





🌟 Special thanks to our amazing supporters:
✨ $10 Tier: [Geeks Love Detail]
🌈 $5 Tier: [Arch Toasty][Benedikt][David Martínez Martí]
An optional beta is currently available for all Mac & Windows Steam users of Empires of the Undergrowth. This one sees some significant optimisations designed to aid texture streaming and other processes, fixes issues with Bomb Mode and the exploding ant update. We are very appreciative of any feedback! Just post on the Steam forums or join our Discord to join in the chat there. Friendly, ant-loving gamers guaranteed!
At least one of us decided to touch grass - an update on how things are going and where we think we're going next! [previewyoutube=rOnlTe_vN7w;full][/previewyoutube] Since this is also a general Slug Disco update as well as an Empires of the Undergrowth one, there is a section at the beginning that doesn't deal with EotU - if you'd prefer to skip that, the timecode is 01:36.
This small patch deals with some issues from the 1.1 update that arrived yesterday. There are more fixes on the way soon but these deal with the most pressing ones, so we're getting these out first.
Empires of the Undergrowth 1.1 is out now! A major remastering of many art assets including the rainforest environment, leafcutter ants, black ants, and gene thief ants is included for all owners of the game. Many changes and fixes are also included - full details are included in the patch notes below. [previewyoutube=YA5EEMeWJ_k;full][/previewyoutube] Releasing simultaneously is the Exploding Ants DLC, which adds the exploding ants (Colobopsis explodens) and exploding termites (Neocapritermes taracua) to the mix. These are based on real-life species that really do rupture their bodies in an act of self-sacrifice for their colony! Nature is endlessly inventive. Finally, the Supporter Pack is also releasing today and is now available separately.
Empires of the Undergrowth is now 50% off as part of the Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale.
Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges you to build, defend, and expand your colony, using unique pheromone-based strategies and powerful warrior ants to overcome formidable foes.
Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale 2025
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
Thank you all for the amazing response to the new beta with the remastered artwork! Weve had a bunch of feedback and have been able to fix the majority of the problems for the time being. Please see below for full patch notes. The beta is now available on Mac. If you didnt join last time and would like to, see the previous post for details on how to activate the beta. The password for the beta is rainforestrefresh. As before, any feedback you can provide on any errors or crashes, etc is much appreciated - please post on the Steam discussions for that.
An optional beta is now available for all Steam Windows users of Empires of the Undergrowth. Weve had a very large graphical overhaul of several parts of the game - most notably the rainforest environment, leafcutter ants, ereptor ants, black ants, and others. Some creatures have had animation improvements. Weve also fixed (we think!) a long-standing problem with the Pillage the Pillagers achievement and several others.
Remastered rainforest environment, level 3.2 Front Line
Any feedback you can provide on any errors or crashes, etc is much appreciated - please post on the Steam discussions for that.
Empires of the Undergrowth is part of the Steam Spring Sale at 50% off. Check it and other games out in the Hooded Horse Spring Sale.
Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale 2025
The exploding ants DLC is arriving on March 24! It comes with not only exploding ants (Colobopsis explodens), but also exploding termites (Neocapritermes taracua). Please enjoy the trailer! [previewyoutube=tKteisc1-Rs;full][/previewyoutube] Once you have the DLC they'll be available in your formicarium, in separate colonies for custom games, and in two extra levels that are twists on campaign levels (The Harvest - Firebreak, and Front Line - No Ant's Land). The store page for the DLC is live now - add it to your wishlist to be informed when it releases. Exciting times ahead! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3402420
In the past few weeks weve made a bunch of progress in the remastering of older art assets to the game, including some creatures - well show you a little preview of some improved leafcutter animations - and the new rainforest environment. Were also not a million miles away from our first DLC at this point; see the current roadmap below for a breakdown of what to expect in the near future.
The current roadmap - click to see the details
If youd like to see an in-depth discussion of the full roadmap, then see our latest vlog - the timecode for it is 5:10. Some of the things noted on the roadmap might come sooner than advertised (remember: everything in our roadmaps is subject to change), particularly the improved creature artwork.
In this slightly shorter newsletter (theres lots more upcoming stuff I could talk about, if I was allowed to!) well mainly be going over what were doing in our continuing effort to bring more of Empires of the Undergrowth up to the visual fidelity of the more recent additions. Until the official announcement for what the first DLC will consist of is made I'm not at liberty to divulge any details about that, but we can certainly talk about what is coming in the base game.
Now is a good time, once again, to say a big thank you for all of the support you folks gave us during our release year of 2024 - if it wasnt evident by now EotU is very much a passion project for us, and as well as producing more content for the game we also want it to be the very best it can be in its entirety. The support we received around the release period means we can dedicate the resources to improving older artwork and bringing it up to scratch - a luxury that wasnt at all certain but is now secured.
Empires of the Undergrowth is now 50% off as part of the Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale.
Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges you to build, defend, and expand your colony, using unique pheromone-based strategies and powerful warrior ants to overcome formidable foes.
Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale 2025
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
Were excited to share that Empires of the Undergrowth is participating in the January Sale at 50% off. Check it and other games out at the Hooded Horse January Sale.
Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale 2025
[hr][/hr]
It's time for our twice-yearly update to the Empires of the Undergrowth development roadmap, including some early details of the timing for our first DLC. Click on the below picture to see it in all its glory!
We also have a vlog to go along with the updated roadmap. Community manager Mike takes us through this - with some timing details on what you can expect for the next few months.
NOTE: since this is a general Slug Disco vlog as well as an Empires of the Undergrowth one, towards the start of it it goes over other games published by us. To skip those and get to the EotU stuff, jump to timecode 3:10.
[previewyoutube=hBZZP_vNBxc;full][/previewyoutube]
Empires of the Undergrowth is now 50% off as part of the Hooded Horse Winter Publisher Sale.
Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges you to build, defend, and expand your colony, using unique pheromone-based strategies and powerful warrior ants to overcome formidable foes.
Hooded Horse Winter Publisher Sale 2024
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
Just in time for the holidays! This major update introduces a brand new arcade mode - Remix. With it, you can play just about any level in the game with just about any combination of colony members (ants and termites)! Want to know how bullet ants fare at raking in The Harvest? Go for it! How about sending traitorous big-headed ants after their own kind in Cold Blood? The possibilities are practically endless. [previewyoutube=6tglFD103Ys;full][/previewyoutube] You can also build custom colonies in custom games, using the same system. Just choose custom from the species selection as you go through your game setup. Speaking of custom games - there are also 2 new custom game maps to play, set in the heat of the savannah. Grasslands is specifically designed for Matabele vs termite scuffles, but of course any colonies can be played. Drive Them Back (custom game version) takes the same layout as the campaign level - this has been long-requested, and if the reception is good we might do more custom game versions of campaign levels in the future. We have made some balance changes to creatures that will only affect custom games, since these generally have slightly different balance requirements to the campaign. All detailed below. The final headline feature of this update is the long-awaited tier 5 achievements pack! Weve added a whole bunch of new achievements, some easier and some more devious, for tier 5 and for tier 4 challenge modes. Achievements can now be attained in New Game Plus mode as well as the base story. Full (and extensive) patch notes are at the bottom of this news post. We hope you enjoy! As always, your support means everything to us. Thank you so much for playing Empires of the Undergrowth in our release year - well see you next year for even more!
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Were excited to share that Empires of the Undergrowth is participating in the Winter Sale at 50% off. Check it and other games out at the Hooded Horse Winter Sale.
Hooded Horse Winter Publisher Sale 2024
[hr][/hr]
We've just released another update for the ongoing optional beta. We're not far from the end of this beta period now, and it will soon be released for everyone. Again, thank you to everyone who has tested and reported issues over the past couple of months of this long-running beta.
As we barrel towards the end of the immense year that was 2024, were still running a long optional beta which is testing some major new features - we hope to get that out for everyone before Christmas. Thank you so much to everyone who has been having a play with it; your feedback as always is invaluable. Poor old John has been run off his feet for the past several weeks trying to implement it!
The bleak depths of winter are nearly upon the colony...
In this final newsletter of the year, well concentrate on the features that will be arriving sooner rather than later, the most exciting of which is probably completely custom colonies for your skirmish and freeplay games! Thats been an interesting one to implement, and well get to that shortly. First, lets go over the recent extended beta period and how weve been gathering feedback.
Empires of the Undergrowth is available at a 50% discount as part of the Autumn Publisher Sale running until December 4th.
Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges players to build, defend, and expand their colony, using unique pheromone-based strategies and powerful warrior ants to survive against formidable foes.
Hooded Horse Autumn Publisher Sale 2024
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
Hello, colony caretakers!
Now that autumn is here, your local ant colony might be seeking a warm place to hunker down. But were seeking something a little different a nomination for Most Innovative Gameplay during this years Steam Awards.
Since we launched Empires of the Undergrowth earlier this year, weve received a swarm of positive feedback about its unique blend of colony management simulation & RTS gameplay. Its been such a pleasure to immerse you all in the complex world of ant colonies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELSOKmgDRvA
Over the last year, weve released several updates to ensure Empires of the Undergrowth is the best game it can be. These updates have introduced a number of new features and key gameplay improvements.
In this optional beta update, we're introducing Remix - a new game mode accessible from the Arcade menu. With it, you can play almost any level in the game (from the campaign documentary missions, extra levels and demo levels) with almost any combination of ants or termites. The possibilities are nearly limitless!
Greetings, colony caretakers!
Were excited to share the latest developments for Empires of the Undergrowth, including updates introduced in the optional beta for custom games. This update brings the highly anticipated Custom Colonies feature, enabling players to create unique colonies combining unit types in new ways. Additionally, Empires of the Undergrowth is part of the Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale, offering 50% off until November 23rd.
See other Hooded Horse games in our publisher sale.
Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale 2024
Until November 23rd, Empires of the Undergrowth is available at a 50% discount as part of the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale.
Command an ant colony and wage strategic battles in the insect kingdom. This ant-based RTS challenges players to build, defend, and expand their colony, using unique pheromone strategies and powerful warrior ants to survive against formidable foes.
See other Hooded Horse games in our publisher sale.
Hooded Horse November Publisher Sale 2024
https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
Congratulations, Microids and Tower Five, on the Empire of the Ants launch! We're excited to announce that we've created an ant-credible bundle featuring our games to celebrate this fantastic release. Lead your colony through the perils of the forest in this groundbreaking, photorealistic RTS, where you command insect legions in epic battles. Experience an epic microscopic world with our special bundle featuring both games. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47006/Empire_of_the_Ants__Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
This update to the beta has a new feature for custom games - custom colonies! Using it, you can create an entirely unique colony for your game that mixes-and-matches many different unit types - for instance, you can have a Matabele colony with leafcutter majors and termite soldiers in it. Find the option in the colony setup section of the custom game launch menu. There are also further balance changes and fixes - see below for full notes. If you're not currently participating in this optional beta and would like to, see the previous post for details on how to join it. The password is balanceandchanges.
Now that we've had a few months post-release to ruminate on things, we've got a clearer idea of what we want to do for Empires of the Undergrowth in both the short and long term, outside of the things mentioned in the most recent roadmap for the project. Community manager mike breaks it down (as a talking head piece - don't expect dancing). Including some new screenies of the upcoming tier 3 art refresh. [previewyoutube=7dbwyzARZes;full][/previewyoutube]
This optional beta is testing some fairly large changes to custom games, particularly AI colonies - as well as experimenting with more bold changes to ant stats specifically in that game mode. These changes are being tested in some extra levels, too, where we feel its appropriate. For the first time we are separating stats between the story and custom games, to allow for better balancing (they have slightly different needs) and some more experimentation outside of the more rigid structure of the story. Most stats are staying the same for now, but there are some notable changes. PLEASE NOTE: Were taking some broad strokes with experimental changes to ant stats and abilities in custom games! As such they might seem a bit extreme, which is why wed like to hear your feedback in the optional beta. Well be refining as we go on! Please post your feedback in the Steam community forum or on our Discord. You'll notice a new tab on the main menu titled DLC - there is nothing there for now, but in the future this is where DLCs like the Myrmecia ereptor Kickstarter reward skin will live. The version of Unreal Engine 4 the game runs on has been updated - please keep an eye our for any weirdness. There are also several balance changes, particularly to the newer story levels (5.x). Weve be very keen to hear your thoughts on those, too. The optional beta is only available on Windows 64 bit systems, and only on Steam. As well as the featured changes there are a large number of fixes and other balances. Recent changes to in-game text are currently lacking localisation and will display in English.
