itch.io

Congrats, and thanks for playing all the way to the end! :-)

Thanks a lot! New version  fixes everything you reported:

• Offline reward + nuptial flight: the offline reward screen now closes the flight confirmation and has to be collected first. Time that passes during the flight counts toward the new colony's production. No more starting with 1T cookies :)
• Instinct now buys scouts too. They're expensive, so it only picks one when it's the cheapest caste.
• Venom Trial: that was a bug, not a grind wall. Sting only unlocked after buying a soldier, and soldiers can't be born in that trial. Now your first bullet ant unlocks it.
• Incubation: you were right, levels past ~8 did nothing (the queen lays an egg every 0.25 s anyway). It now caps at level 8, and any genes you spent on extra levels are refunded automatically when you load your save.

Thanks for the honest feedback, you were right. I ran the numbers: since pheromone was also needed for Trails, using abilities felt like a waste, so people just held onto it. In my own test runs the Swarm almost never got cast at all.

New version is out: abilities are now free. Frenzy, Harvest and Swarm only have a cooldown, and pheromone is used just for Trails. Hovering an ability now shows how long it lasts and how long it takes to recharge. Harvest's numbers changed a bit (12s every 2 minutes) so the game doesn't lose its pacing.

Thanks for taking the time to write. Comments like yours shape the next updates, so keep them coming!

Thanks so much for this. You were right: soldiers had no real answer to beetle shells, and the game never explained it. New version is out with a few changes based on your comment:

Bigger armies now matter: shells can't block as much of each bite anymore. When beetles shrug off your soldiers, you'll see it (metal sparks) and the game points you to the counters: the Stinger upgrade and bullet ants, whose poison ignores armor.

Feedback like this really shapes the game, thank you!

Thanks for pointing that out! You're right, the banner was initially generated using AI. However, I did some post-production work in Photoshop, including adding the game title, lighting adjustments, and textures to achieve the final look.

As for the game itself, all the artwork was created in Aseprite. I appreciate you bringing this up!

Thanks for the reports, and sorry about that! The missing text should be fixed now. I've uploaded a new browser build, so please give it another try. If the text is still missing, let me know which browser and OS you're on.