun spider (Zeria keyserlingi). We gave one of our favourite YouTube content creators Frazzz a bit of a preview of the sun spider in a special Battle Arena build - the video gives a great representation of their look, animations and abilities. Check it out!



Solfugae (sun spiders), otherwise known as camel spiders, achieved an almost cryptid-like status on the internet in the 2000s due to many unfounded myths about them. The idea that they could kill a dog, or are as dangerous as cobras, or perform facehugger-like jumping attacks at camels are all entirely unfounded but fun to read about.


Death awaits you all, with nasty, big, pointy teeth!

They are in fact venomless, and the most harm they could ever do you is give you a relatively medically insignificant bite. Perhaps it's their unsettling appearance that makes them so memorable - they're arachnids, but not true spiders and nothing else looks quite like them. They're also capable of running very fast for invertebrates, and have a habit of scuttling towards people's shadows in an attempt to get out of the direct sunlight.

Of course, if you're the size of an ant, they represent a much bigger existential risk. Keep an eye out for them in the savannah!


Everyone who's ever dug around in the dirt as a kid (or indeed as a grown-up enthusiast) will be familiar with earwigs. This species is Forficula auricularia, an originally European / Asian native that has spread to almost everywhere that humans inhabit, including the parts Africa where the 5.x levels take place. A common nocturnal and subterranean enemy, it can use the pincer on the tip of its tail as an additional attack vector when it encounters prey or predators.



This enemy comes in a male and female variation, indicated by the shape of the tail pincer.


Would it even really be a proper Empires of the Undergrowth update without a new tiger beetle? Tier 3 excluded, obviously. This is Dromicoida elegantia, and like all tiger beetles it is a fierce predator with excellent vision, fast motion, and powerful slicing jaws. It will feature as one of the regular enemies roaming the savannah.




The tier 5 levels take place in the savannahs of sub-Saharan Africa. African savannahs are grasslands with open-canopy tree populations. Daytime temperatures can be brutal, and most species must take refuge in the shade in the hottest parts of the day. For termites this means retreating to their naturally air-conditioned mounds. It is a place of clay-rich soil and impressive biodiversity. Savannahs are far from deserts - standing water is often found there, and flowing water is available seasonally with most rainfall confined to a wet season.


An overview of one of the 5.x levels, WIP

At some point in the coming weeks I’ll do an environmental showcase for the savannah levels, as we get closer to the artwork being completed for them.

That's everything that's revealed so far about tier 5 - but there's a lot more to come. The round-ups in newsletters and vlogs will continue, but our social media (X/Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Discord) is the best place to get news quick.


Unless something happens in the meantime there’s a very strong possibility that myself and one other Slug Disco team member will be going to ANTCON 2024 in Carmarthen, Wales in May. That team member is unlikely to be one of the EotU devs - it’s an understandably very busy time for them! Tickets for the event are sold out, but if you managed to snag one then we look forward to seeing you on the Saturday. Last year’s event was great fun - check out the travelog we recorded.


As always, if you’d like to submit a screenshot to this part of the newsletter the easiest place to do that is on the appropriate channel of our Discord. Hit F9 (by default) to enter photo mode, and hold shift whilst you do that to uncouple the camera from the ground plain, allowing for some creative angles.


Army ants climb a bullfrog from WarriorAntGaming


Foam washes over the beach from Zvistic


Two different tiger beetles clash from Akilay Williams


A final note from me as I close up this newsletter and get back to the ultra-busy period of time the Slug Disco team is currently in - we are indeed approaching the end of the long early access journey, and the one thing that has been able to sustain us through that is you. Your patience and understanding has allowed this tiny team of three old friends to slowly craft their dream game, and that dream is nearly fully realised. Now, back to it.

Mike
Senior community manager

Hello! From now until March 21st, you can save 35% on Empires of the Undergrowth, and get great deals on all other games published by Hooded Horse during the Steam Spring Sale. Come check the game out!

Empires of the Undergrowth is participating in the Digital Tabletop Fest: Roll of the Dice, hosted by Auroch Digital.



This festival celebrates tabletop-inspired games and the incredible game studios behind them. From March 7th to March 11th, you'll find demos, previews of upcoming titles, panels from developers, and game discounts, too.

If you've been anticipating playing Empires of the Undergrowth, it is currently 35% off until March 10.

Survive, build, conquer, and rule over the ant hill today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530

The final chapter of the story is not too far away, so let's talk about the final ant species you'll be playing as in Empires of the Undergrowth. The video below is a creature feature style one to reveal a little about the ants and their environment, and their eating habits.



In the expansive savannah of sub-Saharan Africa, the sun scorches the earth during the day and creatures find different ways to survive. Some dig; some build spire-topped cathedrals.

Some of the diggers feed on the builders. Large, powerful, and specialised, Megaponera analis - the Matabele ant - feeds almost entirely on termites. They habitually conduct sweeping raids of nearby mounds at dawn and dusk, when the heat is more forgiving.

We'll be doing fairly regular reveals on our social media from now on (YouTube, Facebook and X / Twitter and of course our Discord server) so those are the places to follow along if you want news as fast as you can get it - but we'll be doing round-ups in newsletters and vlogs, too. The newsletter coming in a couple of weeks from this post will be packed with tier 5 stuff!

Making this game has been a wonderful, long, life-changing journey that is now nearing its end and we're glad you made it with us.

From now until March 10th, you can save 35% on Empires of the Undergrowth. Come check the game out!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

We've decided internally on a release date for Empires of the Undergrowth - it's now full steam ahead to meet it! We'll be doing some creature and setting reveals for the final tier soon. This vlog, while necessarily short, should plug the gap between calm and storm.

Note that this vlog also deals with news about 2 other games that Slug Disco publishes - if you'd rather skip that, the timecode is 3:53.