As the dust continues to settle after the 1.0 launch, weve solidified our plans for the short and long term goals for Empires of the Undergrowth. This newsletter will be a bit briefer than usual, as we try to return to some form of normality after the huge upheaval brought by the games release!
The ereptor colony languishes in its cupboard purgatory, from Zvistic on our Discord
Well go over what the team are working on right now, but for a more comprehensive look at the future of the project Id highly recommend taking a peek at the previous newsletter or vlog - theres an in-depth breakdown of the intended roadmap in both of those, and theres not much point in repeating that completely here.
If you'd like to keep up to date with the latest news and announcements:
Discord Twitter YouTube Twitch Facebook Instagram TikTok Reddit Wiki
Empires of the Undergrowth has been out for a month, so what comes next? In this vlog, community manager Mike goes through the roadmap for the immediate future of EotU. Since this is a Slug Disco vlog it also has some news about another game published by us - if you'd like to skip that and get to just the EotU bits, the timecode is 1.26. [previewyoutube=cNXrE74xurI;full][/previewyoutube]
We've released the first patch of fixes and changes for Empires of the Undergrowth, following its release into 1.0 last month. This deals with most of the more common issues that have been reported - more patches of this scale and type are likely to come in the near future. Thanks to everyone who's been helping to test this patch in the optional beta over the past several days!
Along with the 5.1 titans making it into freeplay, this optional beta has a bunch of fixes and improvements to make the game more stable. Lets go over a few things related to these optional betas for people who havent participated in them before. Firstly, please note: optional betas are limited to the Steam Windows 64 bit build, and may be missing localisations in some newer or updates areas.
Weve put many of our best years into Empires of the Undergrowth, and it is finally released. Welcome to our first newsletter in a post-1.0 world! For all of the many new people who are joining us, you are most welcome, and we hope youve been enjoying the game since launch on Friday, 7th June 2024. Its been a rollercoaster of a few days for us, to say the least, and weve got a lot to talk about - so lets get to it.
Matabele ants in a custom game from Zvistic
First and foremost, thank you so much for making sure that our launch to full release was a successful one. So far, our highest concurrent player count was on the Sunday after launch - peaking at 6,367 - absolutely annihilating our previous best of 2,509 which happened nearly 2 years ago when the fire ant update was set live. These are stunning numbers for our little ant game, far higher than we could have hoped for, and we will be eternally grateful for that.
On launch day we also posted a new roadmap, detailing some of our plans for the immediate future of Empires of the Undergrowth. This newsletter will mainly deal with that, but well also talk about some of the coverage that the game has been getting and how the launch itself went.
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! [previewyoutube=tEBdPgNTWM8;full][/previewyoutube] 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:
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! [previewyoutube=SuLCpe0RKcY;full][/previewyoutube] 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. [previewyoutube=WHFamaHashM;full][/previewyoutube] https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
Just in case the change in the winds isn't perceptible to all yet, Ill 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.
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!
[previewyoutube=UhMEkuqT5o0;full][/previewyoutube]
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. [previewyoutube=HxC-m0B-E_I;full][/previewyoutube] 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! [previewyoutube=WHFamaHashM;full][/previewyoutube] 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. [previewyoutube=UZjGSKeculo;full][/previewyoutube]
Hi everyone! Empires of the Undergrowth is currently on sale for 20% off. At the end of the sale, the price of the game will be raised to reflect advancements made during Early Access. We wanted to provide advance notice in case anyone would like to purchase the game at the current discounted price. Thank you for all of your support! https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/ [previewyoutube=ihLRjXkTQjQ;full][/previewyoutube]
So, were in Empires of the Undergrowths release year now! Thats a terrifying and exciting concept. If you watched last months vlog, youll have seen that weve managed to narrow down the release window of the game to a slight 12 months. Well done us.
The Nian Beast encounters firecrackers in the New Year's Feast level. From Orion (Dilphy) on our Discord
Just a reminder that Novembers newsletter contains the roadmap that should cover what to expect as we approach full release of the project - so refer back to that if youd like some clarification on whats happening over the coming few months. Ill try to keep this newsletter relatively brief - in this time shortly before we start revealing stuff from the final tier, news is a little slight. However, next time should be full of exciting reveals! Theres definitely a few things worth discussing now - lets dive in.
The recently-implemented automatic crash reporting system in Empires of the Undergrowth has highlighted some issues that have been lurking in the dark for a long time, that weve now been able to root out and patch up. This update deals with the most pressing of those.
Welcome to 2024! This patch fixes some issues with achievements and extra levels that have cropped up over the Christmas break - and I thought Id throw in a reminder about the New Years Feast level as well, which is now active and playable through until the end of February. Its a little early for Chinese New Year, but we figured we should be early with something for once. [previewyoutube=5Kz-w3A_4k0;full][/previewyoutube]
Hi everyone, get Empires of the Undergrowth for 20% off during the Steam Winter Sale! Command swarms of warriors at an unprecedented scale of warfare. Lead ant colonies against the many fearsome threats of the insect world: Check out this game and Hooded Horse's other published games during the Winter Sale until January 4. [previewyoutube=UhMEkuqT5o0;full][/previewyoutube]
Happy Holidays! From now until January 4th, you can save 20% on Empires of the Undergrowth, and get great deals on all other games published by Hooded Horse during the Steam Winter Sale.
With Empires of the Undergrowth's early access journey coming near to an end with v1.0 arriving in 2024, now is a great time to come check the game out!
[previewyoutube=ihLRjXkTQjQ;full][/previewyoutube]
New custom game / freeplay maps! Achievements! New difficulty options! More generous mission rewards! This major update for Empires of the Undergrowth brings in a whole bunch of new stuff, and also puts us in good stead for the final chapter and full release coming in 2024. Thanks so much to everyone whos been helping to test all the additions over the past few weeks. [previewyoutube=Bj0msTbh1JY;full][/previewyoutube]
This is very likely to be the final update to the optional beta before we set it live later this week, unless theres something that needs urgent fixing. Please test if you have some time - and thank you to everyone whos been doing that over the last few weeks! A bunch of fixes for some achievement issues that have arisen in testing, and a few other bits and bobs. The achievements should now all be localised for all of our supported languages on Steam, and a Win32 build is now included.
Finally, doing the achievements in the beta will count on Steam! The 100+ new chieves have been properly hooked up into Steams systems and will now register permanently if you get them during the optional beta. Remember: Steam achievements are permanent and cannot be reset once accomplished. If youre not participating in the beta yet and would like to, please see the initial post for instructions on how to join: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/463530/view/6939545579750168983
Vlog 8 is here, and it's been increasingly clear to us over the past several months that we're finally approaching the full release goal for Empires of the Undergrowth. The long road of early access is drawing to a close, and release plans are being worked on.
We will be releasing the game fully during 2024.
[previewyoutube=e8joCmJMFKY;full][vlog][/previewyoutube]
This vlog goes into a bit of detail about where we are with it, and while we're not ready to commit to an exact date (and never will do unless we're sure we can meet it) I hope you can gather from my enthusiasm that it really is a-comin'.
Current roadmap (published November 2023):
Another few fixes for the latest optional beta update!
An update to the optional beta has been released. There's an experimental change to leafcutters in custom games in this one: potentially very game-changing and will need a lot of testing! To test out this substantial change, start a fresh custom game. Remember that it's experimental and subject to change.
A whole bunch of fixes and changes in this latest iteration of the currently running optional beta, including some experimental surface tunnel options for Strawclutch. If youre not participating yet and would like to, then please see here for details on how to join.
From now until December 13th, you can save 20% on Empires of the Undergrowth. Come check the game out! [previewyoutube=WHFamaHashM;full][/previewyoutube] https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
With the start of the Autumn Sale, nominations for this years Steam Awards are underway and wed like to ask for your support by nominating Empires of the Undergrowth for the Labor of Love Award.
In the years since Early Access release, weve continued to improve Empires of the Undergrowth with huge, game-expanding updates - but were not done yet. We know all too well that our tiny team takes their time on the major updates, but we do that in the name of quality - and your kindness in supporting that allows us to take a considered approach. We couldnt be more grateful, so this isnt just our labor of love - its yours too!
Over the past year, weve been working on the following:
With the start of the Autumn Sale, nominations for this years Steam Awards are underway and wed like to ask for your support by nominating Empires of the Undergrowth for the Labor of Love Award.
In the years since Early Access release, weve continued to improve Empires of the Undergrowth with huge, game-expanding updates - but were not done yet. We know all too well that our tiny team takes their time on the major updates, but we do that in the name of quality - and your kindness in supporting that allows us to take a considered approach. We couldnt be more grateful, so this isnt just our labor of love - its yours too!
Over the past year, weve been working on the following:
Weve fixed and changed a few things in our ongoing optional beta - if you arent participating yet and would like to, see the previous post for details on how to join.
With the start of the Autumn Sale, nominations for this years Steam Awards are underway and wed like to ask for your support by nominating Empires of the Undergrowth for the Labor of Love Award.
In the years since Early Access release, weve continued to improve Empires of the Undergrowth with huge, game-expanding updates - but were not done yet. We know all too well that our tiny team takes their time on the major updates, but we do that in the name of quality - and your kindness in supporting that allows us to take a considered approach. We couldnt be more grateful, so this isnt just our labor of love - its yours too!
Over the past year, weve been working on the following:
New custom game / freeplay maps! Achievements! New difficulty options! More generous mission rewards! Were close to pushing a large update, and were now at a point where were inviting anyone whod like to test it a bit to do so. We are adding over 100 achievements to the game in this build - but PLEASE NOTE, if you accomplish them in this test build they will not activate on Steam during the beta. You can use the in-game achievement tracker and victory screens to determine if youve accomplished an achievement goal, and wed very much appreciate feedback on any problems with them. We are after feedback on all manner of issues that may occur, focusing on glitches, crashes, and balance. Any and all feedback on this optional beta is very much appreciated - please post it to the community discussions! As ever, thanks so much to our closed testing focus group who have been providing feedback to get this patch to this point. Lets go over a few things related to these optional betas for people who havent participated in them before. Firstly, please note: optional betas are limited to the Steam Windows 64 bit build, and may be missing localisations in some newer or updates areas.
This will be the last newsletter of 2023, with one more vlog to come in December. 2023 has been a formative year for Empires of the Undergrowth with the freeplay / custom game mode being brought much closer to its final form, and the bulk of the systems and level work on the final stages of the game being done.
Fire ants in the swamp from Solstitium on our Discord
The end is, finally, in sight but theres still a stretch to go. To that end, the main feature of this newsletter is an updated roadmap that might take us all the way to release (well have to see how things go!). Well spend the majority of our word allowance going over that.
For those of you who have joined us since last time, welcome to our infamously difficult Halloween level, which will earn its conquerors the rarest achievement in Empires of the Undergrowth. To celebrate this time around we've made an updated 4k trailer with the newer environment artwork. Enjoy! [previewyoutube=ENeIl3JvsB8;full][/previewyoutube] The Hungry Spider's cobweb appears around Halloween and on full moons, and he's absolutely ravenous. Help him grow and defeat his enemies in a gluttonous fury as he stalks a web-shaped map. His hunger causes him to constantly lose health - quickly unlocking the 'devour' ability is paramount as it'll keep him alive. Take down bigger and stronger prey, upgrading his abilities as you go. We find this level just as tough as everyone else does - and in fact our very own community manager Mike likes to attempt this level once a year on stream, and this year he's upping the stakes by bringing a ridiculously spicy challenge into the mix. At 10pm UK time, on Saturday 28th October, join him on YouTube for this year's attempt.
It's the 1 year anniversary of the Slug Disco vlog! In this episode, Mike talks about the Empires of the Undergrowth map contest results, progress on tier 5, achievements, roadmaps, and a probably stupid idea he had for his yearly attempt at EotU's Hungry Spider level. The brutally difficult Hungry Spider will be returning, by the way, on October 25th. As is usually the case, this is also a general Slug Disco vlog with mentions of the rest of our publishing charges - if you'd like to skip these and go directly to the EotU good stuff, skip to time code 2.29. [previewyoutube=hjDNxy1FKCI;full][/previewyoutube] Get the video to 500 likes to make Mike suffer, if he fails at Hungry Spider again!
Hi everyone! Empires of the Undergrowth and other games published by Hooded Horse are all featured at the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale. Come check it out! Hooded Horse Strategy Publisher Sale [previewyoutube=bwcg7R7QfIE;full][/previewyoutube]
Welcome to September, the worst month of the year (or so I'm told). I'll do my best to ensure you don't have to listen to Green Day on repeat to get through it, with some lovely news about achievements, map contests and difficulty changes coming to Empires of the Undergrowth. If you think that'd cheer you up, read on.
