SA developer working on indie project, Ant Simulator

Simulator games have always been popular, giving us the chance to jump into the shoes or overalls of a train conductor, farmer or even a lumberjack.

But now simulator games are branching into the world of animals, and after having some fun with Goat Simulator, it’s time to embrace the marvellous and downright terrifying world of ants.

Ant Simulator is developed by indie game studio ETeeksi, and the project (built using Unity 5) has been picking up some serious steam after appearing on some international publications.

The first-person (or ant?) perspective gives the game a true sense of immersion, and we caught up with one of the devs, South African Johan Nienaber, to find out what his role is in the project.

“I work on some of the environmental art and some miscellaneous art in the game. Stuff like human objects and such.”

Nienaber is working with a number of other devs all handling specific areas of the game – an effort which came from an unexpected place, but has developed into something with massive potential.

Ant Simulator was created in just 48 hours during the Ludum Dare game jam, but there are ambitions to develop Ant Simulator into a fully fledged game with plenty of gameplay options available.

“There is a lot more to come,” explains the developers. Features that may be added include “digging tunnels, climbing on walls and ceilings, gathering resource for the colony, defending your colony from other insects and threats, different any species to play as, battling other colonies, and more.”

More info on the game is on the studio’s official website. A playable prototype is available here – although a lot of work has been put into the game since the playable version was released.