Leafcutter ants swarm over a huge whip spider in this shot from Steam user Bananta
As the art team and two out of three of our devs press forward with tier 5 work, one of our devs has been making changes to the difficulty options to Empires of the Undergrowth which were detailed in the most recent vlog last month. Before we get onto all the ins and outs of that, let's talk about the recent map contest!
From now until September 4, you can save 20% on Empires of the Undergrowth at the Steam Strategy Fest. Come check the game out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHFamaHashM https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
In Slug Disco Vlog 6, Mike goes over changes to the difficulty settings for EotU and also the map contest that is currently running. We're expanding difficulty to have 5 options instead of 4, with better gradiation between the lower ones - this should help people who want to step up or down to a different difficulty get a better feel for that. Except for the most difficult, of course, now renamed to 'Impossible'. That's just as punishing a challenge as it ever was! Dan also gives a brief update about 3 of our other publishing projects - if you want to skip the section about the other 3 games and get straight to the EotU content, the timecode is 1.44. [previewyoutube=zBBYukekqrI;full][/previewyoutube]
Thank you everyone who has supported, tested and played the recent release! We're very happy with the reception, and it sets us in good stead to press forward to the completion of the campaign. There are some issues that have cropped up, and those are at the forefront of the next patch that is likely to come in a few weeks, along with some other stuff.
A six-spotted tiger beetle swarmed by fire ants by Gimpsimian on our Discord
This newsletter will mainly concentrate on what you can expect from that next patch, and what is more likely to trickle in over some smaller patches afterwards. The team is very keen to press forward with completing tier 5 now, so that is their primary focus - but there are some other things that will be coming very soon.
Empires of the Undergrowth is featured on the front page of Steam today, with its first ever 20% off sale. The discount will run until July 29th. Come check it out! https://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/
It's time for a big overhaul of freeplay, a whole bunch of new art, and a campaign rebalance! Welcome to Empires of the Undergrowth version 0.31, and thank you to everyone who has helped test it for the past week and the focus group who have been on it for the past month or so. Watch the video for a breakdown of the major new features! [previewyoutube=4xT3aETtJow;full][/previewyoutube] This is part 1 of the update - we are immediately launching into finishing work on part 2, and now that everything is in place and working, we can work on improvement and tweaking. So, once you've given it a spin, head on over to the discussions and let us know what you think could be done to improve the AI and balance of the custom games in general.
Optional beta V0.31005 is out. Unless theres something catastrophically wrong with it, this is likely to be the final patch before we set the update live for everyone, but please dont stop giving feedback on bugs and balance! If you haven't taken part in this beta yet and would like to, follow the instructions in the original post. Once it goes public, we will be working hard on part 2 of this large update and implementing more changes, with a particular view to improving the AI further and fine-tuning freeplay / skirmish balance. Might even chuck in a new freeplay map or two whilst were at it.
Optional beta V0.310046 is out. If you're not participating in the optional beta yet and would like to, follow the instructions in the original post!
Optional beta V0.310045 is out now.
If you're not participating in the optional beta yet and would like to, see the original post for details on how to participate. Thanks for the feedback on the optional beta! Our Discord server has been a particularly active hive of activity over the last several hours since it was released, and we thoroughly encourage you to join - the devs are currently very active there, responding to bug reports and collating feedback. Theyre friendly devs, too, as long as John has had his 7 hours of sleep! Weve addressed some of the more pressing issues that have cropped up in this patch (V0.310044) - this is the first of what we anticipate to be several patches during the testing period. The most urgent fix here is a translation problem that was causing large issues with freeplay setup in non-English languages. Again, the reports are very much appreciated. These optional betas are vital to catching issues that need a much bigger sample size than we can manage with internal quality control and the small focus group - were so glad youre choosing to be a part of it!
A large update is imminent - large enough that were running an optional beta to test it out before we make it permanent. Theres a complete reworking of the freeplay / custom game mode AI, a new streamlined setup mode called Skirmish, major rebalances for the campaign, a big extension to the enemy mounting system, and lots of new artwork to replace older assets. We are after feedback on all manner of things in this very extensive update, mainly focusing on glitches that crop up, crashes, and balance. Any and all feedback on this optional beta is very much appreciated - please post it to the community discussions! Thanks so much to our focus group who have been providing feedback to get this patch to this point. Please note that optional betas are only accessible on the Steam Windows 64 bit build. WARNING: This beta changes many things about freeplay mode, including how it is saved! Old freeplay saves will no longer be loadable. IT IS STRONGLY ADVISED TO MAKE A SAVE BACKUP: We highly recommend making a backup of your saved games before you run an optional beta, on the off-chance that some changes cause them to be corrupted. To see where your saves are stored, see the information in this thread on the Steam forums.
[previewyoutube=UvPU0OwS59o;full][/previewyoutube] Vlog 5 talks mainly about the planned summer update for Empires of the Undergrowth - balance changes to the campaign, new uber creatures, new artwork and more. We also check in on Dan P with some updates to Horticular, Adapt and Ecosystem coming in the near future (other games published by Slug Disco) - if you want to skip that and get straight to the EotU stuff, the timecode is 4:54.
We've had the last of our extra levels in the 'sequel season', so it's time to re-evaluate the road ahead with an updated map. The compressed parts of the previous one are fast approaching, so we can 'zoom in' on that part of it, as it were, to give a bit more detail. Most of this newsletter will deal with breaking down what'll be arriving in the near future.
A bombardier beetle attacks fire ants from NappyB on our Discord
We also have some business news - we've joined with indie publishers Hooded Horse to publish Empires of the Undergrowth! There are also some real-world events we'll be attending soon. More on that later - first and foremost, let's get the new roadmap up and talk through it in order.
The Culling 2 - the final level in the 'sequel season' series - is out now in Extra Levels! [previewyoutube=NQMPgGBDUTA;full][/previewyoutube] Take command of big-headed ants (Pheidole morrisii) in their first stand-alone level. In The Culling 2, your colony must survive for six nights in the swamp, whilst packs of hostile creatures invade as darkness falls. They will build up over time, eventually becoming overwhelming - even for the best-prepared colonies. Your hope lies in controlling the amount of enemies before they become insurmountable. Cull their numbers during the day, whilst gathering food to last out the night. Mighty big-headed supersoldiers will help you hold the lines as they charge and crush their enemies with a single bite. We hope you've enjoyed extra level sequel season! We'll be taking a break from extra levels for a while, as we're concentrating on the freeplay and tier 5 updates for the timebeing.
Hi all, In the next few days we will making some adjustments to the regional pricing of Empires of the Undergrowth. The USD price of the game is staying the same at $19.99, and the Euro price will remain 19.99 also. The regional discounts in some other currencies will be reduced to become closer to the USD & Euro price. We thought we should give a heads-up so that anyone who's been waiting to pull the trigger before the regional changes come into effect can make an informed decision. The change will likely occur on Monday 1st May.
With the Earth Appreciation Festival in full swing, we thought it'd be a good time to do a short livestream of Empires of the Undergrowth! Community manager Mike will be playing one of the more recently added campaign levels (4.1 'Cold Blood') for the occasion. Please join in, and ask any questions you like! [previewyoutube=QfV_RIE7Ffg;full][/previewyoutube]
The Earth Appreciation Festival is now live on Steam! Slug Disco is a co-organiser of the event this year, along with Mechanistry and Straw Fawn.
Empires of the Undergrowth is 10% off in this festival of games that highlight the wonders of nature (such as EotU, Timberborn and Wandering Village) as well as games that deal with human-made issues, such as Frostpunk, Deponia and This War of Mine.
Slug Disco and Hooded Horse will be donating 10% of revenue generated by Empires of the Undergrowth during the event to Buglife, a UK-based invertebrate conservation charity that is very close to our hearts. Invertebrates represent a fundamental part of the ecosystem, and we're very happy to be supporting a charity that works towards their conservation.
We'll check in again a little later in the week with the Earth Appreciation Festival to see how things are going, perhaps with a little round-up video - see you then!
Challenge mode, and game plus, and new artwork, oh my! After going over some in-person events that have happened recently for a couple of Slug Disco's other publishing projects and an important business move, Mike breaks down recent progress for Empires of the Undergrowth - including the long-anticipated challenge mode for tier 4, and plans for the post-campaign game plus mode coming along with tier 5. To skip the Slug Disco news and get directly to the Empires of the Undergrowth goodness, start the video at 03:11. [previewyoutube=cdkz5PqfN28;full][/previewyoutube]
The penultimate level in our Sequel Season is here - the short-form extra level Enemy of my Enemy 2 puts your queen in the middle of a map, surrounded by hostile creatures. All of them must be eliminated to win, but only a small garrison of Royal Guard ants protects the queen. [previewyoutube=5SK4Kn1cuLE;full][/previewyoutube] You can't build brood chambers, but you can dig with your mouse. Thankfully, the enemy packs are hostile to one another - and therein lies the key to victory. Tunnel them out strategically, forcing them to encounter one another before reaching the queen. We think this level will probably benefit from another balance pass in the future due to it being too difficult, but we aren't quite in a position to make a new build of the game for it just yet due to our current work on the campaign and freeplay changes. For now, it will remain an extremely difficult extra level (almost certainly the most difficult, particularly on insane difficulty) but we are curious to see if a meta arises that can reliably beat it before we make any changes! Extra levels don't take us very long to develop - they're there to give everyone some extra time in the Undergrowth whilst we work on the really big stuff!
We're entering a stage of development where we're making some pretty fundamental changes to both the campaign and freeplay mode, in order to get them closer to their final implementation when the game leaves early access. That's been the priority for our devs in the past few weeks - and we'll detail some of the changes that are coming in this newsletter.
A fire ant about to be entangled from NappyB
On the graphical side of things, there's a new Formica fusca queen model on the way and a change to two of the beach creatures for geographical consistency. We've also been finalising work for the visual improvement of the beach levels. Whilst we're not ready to show that in all its glory we will go through some of the new things that will be making the beach even beach-ier than it was before.
A little later this month we'll have the penultimate extra level in the Sequel Season appearing. Once again, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Well, not quite your friend, it'll attack you, too - but you get the idea.
Finally, in late February I sat our 3 devs down to confront them with the harsh reality that some people don't like their game. This was a giggle, and all in good fun - see the results later!
Our third company vlog is out now, and there's a few juicy details in the Empires of the Undergrowth section. Our creature artist Matt has made a new Formica fusca queen model, and there's some details about upcoming extra levels and large changes to freeplay coming in a major update a bit further down the line. If you'd like to skip to the meaty EotU content, then the time code is 6:18. [previewyoutube=b9Sf5x7CIbM;full][/previewyoutube] Slug Disco publishes several other games other than EotU (but we only develop EotU), and the start of the vlog deals with these as well as some general company updates first.
The Empires of the Undergrowth auto-battler mode is back with a new level. Tug of War 2 continues our Sequel Season of extra levels - with a new set of ants to use, and a whole different set of enemy builds to fight against. Tug of War 2 is a short-form level versus an AI opponent. Army composition is everything in this auto-battler game mode. You do not control your ants directly - they will all hatch together, in waves, and immediately rush to take down the enemy queen - but your opponent has the same goal. Resources are given at regular intervals, and you'll have to make every seed count. You don't want to be playing catch-up - fall too far behind and you'll quickly find yourself overwhelmed. [previewyoutube=5LAWGR8SUzc;full][/previewyoutube] Extra levels are relatively easily-made content (since they re-use existing assets and systems) that we spend a little of our dev time on whilst we work on the much bigger stuff. We always have fun making them, and we're currently in the midst of Sequel Season - follow-ups to previous extra levels, playing on their ideas in a slightly different way. In other development news, we've made an update to the black ant (Formica fusca) model which will be rolling out with the next update, made some sensible changes to menu options, as well as made large strides towards getting the improved colony AI from the 4.x levels compatible with freeplay. In the next week or so there will be a vlog detailing these developments and more!
Theres a new seasonal level, New Years Feast, and its available now with the latest patch! We like to break from reality with our extra and seasonal levels, and weve had a lot of fun making this one. Play it by clicking on the lantern that has appeared in the main menu. [previewyoutube=5Kz-w3A_4k0;full][/previewyoutube] Its almost time for Lunar New Year, and the fire ant queen is making her famous New Year's Eve hotpot for her family and friends. However, in the chaos of the party preparations, her daughters have forgotten to forage for the ingredients for the broth. Help them find the correct spices in time for dinner, whilst making liberal use of festive firecrackers to clear enemies and shorten your path. Its not just a fire ant level, though - this New Years party has many guests who have gotten lost in the undergrowth. Rescue them from peril and bring them home safely - to show their gratitude, theyll add their species to your colony! This is a very special seasonal level and we cant wait for you to have a go - so jump right in! There are a bunch of other fixes and changes that also arrive with this patch, so lets break down the full patch notes.
Hang on a minute, where on Earth did 2022 go? That whole fire ant update thing went by in such a blur. It still feels like it was last week, but it was very nearly six months ago now! Welcome to a brand spanking new year - 2023, which kicks off with several more extra levels in our 'Sequel Season', as well as a surprise or two along the way.
[url=https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/28521019/679bc9d8819c03224b1acfd41691d8a224adb0c2.png]
Happy New Year from Medin on our Discord
Before we get into upcoming stuff for EotU and things happening in Slug Disco as a company, I'll just take a moment to thank each and every one of you for making 2022 by far the best year that Empires of the Undergrowth has had, in every reasonably measurable metric. We make this stuff, but it's you who makes it a success and gives us the drive to continue. We hope to carry on with that energy in 2023.
Occupation 2 is available now in the Extra Levels section! The first in our Sequel Season of extra levels - this little black ant mission follows many of the same lines as its predecessor, but with a more urgent twist! Many critters will not wait patiently to be unearthed and will take a proactive approach to challenging your colony. [previewyoutube=rrW33ibdRfE;full][/previewyoutube] Extra levels take us very little time to develop, so we release them periodically as some nice bonus content for the community whilst we work on the bigger stuff! We're currently working on large changes to freeplay, upgrading the art assets for the beach levels and creating the tier 5 levels. We have several more planned for Sequel Season - stay tuned in the new year.
We're back with another vlog! This time Mike goes over upcoming changes to freeplay, how the Adventure + update went (and some changes coming to Adventure in the future) as well as talking briefly about a new unique seasonal level that will arrive in the not-too-distant future. Towards the start of the video, our product marketing manager Dan talks about two other games that are published (but not developed) by Slug Disco, Ecosystem and Adapt. If you're not interested in those, skip to timecode 2:28 for the Empires of the Undergrowth meat. [previewyoutube=QJbMb1pL1yg;full][/previewyoutube]
What could get you more into the spirit of the season than defending gifts against a horde of insects and arachnids using more insects and arachnids? The Festive Spider is here for the holidays! Touch the gift box on the main menu to play. [previewyoutube=_IPkapEX60c;full][/previewyoutube] Help the Hungry Spider keep the gifts safe from the invaders. Be warned - like the Halloween level, this one is punishingly difficult and unforgiving - expect multiple playthroughs to perfect your strategy. This unique tower defense game mode is sure to keep you on your toes well into the new year.
We've made some updates to the free demo - if you've not taken the plunge yet then now's a great time to try out the demo, and if you like it, the game is 10% off for Steam's Autumn sale! This update adds the tutorial level that we recently added to the main game, as well as a limited form of the Battle Arena - a mode where you can easily pit the various critters found in the demo against each other to see what wins.
V0.302036 has been released, addressing a few issues that came up over the last couple of days as well as making some mainly visual changes to the Hungry Spider level. Patch notes below: Additions
Surprise, were doing it now! As it turns out, everything we talked about in yesterdays newsletter is good to go, so here it is! The Adventure + update is available now. This is a regular update, but quite significantly larger than most of our regular updates. As well as the long-awaited extra level Adventure, weve also put the even longer-awaited velvet worm into its rightful place in the 3.x levels - including previously unheard narrator lines! [previewyoutube=WZKoG6ORS2A;full][/previewyoutube] This update also includes a feature that has been overdue for a long time - tutorial mode. New players will be encouraged to first play through the tutorial before diving into the campaign, and even more experienced players may benefit from the refresher course it provides. A redesigned menu integrates this addition into the game, with a new section called the arcade for extra levels, battle arena, and demo levels Finally, the 1.x levels now have their own tile set - the rotting log will no longer look like sand! A new texturing of decomposing birch wood and crumbly soil will set it apart from the beach. Full patch notes below.
We've had a remarkably busy couple of months since the last newsletter, and there's a fair few things to discuss relating to the next update for Empires of the Undergrowth. Most of this newsletter will be going over progress made in matters written about in the previous one. We're currently in a consolidation phase, working on improving under-the-hood systems to increase the efficiency and reliability of many game systems, as well as improving the onboarding process for new players and revamping some of the older artwork. We've also made some fairly extensive changes to the main menu.
A river crossing from Discord user Ice Age 2
Were also very close to introducing a long-awaited enemy to the game the velvet worm, and have several extra levels lined up over the next few months. To preempt the question of when all of the changes detailed in this newsletter will arrive, the answer is in the near future (fingers crossed)!
On the community side of things, weve also made the first edition of a new video series that will work alongside and in tandem with these newsletters. Well discuss the plans for those at the end of the newsletter, after all the game news. Lets get to it!
Tucked away in a dark corner of the world, this wolf spider hungers... [previewyoutube=L3QtFadJryI;full][/previewyoutube] ...and it's up to you to slake his relentless thirst for hemolymph. From midnight on the 25th October local time, the Hungry Spider will be here for the rest of the spooky season - and he is so very hungry. Access this festive extra level by selecting the spider web that has appeared on the main menu. Be warned - this level is not for the faint of heart, or slow of pointer - it is intensely difficult and few have ever completed it. Those that do will earn themselves a special achievement as a badge of honour. Even under ideal conditions, expect multiple playthroughs to learn the quirks of the levelling and abilities system. Slice the carapace, dissolve the innards, suck the juices, chop, melt, drink...
Time to talk about the immediate future of Empires of the Undergrowth, in video form. [previewyoutube=jhAKuBIspI8;full][/previewyoutube] This is the first of our new vlog format, which will act as a counterpart to the newsletters, running bi-monthly alongside and inbetween them. We recognise not everyone wants to read a 1,500 word essay to get their Empires of the Undergrowth news, so hopefully this video series fills in that gap! If you have any better ideas for the vlog's name than just "Slug Disco Vlog" then please let us know.
This hotfix is currently only for Steam Windows 64 bit users but we thought it was crucial enough to get a fix out for our biggest user base as fast as possible. The fix for Windows 32 bit, Mac and other storefronts will roll out over the next few days. Apologies for the confusing back-and-forth with this one - we released this update last night, but due to a change to aphids for a future update there was the unexpected effect of stripping aphids completely from the 4.x levels, so we had to revert it. All should now be well.
A whole bunch of fixes have been made, mainly regarding the fire ant update and freeplay (theres plenty more changes to freeplay coming in a larger update a bit further down the line). Extremis fans will be pleased to know that level is now playable again, and the poor bullfrog will no longer get beaten up by its lunch! Thanks to everyone whos helped to test this patch over the last few days.
Weve made a bunch of fixes and some changes since the fire ant update, so many in fact that we want to run an optional beta before full release to make sure we havent damaged some vital system somewhere. This opt-in beta will run for a short while. Please note that optional betas are only accessible on the Steam Windows 64 bit build. If you would like to join the beta, the code is fireantfixtest. If you dont know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below: [quote] [olist]
Its been a while since the situation has warranted one of these newsletters we said that after the last one in March, we didnt want to spoil anything else and just wanted to concentrate purely on getting the fire ant update ready to go, and so we did! Welcome to the first newsletter as the sun rises in a post-fire ants world.
The Green Swamp
Well be dividing this newsletter into a few sections - firstly, well talk about how the fire ant release went. After that, its time to talk about the future - well put forth a new roadmap to get us to version 1.0, and detail the steps that we will take to get there, including the development of a specific tutorial level to make player onboarding much better.
After some internal discussion, we dont quite feel like we want to talk about the tier 5 species and setting just yet - just know that its been long-planned, scripted, voice-acted, and partially implemented already!
Here's a moment we've been waiting for as long as you have - we're burning with joy to be releasing the fire ant update to everyone! Let's keep this introduction short, because I'm certain you want to dive right into that lovely swamp as soon as you can. Here are the full patch notes for the update.
Patch Notes - The Fire Ant Update
The Fire Ants Invade!
Fire ants are nothing if not adaptable to new challenges. These swamplands that young queens, fresh from their nuptial flight, have landed in are not in their native range. The changing, often-flooded environment will test their flexibility to the limit.
Just a very short post to confirm that the launch of the fire ant update won't be occurring at midnight but at 6 pm UK time tomorrow, or approximately 23 hours after this is posted. Converted to some other times this comes out as: 1 pm: US East Coast 10 am: US West Coast 7 pm: Most of Europe 3 am on the 28th: Most of Australia A quick search engine query should let you convert your own local time from the team's 6pm BST (British Summer Time). Today we posted a quick tutorial video that should help you quickly get up to speed with some of the major new mechanics introduced with this update. It doesn't spoil anything that hasn't already been revealed, but if you're trying to keep entirely unspoiled you'll probably want to skip this one. [previewyoutube=jqd791hvD-M;full][/previewyoutube] Roughly an hour before we launch the game, some of the team are going to do a livestream on YouTube going over some of the new mechanics, changes, and other such things. A quick breather before we push the button! Join us over there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jTm53w8fHk
Hey Just a quick post to allow streams to appear on the store page during the summer sale and to celebrate the release of the fire ant trailer: [previewyoutube=-JW8rmLDta0;full][/previewyoutube] Cheers! Dan
We are delighted to announce that the fire ant update is coming on July 27th 2022! Grab an eyeful of the updated trailer that shows off the new environment and (some of) the new enemies that come along with it. [previewyoutube=-JW8rmLDta0;full][/previewyoutube] A whole new formicarium tier awaits - guide a young fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) queen and her first brood as she invades an unfamiliar swamp environment in two full new story missions. The swamp is swimming with amphibians that are not adverse to a spicy snack! As well as having by far the most critters weve added in a single update, the 4th tier includes a long-awaited class of enemy: titans. Titans are huge creatures - big enough, in fact, to be climbed. They do not represent an existential threat since theyre too big to invade the nest, but they must be dealt with in other ways and are a challenging obstacle to be overcome. Fire ants themselves have a unique ability, outside of their incessant stinging - by linking their bodies together, they can form floating pontoons that can cross water, reaching resources previously unplundered. This is a skill that will come in exceptionally handy in the regularly-flooded green swamp. They come in two very different soldier varieties - pervasive and vigorous. If you choose pervasive, they will spawn for free after the egg has been on the tile for a time. This can be a crucial advantage when food is scarce. Alternatively, vigorous fire ants will have a significant buff to stats for a time after birth. This opens up the potential for aggressive expansion, but beware of pushing too far too fast. At level 3, both variants will be able to spawn 2 ants from each tile. Once youve conquered the swamp, return to the formicarium where the scientist is far from done with you yet - what dastardly design has he decided is due to your Formica ereptor colony? Finally, welcome to new people who are finding us through the Steam Summer Sale! We hope you find our little ant game worth your attention, and if youre considering giving it a go youve joined us at a very good time. Well see you on July 27th for the invasion of the fire ants!
This will be a shorter-than-usual newsletter, just catching up with the last of the things weve posted on our social media before the fire ant update. Were rounding the corner to the home stretch on that front now, and whilst were not quite ready to announce a date (that will come out of the blue one day with a trailer) we are at a point where we dont want to spoil anything else, as we still want there to be plenty of surprises for when the update drops. Well go over a few things that have been previously announced all of the things shown in this newsletter are from the 4.x missions.
The main feature this time is full support for gamepads (Steam Deck, XBox One and PlayStation 4 controllers are all officially supported). If you prefer to play with a gamepad or would like to try it out, now is the time! We are also adding six new languages localisations (we are not updating our store page to say we officially support these yet; they should be considered to be in beta for now). The languages are Czech, French, Japanese, Korean, Dutch & Polish. Theres also some fixes and changes, detailed below, including a fix for Mac so Mac users should be able to play Hibernation now! We have also moved the game files to an encrypted form, so the download is likely to be larger than a regular patch since Steam wont recognise the encrypted files.
Welcome to the year of the fire ant! For those of you wondering how were doing with the 4th / fire ant tier, weve recently gotten the last of the dialogue and voice acting into the game, and sent things off to translators for localisation. Keep an eye on our social media for further public narrowing of our release window. As always we wont give a date until were certain we can hit it. The marketing team have indeed been working on the trailer as the art team completes the detailing on the levels, and were positively itching to show it all off to you but we have to be patient too.
The Year of the Fire Ant is upon us!
Lets talk about a few things that have come up over the last couple of months, including the exciting return of a creature long thought lost to the sands of time the velvet worm.
A minor patch tonight to correct some small issues that have cropped up. This should resolve a recent freeplay crash related to leafcutters and a more long-standing issue causing problems with the "Play More" feature.
We've recently been working with our voice cast to record all the lines for the remainder of the campaign. We realised that we wouldn't be able to hit our planned release of the 4th tier levels this year (see the most recent newsletter for more on this), but we still wanted to do something extra special to see out 2021. We asked Callum, the narrator, to record some extra voice lines for a special winter-themed extra level. Also, we spent some of our free time creating bespoke music for it. Behold, Hibernation! [previewyoutube=H2rb-MdPLI8;full][/previewyoutube] Many wood ant colonies live in Alpine mountains, where harsh winters close in fast. They have evolved a special way to survive these conditions - collecting vegetation which gives off heat as it decays, saving the near-frozen colony from certain doom. Hibernation has a special new resource and chamber to store it - pine needles are collected from the surface and stored in heating chambers. The nest will be saved from disaster by their decay, and ants walking through them will be able to visit the frozen surface for longer after walking through one. There's also some fixes and changes - here are the full patch notes for this update:
Today, we pre-emptively released a build with the intention of getting ahead of things for the planned release of our winter level on Wednesday. Unfortunately it seems that we missed a glitch when testing - level 2.1 Rising Tide seems to have problems with food spawning in the new patch. For now, we've rolled back these changes so the game is still completable. This shouldn't affect too much since the new level, Hibernation, wasn't due to be fully released until the 22nd anyway. We'll get everything fixed and re-packaged, and reinstate the update when we're ready!
Once again, the Hungry Spider has crawled out of his hole. This time he's in a better mood, having just finished his Christmas shopping and gotten everything wrapped and ready for the little ones. However, envious eyes are looking over his haul - and he'll need to protect it! [previewyoutube=_IPkapEX60c;full][/previewyoutube] The Festive Spider level is here once again for the season. Find it by clicking on the gift that has appeared on the main menu. Whilst you may be familiar with the upgrade system and control scheme from the Hungry Spider level, this game mode is more akin to a tower defense. Like the Hungry Spider level, it is incredibly difficult - very few players have defeated all of the waves and saved Christmas for their spiderlings. Building towers is vital - whether recruiting funnel web spiders to slow enemies and snatch them away, or wood ants to launch acid at them, you'll need to think about tower placement and longevity to be succesful. Placing towers costs life, so you'll need to balance this single resource carefully. A little tip - the spider's abilities are also extremely useful for making sure enemies don't get away with your precious presents. It'd be a good idea to start with the Crippling Venom ability to slow enemies from afar. Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!
Welcome to 2021s last newsletter! Well get straight to the point about where were at with the fire ant release plans after this introduction. Weve also got a very special extra level set to come out shortly before the holidays next month so plenty of details on that. Theres a final creature we want to show off, some finished animations and game mechanics for a creature revealed a while back, and some finished artwork for the swamp environment in which the 4th tier will be set, as well as the first of our carnivorous plants.
Trap jaw ants on the march from Kacper on our Discord
It's that time of year again. The nights are drawing in, the air is getting colder.... and the Hungry Spider awakens, and finds that he is ravenous. [previewyoutube=L3QtFadJryI;full][/previewyoutube] The Hungry Spider level will be around for the remainder of the spooky season - to access it, click on the cobweb that has mysteriously appeared in the lab. In this level you directly control an endlessly starving wolf spider (although I am of the belief that he has some sort of terrible metabolic issue) as he eats his way around a web-shaped map. To those who haven't played this one before, it is a brutally difficult level and few have achieved victory in it. The uber creatures are the real killer, and you'll have to take them all out to win. Upgrade your abilities as you level up, improving your chances against the monsters. But in the end, of course, the real monster is you.
Discard the shackles of oppression - in our latest extra level Beetles Rise Up!, you must grow your beetle pack to annihilate your captors. All of your beetles are controlled by a single pheromone marker - simply move near beetles to add them to your pack, bolstering your strength. Kill all enemies and free all beetles to win! Game knowledge from your campaign and freeplay experiences will be helpful; it'll allow you to gauge threats before you take them on. [previewyoutube=F7MWqlfuowU;full][/previewyoutube] Your game client will not need to update to get the new level; it will already be there. This extra level is inspired by Beetle Uprising, a game by our friends at Iocane Games! It's a deeply complex genetics game with real-time tactics and some colony management elements. Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/662680/Beetle_Uprising/ Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level: [quote]For those concerned about extra levels taking up dev time, please know that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours apiece (you can watch us do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed. We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.[/quote]
At this stage in the development cycle for the rest of Empires of the Undergrowth, were very close to having all of the creatures for the 4th tier complete (as well as a sizable chunk of the 5th tier ones). Our environment artist is working hard on perfecting the aesthetic of the Green Swamp, as the art team populates it with appropriate (and sometimes dangerous) flora.
An infestation of harvestmen from TheRealStormCZE on our Discord
Were ready to show off some of the underground look that the fire ants and their enemies will inhabit, as well as focusing on something that has, until now, evaded the Undergrowth entirely vertebrates! The fire ant levels will feature a number of backbone owners, and weve been dying to show them off to you. Well also talk about the events weve been part of recently.
We love events, but for obvious reasons we've so rarely been able to attend them recently. Enter the Gamescom 2021 Indie Arena Booth, an online event that is running from 25th-29th August! We have a booth in the virtual world, which you can visit with your 2D avatar. There's an NPC representation of the scientist there to answer some questions, and of course we'll be there ourselves too! To celebrate this, from the moment of this post there is a limited-time demo level available. For the first time we're letting fire ants loose for a preview before their appearance in the upcoming 4th tier levels! In The Promised Land, you'll need to use the fire ant's bridge building skills to acquire resources from neighbouring islands, before building as long a bridge as you can to reach the aforementioned land that was promised on the right side of the map. Simply place a pheromone marker on an island you wish to reach, and your fire ants will use their bodies to make a floating bridge for their sisters to use. Beware of falling water levels stranding them - ants that get cut off from the colony will panic and quickly die. Also, keep an eye on the bombardier beetle population - they'll attack your colony together with their near-boiling liquid spray. The Promised Land will be available until August 29th, when Gamescom ends. Full patch notes below:
Time for the last of the extra levels we put out in beta earlier this year to be released - it's The Culling! In this black ant level, packs of enemies will slowly swell in number during the daytime. If you allow them to grow too large, they will overwhelm your colony when they attack en masse at night. [previewyoutube=R2CZO5CteR8;full][/previewyoutube] The trick is to keep their numbers in check by regular culling - every slain enemy will reduce the intensity of the nighttime onslaught. There are aphid farms to keep you supplied with food, but they'll need defending from ladybird beetles that can strip them bare. Also, beware the tiger beetle larvae lying in wait! The Culling represents the last of the four extra levels we had scheduled to release, but we're not done with extra content yet! We've got an exciting announcement regarding a special demo level due to coincide with our appearance at the Gamescom Indie Arena Booth which is open online from August 25th - 29th. And yes, it will feature fire ants. More on that when we're ready to update! Also, we might have managed to sneak in one more non-Gamescom related extra level whilst we were at it. Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level: [quote]For those concerned about extra levels taking up dev time, please know that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours apiece (you can watch us do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed. We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.[/quote]
Its been an important last couple of months for Empires of the Undergrowth, and those of us at Slug Disco Studios! Work continues apace on the fire ant update, and were not too far away from having all of the 4th tier creatures complete and ready for placement in the levels. Weve also decided that now is the time to expand our dev team, and weve brought in a fantastic new artist to work on our environments Ill introduce you to Dan (yes, this is the 2nd time in the past year weve hired someone called Dan) a little later in the newsletter.
A whip spider observes a trail of Atta cephalotes from Crazlex9 on our Discord
Last time, the creature feature was all about beetles. Were (almost) moving away from insects for our newly-finished critters this time, into the world of spiders! We apologise in advance to any arachnophobes who already find looking at them difficult. Theres also a beetle larva to show that wasnt ready in time for the last newsletter.
There's a new extra level for Empires of the Undergrowth - and this one is rather unique. In Enemy of my Enemy, packs of enemies are hostile to each other - the trick is to get them to take each other out before they reach your queen. It's a short game mode, with lots of different solutions - the puzzle of how to unlock the packs gets more complex at higher difficulties. [previewyoutube=n-yIbi4rACc;full][/previewyoutube] Digging is instantaneous and done with the mouse, and marker placement is not allowed - instead, your queen is protected by a number of strong Royal Guard ants that will always stay near her. They're your last line of defense against the enemy packs, but of course you should be aiming to set them on each other and wipe each other out before they get close! A bit of trial and error is expected, but the average run of Enemy of my Enemy only lasts 10-15 minutes. Perhaps in the future we'll run a speedrun competition for this level; its short form factor would suit it! The mission will be in your Extra Levels menu now - your client will not need to be updated. Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level: [quote]For those concerned about extra levels taking up dev time, please know that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours apiece (you can watch us do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed. We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.[/quote]
Cramped is a new extra level for Empires of the Undergrowth, and it's out right now! This leafcutter level is very tight on space - with a tiny underground nest and many enemies that must be slain, only a superior knowledge of the game systems will allow for victory. Find the level now in the "Extra Levels" section of the menu. [previewyoutube=klayhKhH5nk;full][/previewyoutube] Your game client will not need to be updated to play; the level will already be in the list. Thanks to everyone who helped test and balance this level when it was in beta. Notice about the campaign we must post with each new extra level: [quote]For those concerned about extra levels taking up dev time, please know that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours apiece (you can watch John do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed. We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.[/quote]
Good lord, its May already. This newsletter will spotlight some more enemies coming for the fire ant update, with a particular focus on natures favoured form the beetle. We also have some talk about new AI systems that weve been working on over the past few weeks, which will be used in the last of the campaign levels and eventually in freeplay too!
A classically red Formica ereptor queen from GlitchyGamer
Weve still got quite a few critters to show off as we complete work on them, as well as a few we dont want to spoil until we get very close to release time.
Occupation - a new extra level for Empires of the Undergrowth - is out now! In this level not unlike the campaign mission New Home, you control wood ants (with mortars) with the simple mission to kill all nearby creatures. Beware - your occupation of this prime nesting location will not go uncontested. [previewyoutube=P091qp-8f_Y;full][/previewyoutube] Although the level is definitely the most straightforward of the four that will be releasing over the next few months, that doesn't mean it's a walk in the park - it has a particularly tricky start, and you'll need to use your knowledge of the game systems to walk away from a very tricky early encounter with your queen still living. You can find the mission in Extra Levels right now - your game will not need to update first; as long as you're on version 0.23 it'll be there. It's worth reiterating at this point that compared to the campaign content, these missions take practically no time at all to develop - just a few short hours of dev time apiece (you can watch John do most of the development for these on stream). Because they all use existing assets, systems and artwork, one of our devs can create an extra level very fast indeed. We're still charging full steam ahead with the fire ant update - we just thought there's plenty of you who would appreciate something new to play in the meantime.
A localisation issue that didn't come up in testing meant we had to roll back yesterday. This has now been rectified, and so version 0.23 has been reinstated. Other than that, all the patch notes from the 0.23 post apply. Thanks for your patience on this everyone, and thanks to the players who reported the issues they were having!
Hi all, Due to some Mac and localisation issues that didn't come up during testing we're going to have to do an emergency rollback from 0.23 to the previous version, 0.22112. This should only be temporary but it's vital since those groups are having major issues to do with saves and language defaults. We'll work fast to get everything sorted, re-packaged and re-uploaded. In the meantime this shouldn't affect much since there isn't any new content scheduled to come out until April 2nd - but we appreciate your patience on the matter!
Apart from 4 new levels set to roll out over the next few months (thank you to everyone whos been helping test and balance them) the main bulk of this update is under-the-hood changes. To deal with a persistent problem experienced by a number of laptop users, weve accelerated plans to upgrade the game engine by several versions. Were always reluctant to do this since it invariably breaks lots of things, and most of the time over the past month has been spent dealing with the fallout. Once again, thank you to everyone whos helped us iron out those wrinkles. Particular thanks to Scyobi_Empire who helped us diagnose the initial laptop issue. Theres also a new menu for the extra levels, which will give a description of them and a preview of their minimap, as well as an estimate of how long theyll take to complete and any reward associated with them.
We're likely to run this beta just overnight and get it out onto the main branch some time tomorrow, as long as no huge problems are discovered! Whilst it doesn't have much in the way of new features, v0.23 is a significant patch because we've upgraded the engine that Empires of the Undergrowth runs on (Unreal Engine 4), and we've spent a significant amount of time fixing problems that arise from that. So, just to reiterate - no major new features since the last optional beta, but there have been plenty of changes going on under the hood. This beta is available on all platforms. It will also remove the four extra levels, with the first of them (Occupation) being due for full release on April 2nd. If you'd like to join the beta just for the evening, the beta key is givemeextraextra. If you don't know how to join a beta, here's how to do it: [quote] [olist]
Weve got another few Empires of the Undergrowth critters and some size comparisons from the upcoming fire ant update to show you in this edition of the newsletter. Weve also done an engine upgrade which has had us banging our heads against our keyboards for the past few weeks! Those of you who have been having issues on certain laptops, whilst a small number, will be pleased to know that the next update will fix this problem in a roundabout way. At the time of writing this patch (0.23) was coming towards the end of optional beta testing. See this thread for more detailed discussion of the issue.
A wood ant queen surveys her dinner from Steam user roobyRoss
Well also be talking about the imminent release of Slug Discos foray into publishing, Ecosystem! Were not the developers of this game by Tom Johnson but are publishing it under our banner, and are of course hopping up and down on the spot in anticipation of playing the early access version after months of playing the demo.
In order to fix a crash that was happening on certain laptops with Intel chips we have had to update the Unreal Engine version Empires of the Undergrowth is built on. Doing so may have some performance improvements but mostly the experience should be the same. Weve done plenty of testing ourselves but a change like this is systemic, so any part of the game could have issues that weve missed. We are running this beta to make sure there are no hidden bugs that cropped up during the engine update, and we appreciate anyone who can spend some time testing any and all aspects of the game for problems. If you would like to join the beta, the code is givemeextraextra. If you dont know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below: [quote][olist]
In our first newsletter of the new year, covering news from December 2020 and January 2021, we have some critters from the fourth tier of the formicarium story to talk about (and perhaps a tiny little sneak preview of a story mission), as well as some discussion of some new extra levels that will be coming your way over the next few months. Also, on the company side of things (which we do have to occasionally think about) weve recently launched an updated version of our website, which should make it easier to find information about Slug Disco Studios Ltd. and the games we publish. Thanks to Dan, our recently-hired marketing content creator, for his stellar work on bringing the website into the 2020s!
A screenshot from an upcoming extra level Cramped
Its time for an optional beta! This beta has some fixes for long-standing issues and, more excitingly, comes with 4 (!) new extra levels for testing and balance. Extra levels are fast to develop as most of them don't need extensive new systems and artwork; we can make one of these in just a few short hours but testing them for balance is another thing. They need some feedback! We are looking for feedback on balance in the 4 new extra levels. You can leave them on our Discord, Steam forum, or official forums. If youd like to help out, wed be very happy for you to give them a spin now! Youll need to be a Windows 64 bit owner on Steam to join the beta. PLEASE NOTE! Once the testing phase is over and this update goes live on the main branch, the new extra levels will be removed from the list again, and will reappear monthly after that (exact dates to be announced as the time approaches). If you would like to join the beta, the code is givemeextraextra. If you dont know how to join a beta and would like to, follow the instructions below: [quote][olist]
Thanks for the people who have helped us identify a crash with the recent short optional beta. This has now been fixed and we're ready to move this patch to the main branch just in time for Christmas. It is now possible to save your freeplay games that include AI colonies! This should make them more viable for long-term games instead of short skirmishes. Freeplay AI should still be considered to be in its early days and there are a multitude of extra things we'd like to do for it (making it cleverer being the main one) but it's likely this is the last feature update for freeplay until after the 4th tier campaign levels (fire ants) are released.
Weve made big strides towards getting the freeplay AI save-able, and were at the point where we could do with some extra feedback before we declare it good to go. This opt-in beta build adds saving to freeplay games with AI colonies, which should make them much more viable in a long game. If you would like to participate, the beta code is christmasants. You will need to be a 64 bit Windows user to join. If youre unfamiliar with how to activate a Steam beta and would like to, follow the steps below: [quote] [olist]
Did you think you'd seen the last of the Hungry Spider this year? He's back for Christmas, and his concerns are a little more wholesome this time. He's trying to protect his carefully-wrapped gifts for his spiderlings - but others are regarding his haul with envious eyes. [previewyoutube=_IPkapEX60c;full][/previewyoutube] Festive Spider is controlled similarly to the Hungry Spider level - except this time, you'll need to use a tower defence system to keep the gift-coveting hordes of enemies away! BE WARNED: like its predecessor, Festive Spider is a brutally difficult level and we expect very few will be able to complete it successfully. You'll need multiple runs to get a feel for the level, so set some time aside if you intend to complete it. You'll need to be selective with what spider weapons you use, and how you upgrade them. A small tip for those starting out - those ants taking your gifts are awfully quick. Starting out with Crippling Venom to reliably slow them down will make them much easier to keep in range.
Welcome to our November 2020 newsletter! The past few months have seen quite a few things happen, both for Empires of the Undergrowth and for us, Slug Disco, as a company. Very importantly, we are taking our first steps into expanding a little, and weve brought Dan on board as our Marketing Content Creator. Well have a little from Dan later on as he introduces himself to you all.
The modular formicariums from Steam user roobyRoss
Hey everyone! Along side the Steam Autumn Sale the Steam Award Nominations are back! We are putting our hat in the [strike]undergrowth[/strike] ring for the Labor of Love award for Empires of the Undergrowth and we would love it if you could vote for the game (and maybe pester your friends to do so too!) We've been working on Empires of the Undergrowth for almost 3 years now and it truly is a labor of love. Along side the updates and the extra levels we've loved seeing our community grow. Whether it's the lovely folks over on our Discord or the players interacting with us on Twitter we couldn't be more thankful :) So no matter the outcome of the awards the team wants to say a massive thank you to you all and we can't wait to continue the journey. Oh and if you missed it - our latest extra level "Tug of War" is now live! [previewyoutube=AjpGA9iLgHE;full][/previewyoutube]
Not ones to miss a trend, we've made our own auto-battler game mode a good 18 months after it was properly in vogue in the form of Tug of War. [previewyoutube=AjpGA9iLgHE;full][/previewyoutube] In Tug of War, almost all of the macro decision making is taken care of for you - there's no food gathering or egg placement to concern yourself with. Instead, you'll be granted a regular income of food and eggs will be placed automatically. The meat of this game mode is in the choice of army composition - and you have lots of options available to you. You'll get some bonus income if your ants are past the mid-way point of the overworld. Kill the enemy queen to win! Thanks to everyone who's played this game mode in its various beta forms over the past few months - your feedback has informed it to the point where it is now!
Thanks for everyone who's tested our short optional beta over the weekend. We're confident that it's good for everyone now, so version 0.22103 is available for everyone from this point. There is one known issue detailed below the patch notes that didn't quite make it into this build on time - expect a fix for that next time round. We are still looking for more information about a known bug where a leafcutter gets stuck on a plant with an exclamation mark appearing above its head. If this happens to you we would appreciate anything you can tell us or show us (screenshots or videos) about how it happened and if the leafcutter was affected by a status effect at the time (for example confuse caused by a devils coach horse).
An update to the currently running short optional beta has been released. This will only affect you if you've opted into the beta - if you haven't and would like to, follow the instructions near the top of this link: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/463530/view/2905346555607593463 Please note that this is a short beta and we are likely to set it to the main branch in short order anyway.
We're running a very short optional beta for this one. It's mainly a bug fixing patch, but the fixes potentially have some far reaching implications and we'd like to be sure we haven't missed anything huge. We'd appreciate any feedback on issues you experience in this beta - if you're on Windows 64 bit and would like to participate in this short beta, read on. We are looking for more information about a known bug where a leafcutter gets stuck on a plant with an exclamation mark appearing above its head. If this happens to you we would appreciate anything you can tell us or show us (screenshots or videos) about how it happened and if the leafcutter was affected by a status effect at the time (for example confuse caused by a devils coach horse). Additionally we would appreciate it if you could let us know if anything unusual happens with creatures using their abilities. Any freezing, stuck in animations or changes to how it worked before would help. We made a change to something fairly fundamental to do with abilities which is why we are asking for information around them. The beta code is summertimeants - the same as it has been recently. If youre unfamiliar with how to activate a Steam beta, heres how to do it: [olist]
This update has been bubbling in the cauldron for quite some time, and we think it's finally tender enough for everyone to sink their teeth into. Thank you so much to everyone who has been helping us test this patch for the past couple of months - we've been able to resolve issues much faster than we would have done just by ourselves! We had hope to have full saving for AI colonies ready at this point but that hasn't been possible; that feature is still in the works and will hopefully appear soon. Other than that, we're good to go.
Mac & Linux are now included in the beta; we're very close to full release of this content for everyone.
This is hopefully the last release in this current beta before we move it to the main branch. Enjoy the new extra level, Excavators, that features spooky crickets lurking in the dark, grouping up to attack you! Were fairly sure thats the first time anyone has ever called crickets spooky, but yknow, tis the season. This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If youre not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link. Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.
It's a bit overdue but due to popular demand we've set up an official Slug Disco Discord - and of course its main section is for Empires of the Undergrowth.
If you'd like to talk with friendly, nature loving gamers about Empires of the Undergrowth (or the other two games in Slug Disco's portfolio - Ecosystem and Beetle Uprising) then this is the Discord for you.
CLICK HERE for your Discord invite!
Thanks to everyone who has reported issues, this has allowed us to get to the bottom of them quickly! Some issues remain however the worst ones have been solved.
Weve updated the currently-running optional beta including a new freeplay map! - this will only affect you if you're participating in said currently-running optional beta, detailed in this post. New Features
Some crash fixes for the optional beta today. This brings the beta version up to 0.22034. This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If youre not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link. Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.
The latest changes to the optional beta have been released. This one includes an extensive overhaul of the freeplay setup menu as well as some extra features in freeplay, like randomised caverns below ground. This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If youre not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link. Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.
The last couple of months have been focused on some complicated systems for the fire ants as well as some large changes to freeplay, which are currently in an optional beta for Steam Windows users (details below). Whilst complex from a game design point of view, the extensions to the movement systems needed for the fire ants is getting there. We're close to having the fire ant bridge building system the way we like it!
Uber vs Uber in this colourful shot from Steam user Kist7ck
Whilst Liam and Matt are dealing with the complexities of fire ant systems, John has been adding some much-requested features to freeplay, most notable amongst them being AI colonies to battle against or with! Although they're in an early form right now, they will be improved on over time. Let's start this newsletter properly with details on the freeplay colonies.
A small update to the currently-running optional beta has been released.
A small update to the currently-running optional beta has been released. No new features in this one, just some fixes for common issues. This brings the version number to 0.22031.
Weve updated the currently-running optional beta. As well as fixes and changes to the freeplay AI, this one also includes some rather extensive balance changes that will affect the campaign levels as well. Were particularly looking forward to feedback on these. This will currently only affect you if you're participating in the optional beta. If youre not participating in the beta and would like to, please see the details in this link. Note that the beta is only available to Windows Steam owners.
Weve updated the currently-running optional beta - this will only affect you if you're participating in said currently-running optional beta, detailed in this post.
An update to the currently running beta has been released - this will only affect you if you're participating in the currently-running optional beta, detailed in this post. Here are the notes for this beta release:
An optional beta is available to all Steam owners of the game running a 64 bit Windows system. The idea with these occasional builds is to give people access to new things that need wider testing, with the understanding that there are likely to be crashes and balance issues. We would appreciate feedback if you can provide it - post on our Steam forums, or our official forums. The beta code is summertimeants. If youre unfamiliar with how to activate a Steam beta, heres how to do it: [olist]
It's a regular query, but we imagine not many of you here on Steam know the answer. We are often asked how big our team size is, and that's a very valid question - it affects many things about a game's development cycle. In our case, the answer is three - three developers on a very ambitious project that is laden with pitfalls. Despite the extra difficulties in being very small, really neat things can come from tiny teams - we'd like to think that Empires of the Undergrowth, for all its small-team shortcomings (our big updates take a long time, but you're all super understanding!) is a quality game worthy of your time investment. There are many other indie devs that operate solo or in tiny teams, and some of the best works of this generation of gaming have come from that. The Yogscast agree with us. We've been selected to be a part of their Tiny Teams games festival, which is running from 8PM BST tonight (9th August) until the 15th. It'll be highlighting and celebrating the very small teams (a core team of 1-3) who produce amazing things with limited resources. As well as this Steam event, the Yogscast will be running tie-in Twitch streams to go along with the festival. Empires of the Undergrowth will feature. Join the Yogscast stream at https://www.twitch.tv/yogscast. We'll see you in Twitch chat! Also for you guys who don't visit the forum very often - here's a very early work-in-progress of fire ants building bridges with their own bodies. [previewyoutube=-3-R2l0Q_vk;full][/previewyoutube]
Did you think your colony was the only one the scientists have been giving a hard time? How would things look from the perspective of the counterpart Formica ereptor colony - the one that has been providing feeder ants for the primary colony to fight against in its challenges? [previewyoutube=8g4_siq7UwA;full][/previewyoutube] It's time for some payback! In The Other Foot, you take command of the counterpart colony, controlling different units such as army ants, trap jaws and slave makers. To start off with, you'll need to provide workers for the scientist's diabolical experiments, working through challenges 1 and 2 before finally reaching the ultimate goal - the defeat of the primary colony in challenge 3. Considering the context of this level, we do not recommend you play it until you've completed formicarium challenge 3. Change history - because this time, the shoe is on The Other Foot. Available now in the Extra Levels menu!
During the last few weeks we've been able to really crack on with the fire ant update. After the long and arduous process that was re-designing the game's movement code from the ground up, we're really glad to be concentrated nearly solely on our Solenopsis invicta ants and all the accompanying flora and fauna that will bring them to life. As is always the case when we add a new formicarium tier to the game, there are several new systems that have to be designed and those are also in the works.
Taking down an uber Spiny Devil from Steam user BrickyGraph631
It's important to note that although this newsletter will concentrate mainly on the fire ant update, as a matter of policy we do not do estimates for the timings of our updates. That's because historically we've been pretty terrible at even guessing these, and given the small size of our team it's better for us to be 100% sure we can hit a deadline before we announce it. At the moment the best we can say is it's a while off yet, but as soon as we have a date we'll be very loud about broadcasting it!
A new extra level is available now for Empires of the Undergrowth - Extremis. The aim is to survive all the waves - but you won't do it first time. After you die, you are given a number of points (based on how far you got) to unlock new units for your army the next time you play! You might need to reinforce your colony with some wood ant ranged units, or save up for the mighty tanks of the leafcutters! [previewyoutube=bty83tsLaQ0;full][/previewyoutube] To find the new level, choose "Other Modes" from the main menu, then "Extra Levels". Please note that your game client will not need to update to unlock Extremis - it will be present in version 0.2131.
Some fairly significant balance changes for the game in todays patch, as well as important updates to localisation and a bunch of fixes and minor changes, all detailed below! Thanks to Raptorr575 for the screenshot used in the artwork for this post!
Welcome to our March / April 2020 newsletter! First of all, I'll address the corona-elephant in the room and hope that you and your families are staying safe during the lockdown. Let's all remember to be kind to everyone, especially to ourselves, during this pandemic. Let's hope things return to normal in a safe and steady manner. Play some video games, read a book, keep in touch with your loved ones, stay indoors when you can. Now, on to slightly more cheerful matters - including a new game that is joining Ecosystem as a Slug Disco publishing project - Beetle Uprising!
Uber wolf spider from Steam user fetisov.a
For patch 0.213 weve addressed some issues that have come up in the past few weeks - in particular one which has prevented new content (the 4 jungle uber creatures) from appearing. Freeplay map Towhead has seen a fair few changes - increased landmark numbers and some new paths. Also a bunch of quality-of-life changes in this one.
Towhead has seen several changes this time round
There's a new Empires of the Undergrowth extra level available now! In Baby Sitting, you have an AI-controlled sister colony. They're very plucky, but not that bright. You'll have to make sure they don't bite off more than they can chew and keep them out of trouble! Both queens must survive to win the level. To find the new level, choose "Other Modes" from the main menu, then "Extra Levels". Good luck! [previewyoutube=1b9Xx4onP5A;full][/previewyoutube] Note: your game client will not need to update for this level to be unlocked.
For many months we have been working hard on improving movement in Empires of the Undergrowth, and this patch represents successes in this area but also a bunch of content and quality-of-life changes that we hope you will be pleased with. Thanks so much for those of you who have helped out during the beta phase for this update; were very glad to be able to release it for everyone! [previewyoutube=ErWhxEVW3ss;full][/previewyoutube]
Last bits of balance and fixes! Just a very short test to make sure nothing weve added or fixed causes any major issues - and then this should be the last one before we set it on the main branch. Hang tight just a little longer if youve been waiting for the beta to finish! This beta now includes Mac, Linux and Win32 builds if anyone would like to test for them! For those familiar with how to activate a beta password the word is christmasants. For more detailed instructions see this post on the forum. Thanks to ant27rex for the screenshot used in the header and cover of this post!
We're entering the final stages of beta testing for the 0.21 update now - and for the first time in the game this update introduces achievements! The first batch (formicarium tier 1) are present here - more will follow suit later down the line. Weve also done some fairly extensive balancing. This is an optional beta - if youd like to join the beta whilst its still running, follow the instructions in the box near the top of this previous post. If you're already on the beta branch you won't need to do this; the game should update by itself. Thanks so much to everyone who has helped us test this large update; were nearly there now! NOTE: The beta will only run on Windows. Once we've finished the beta period Mac and Linux will get the full finished update! Thanks to whoamijr for the screenshot used for the header and cover of this post!
Some help for leafcutters in freeplay with regenerating leaves now being a thing (in freeplay only - campaign level leaves do not grow back). This is an optional beta - if youd like to join the beta whilst its still running, follow the instructions in the box near the top of this previous post. If you're already on the beta branch you won't need to do this; the game should update by itself. NOTE: The beta will only run on Windows. Once we've finished the beta period Mac and Linux will get the full finished update!
A bug fixing update for the optional beta, dealing mainly with the fallout from reintroducing the story campaign back into it. Were homing in on having this update ready for the main branch but if youd like to join the beta whilst its still running, follow the instructions in the box near the top of this previous post!
Fixes & Optimisations
Welcome to 2020! We've been running an optional beta on Steam since late December which mainly introduces a reworked freeplay mode, and more recently adds the challenge mode for the third tier formicarium levels. Since that time we've been working through the veritable mountain of issues and other feedback with it, and we're now in the home stretch for bringing this out of beta and to the main branch for everyone to play. There's still time to join the beta if you haven't already - see the instructions near the top of this link if you'd like to join in.
Leafcutters on the march from Limey21
We'll start this newsletter by talking about the changes to freeplay mode, then have a look at the mechanics of phorid flies in the campaign challenge mode. We'll also talk about the first of the new extra missions to come along with the update - Aggrandise. Lastly, we'll go over what has taken us many months to get to this point - the laborious changes to the movement and path finding code.
Freeplay Mode Changes
Leafcutters in Freeplay
The update to freeplay will include leafcutters as their own independent colony type. When you play as leafcutters many of the landmarks that appear on the surface will be patches of leaves, since the sole source of food for them is their fungus gardens fuelled by leaf cuttings. This puts them at somewhat of a disadvantage at the start of a freeplay run, since they cannot attain food from underground and must quickly venture to the surface to collect foliage. To help with this, we have extended the exclusion zone around active nest entrances which should help leafcutter colonies get a foothold. Later in the run, the majors should more than make up for the humble beginnings!
Leafcutters doing their thing in Towhead
New Freeplay Map - Embankment
To thematically celebrate bringing leafcutters to freeplay, we are also introducing a new rainforest-themed map! Embankment is set in the Ecuadorian jungle, like the third tier story missions, along the banks of a trickling forest stream which splits the map in two lengthways. You can of course play with any of the other species on this level, but I personally find it particularly satisfying to make a freeplay setup that only spawns wood and rainforest creatures, disable everything but the rainforest enemies, and immerse myself in jungle ambience.
Click the thumbnails to see the full Embankment screenshots
Scaled Enemies
A big change to the way freeplay works is that now as difficulty increases, you will get enemies that are scaled up in both size and strength, rather than just more enemies inhabiting the world. In this way we can increase the challenge without having a lot of creatures running around reducing performance. By mousing over the "menu" icon in the top right of the screen, you can see the current difficulty setting and will notice enemies getting quite significantly larger as it goes up.
Some big boys here from Ainz Ooal Gown - note he was playing a Creative game here (another new freeplay option), so their size is unlikely to be reached in a normal game!
Rebalanced Uber Creatures
Up until this point uber creatures have always simultaneously been the most interesting and frustrating thing about a freeplay run. They represent an immediate existential threat to your colony and only the foolhardy would underestimate their presence after it is announced. However, even for well-run colonies, an uber creature currently spells almost certain death unless you are very advanced into the game. Furthermore some colonies like Formica fusca can do very little against them. Whilst we certainly want players to feel that squirm of panic when ubers are around, we don't want them to spell a definite end to proceedings.
In the current way of doing things, ubers spawn and immediately go about deciding if they're going to attack the player or just mill around for a while. With the new update, there will be a grace period of eight minutes during which the uber will definitely not attack the nest - this gives players ample time to get home if they feel they need to or start to swarm the uber before it becomes invasive. Furthermore, they will no longer ignore the "Nest invasions" setting in freeplay so if you've turned invasions off, they will never threaten your queen.
Pro tip - holding down an appropriate creature's spawn button for 10 seconds in the Battle Arena will spawn its uber version!
On top of this, each uber in the game has been tweaked and changed to give it specific strengths and weaknesses. They've all had health and strength reduced somewhat - they are all still very strong creatures that need measured resistance, but they should feel much fairer now. This isn't a blanket change to all ubers and each one has been tweaked individually, in both stats and abilities - we will detail these in the patch notes when the time comes. A lot of uber effects are based on AOE (area of effect) and a game-wide change to the way AOE works will affect just about every uber creature (there is now pronounced falloff of AOE damage from the epicentre of an attack to its edge - this incidentally also affects wood ant mortars).
Victory Conditions
When you set up your freeplay game, in the advanced options there will be a section that allows you to choose from several different ways to officially "win" your freeplay game, and to set a threshold for that goal. There are several of these, detailed below:
We're not far from concluding the beta testing for this upcoming large update - withj this patch we are re-activating the campaign mode with the entirely new movement code. If any of you in the optional beta feel like starting a new campaign run, now is the time, and report back any issues to us! It's not too late to join in the optional beta if you would like: [quote]To access the beta, follow the below steps: [olist]
Some freeplay balance, some monthly level fixes and improvements, some optimisations, some other fixes a bit of everything! If you're not participating in the optional beta and would like to, follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate. You'll need to be running the game on Windows and through Steam. https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254
Thanks to plenty of reports from everyone kind enough to help us test, we've identified a very common crash in the most recent beta test (V0.2112). It was to do with creatures spawning underground and therefore affected just about every level, eventually. Due to lots of people very kindly taking the time to send in their crash reports to us it took us practically no time to identify the issue - this is a hotfix for the currently running beta to fix this issue only.
Patch Notes
This beta patch includes several fixes, some new freeplay features and optimisations! This is an update for the currently running optional beta. If you're not participating in the optional beta and would like to, follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate. You'll need to be running the game on Windows and through Steam. https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254 Full patch notes for beta update 0.2112 are detailed below:
We've released a bug-fixing (yes, we've heard the joke before!) update for the currently running beta. All of the most recent changes are listed below. If you're not participating in the optional beta and would like to, it is still running and as long as you own the game on Steam and use Windows, you can participate. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254]Follow the instructions in the original beta post for details of how to participate.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/463530/announcements/detail/1705107447279697254
Changes / Bug Fixes
Thanks to everyone who has taken part in the beta test that has been running since Christmas eve! We have an update to that beta, available now, that introduces a new extra level (Baby Sitting) and a new freeplay map (Embankment) set in the rainforest environment, as well as a lot of bug fixes from the extensive feedback we've received. We're also extending the Christmas Hungry Spider event until the end of January to allow more people to play it - look for the gift on the main menu! If you haven't participated in the beta yet and would like to join in, it is still open to all Windows owners on Steam. Follow the instructions in the previous post about the beta.
Merry Christmas all! We've got an optional beta build for testing the freeplay leafcutters & reworked freeplay setup ready for those that would like to help us test. We also have a very festive special level for you to try! WARNING: This is a beta build and the new movement code still needs to be perfected. Formicarium levels have been disabled until we have dealt with specific issues in these levels. If you wish to play these levels, disable the beta in steam which will opt you back out. It is available to all Steam Windows players. The beta code is christmasants. The main features for you to test in this beta build are:
And so, winter came. And with it, the season of darkness and cold but also the season of goodwill and cheer. A little bit of a shorter newsletter this month, as we are still (I know, I know) working through the last of the movement code changes. Keep an eye open for the beta announcement - before putting it onto the main branch, we will run an optional beta for all Steam Windows players to help us pin down the last of the issues.
Night-time jungle from returning contributor MorPacke
There are a couple of new things to show, however - the extended time it's taken to get the rewrite done has meant that John has had the time to get ahead on some other systems whilst Liam and Matt are busy with that. We're ready to show off the creature that will feature in challenge mode for levels 3.1 The Harvest and 3.2 Front Line, so let's get right to that!
Phorid Flies
The mortal enemy of many ant species, the tiny phorid fly may look as unassuming but it harbours a deadly secret. It can quickly lay its eggs on the bodies of vulnerable ants. The eggs will hatch into maggots that burrow into the body of the ant, eating its innards and inevitably killing it.
Innocuous-looking and tiny, but deadly - the phorid fly
Leafcutter ants are not entirely defenseless against such a gruesome fate, however. The tiny minims - which under normal circumstances rarely if ever leave the nest - can hitch a ride on the back of their much larger nest-mates, fending off the attacking phorids and sparing their sisters from being eaten from the inside out.
In Empires of the Undergrowth, phorid flies will join the mole crickets and tiger beetle larvae in our menagerie of critters for people who like an extra twist on their levels, or who just want to collect some extra royal jelly! The exact mechanics of the minims riding on the backs of the bigger ants are yet to be fully implemented but we can't wait to show you once they are.
The current plan is to get the challenge modes into the game along with the upcoming freeplay update. As always, until we're entirely sure we don't want to speculate on when we'll be ready - we will announce a firm date when we can be certain of meeting it.
Achievements Unlocked!
Another system that we've been itching to get into the game is achievements, as mentioned a couple of newsletters ago. John did a successful test of these working with Steam on one of his live streams - see the below video of the wonderful moment he managed this (around the 1: 43: 15 mark)! Along with the upcoming update the first batch of achievements will be added to Steam, with more coming later.
[previewyoutube=I0T4rm0bvDo;full][/previewyoutube]
This means the first set of achievements is now locked in, but if you have suggestions for fun hidden achievements then please drop by the thread we've set up for this purpose on our official forums.
EGX Berlin
At the start of November, Liam travelled to Germany along with Tom (who is working on his sandbox evolution game Ecosystem, which we're publishing and you should play the demo of) to meet up with Matt and exhibit both Empires of the Undergrowth and Ecosystem to the attendees at EGX Berlin. We always love doing these events for a specific purpose - the true value of them lies in observing the reactions to someone entirely new to the experience. It gives a level of insight that is entirely different than curated feedback sent to us over the internet - the hands-on approach is just not achievable any other way.
Ecosystem and EotU, and some curious beetles at the end... hmmm
We'd like to thank everyone who stopped by our booths to play for a while, and we loved hearing (and seeing) what you felt about the way things are going! We don't go to many of these events, perhaps one a year - but we make the most of them whilst we're there.
Off the back of EGX Berlin we're also very grateful to Nicholas Montegriffo of PC Invasion for including Empires of the Undergrowth in his list of 5 indies to watch from the event! Go and give his article a read.
Just For Fun - Scale Difference
Just a little fun here that gives a bit of an insight into the way scaling works in Empires of the Undergrowth. Unreal Engine 4, which is the engine system we use, uses a convention of 1 engine unit = 1cm, which would be a bit fiddly for Empires of the Undergrowth given our subject matter of tiny creatures. So we scale creatures up an order of magnitude, for our own convenience. The main menu has very little in the way of tiny creatures in it, however, so that is made at the standard scale.
I wonder, then, what would happen if I put a normal creature into the main menu OH NOOOOOOOOOOO
And the scientist's hand from the third formicarium? Well, I've gone this far already, I've only myself to blame. Actually, it was suggested by someone on Facebook so you can blame them.
What have I done?!?
Screenshot Central
If you'd like to contribute to our monthly screenshot section then simply upload your screenshots to Steam (F12 by default) or mail them to mike@slugdisco.com. I'll look through them and choose some of the real lookers. You can enter the cinematic photo mode by pressing F9 - and if you do that whilst holding shift you'll have free movement of the camera, allowing you to get some really interesting angles. Give it a spin!
[url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1921809883]
An unfair end to freeplay from klagana6166 - we're working on balancing it!
Nice wide shot of the jungle from WraTTaFix
The scientist waits impatiently for ereptors to clash from Cthulaid42
The Hungry Spider level is now back for the spooky season! This devlishly difficult level sees you play as the aforementioned arachnid as he eats his way through a web-shaped map. Okay, enough alliteration. Unlike other levels, you control him directly with the mouse or buttons you'd usually use for moving the camera. There's a special apparition on the main menu to let you access the level - see the YouTube video for help in finding it. [previewyoutube=L3QtFadJryI;full][/previewyoutube] Be warned: this level is legendarily difficult and very, very few have succeeded! Those enemy spiders are a real killer. If you don't beat the level this time round, it'll also show up on full moons.
Autumn (or fall if you're that way inclined) has well and truly began to take a hold in our part of the world. The nights are drawing in, the temperature is dropping and there is some fun stuff being worked on for Empires of the Undergrowth. Or boring technical stuff, depending on your point of view. Either way, we shall detail it here for your perusal!
Nighttime crab hunting from Steam user Bald Hippo z
With there not being much in the way of visual newness at the moment (a large majority of the recent work has been on systems and algorithms rather than artwork) I asked each of our three developers to give me some background information about what they've been working on. John has been expanding current systems to handle the upcoming fire ants, Liam has been finishing off his overhaul of the movement code, and Matt has been working on a long-anticipated feature, the titan climbing system!
With the summer coming to a close we thought we'd publish another newsletter for you guys. This time we'll be talking about a few extra systems we've been working on (such as achievements) as well as talking about us as a company taking the intrepid steps into working with some other indie developers. So, we'll be introducing Tom and his game Ecosystem a bit further down!
A dramatic shot of leafcutters battling wood ants in freeplay from Steam user hugo27rex
All Steam users of Empires of the Undergrowth now have access to cloud saving! From now on, your games are backed up automatically to the cloud when you exit the game. This means that for people who log in on another system or those who come back to the game after changing their setup, the saved games they've made should always be ready for after launching the game from Steam. Cloud saving is enabled by default. The only issue we foresee is people who have different saved games on multiple systems - if Steam detects a discrepancy between the local files and the cloud ones it will ask you if you wish to push your local saves to the cloud or download from the cloud, overwriting the local. In these cases you can choose which to save, or disable cloud saving for EotU on machines you do not wish to be overwritten.
We are now deep into our open-engine surgery of the game which will streamline and reduce computational overheads allowing for bigger armies, faster frame rates and smarter enemies. We detailed this a fair bit last time. Whilst this is happening we've also been working on a new, hopefully regular feature that will be debuting along with the next large update - extra missions!
An ereptor colony takes on a wolf spider from appropriately-named Steam user wolf
Just a little interim news post in lieu of the full newsletter to let you guys know we're still working hard! We're currently in the midst of lots of deep, boring changes to the code that don't produce much in the way of visual excitement. Expect the newsletter in a few days!
A work-in-progress shot of a side mission
John has been streaming what will become a feature starting from the next big update - regular side missions! The idea here is to give you guys more regular content that doesn't have the huge scope of the main missions, whilst also giving you a way of building up formicarium resources without too much replaying. More info to come with the full newsletter, but check out the streams on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/VkOMXg5sT-w
Liam has been working on new path finding algorithms (remember what I said about deep boring stuff!) to speed things up a bit, and Matt has been combing through the code to find all the nooks and crannies where unneeded calculations are being done. This is all in service of allowing things like larger army sizes (those fire ant colonies have a lot of ants!) and smoother framemrates for everyone. It's an important step before we go charging headlong into the 4th tier, and as always we appreciate the infinitely patient bunch of lovely people that is our community.
https://youtu.be/NckJFg3WRoQ
To finish, just a reminder that if you'd like more regular updates then follow out social media! We'll be posting screenshots on Saturday, letting you know when we go live for some development streaming, and getting up to all sorts of ant-related things.
http://www.twitter.com/SlugDisco
http://www.facebook.com/SlugDisco
http://www.twitch.tv/SlugDisco
To start with, a small distraction from the main event - Steam have recently held a summer promotion whereby leaving reviews gains you points. The recent reviews have been pushed into "overwhelmingly positive" territory - and we recognise that's directly down to you guys. Thank you so much! Now, on to the actual content of the newsletter!
Leafcutters doing their thing in this widescreen shot from Steam user Himmuguegeli
We've recently had a meeting to discuss the direction for the rest of the game. We were almost entirely sure of what the next playable ants would be, and the meeting has cemented that decision. Many other things were also decided, and they will have an impact on both the long-term and short-term development of the game.
It's been just over a month since we unleashed our first major update for Empires of the Undergrowth - the Leafcutter Update - upon the world. We've worked through most of the glitches and balance issues now, and it's been a joy to see you guys have fun with the new additions to the game. Feedback has been almost entirely positive and we're so happy that you guys seem to be enjoying it!
Leafcutter trail from Steam user Jynn
This newsletter will cover some of the issues that have come back in the immediate fallout, go through what we've added since the update in a bit more detail, and discuss what's going to happen in the immediate future.
This is mostly a bug fix patch (should be the last before the freeplay update barring game breaking bugs) but also includes the final support for simplified Chinese and a couple of minor features. As always do let us know if you find any bugs and we will continue to squash them as they come in! Localisation
Since we launched the update two weeks ago we have received plenty of bug reports and fixed most of them. Additionally we have made a couple of balance changes. We also now have full interface localisation for German, and almost full for Simplified Chinese. Localisation changes
We're very pleased to announce that our first major update for Empires of the Undergrowth, the Leafcutter Update, is now available for Windows, Mac & Linux! Featuring an all-new rain forest environment with new critters of all sizes, two new levels which will see you face off against fully-fledged colonies, and a new Formicarium Challenge where the dastardly scientists have something special planned for you. The jungle floor stirs. Ants of all sizes creep out of their holes to harvest the nearby foliage, travelling far and wide to find the choicest leaves. The odds are stacked against these fledgling colonies - you may be tempted to discount creatures that forage for leaves but with huge crushing mandibles on their side, they are not to be underestimated. https://youtu.be/HoRqZa7BH9Q
Only a few days to go now ... get ahead a little by looking at this brief explanation of the leafcutter food mechanics. https://youtu.be/5j4xo7WiwC4
Please enjoy our updated trailer, featuring the leafcutter ants and rainforest environment!
We're very pleased to announce that our first major update for Empires of the Undergrowth, the Leafcutter Update, will be coming to the game on April 25th! Featuring an all-new rainforest environment with new critters of all sizes, two new levels which will see you face off against fully-fledged colonies, and a new Formicarium Challenge where the dastardly scientists have something special planned for you.
https://youtu.be/HoRqZa7BH9Q
The jungle floor stirs. Ants of all sizes creep out of their holes to harvest the nearby foliage, travelling far and wide to find the choicest leaves. The odds are stacked against these fledgling colonies - you may be tempted to discount creatures that forage for leaves but with huge crushing mandibles on their side they are not to be underestimated.
Although we have a policy of not announcing dates until were 100% sure, it is safe to say we are now very, very close to getting the leafcutter beta out to Kickstarter closed beta tier backers. Those of you who are on this tier, please keep an eye on your emails over the next week or so. The coming build for you guys will be feature-complete from a gameplay perspective, but will be missing some things like sound effects (the new creatures currently all sound like the Devils Coach Horse adult). Those will be added in throughout the beta as we continue development.
Leafcutters gather leaves in level 3.2 Front Line
As a quick explanation for everyone else the closed beta group consists of people who supported us at a certain tier during our Kickstarter campaign in 2016. The beta typically lasts a few weeks, where we take feedback on things like balance and glitches. It really helps us polish things to be great for everyone and gives a bigger sample size than just the four of us on the team, and it means when we get the update out to everyone itll feel really good to play right from the off. Of course, things like balance and glitch fixes dont end when the beta does (the size of the beta group doesnt come close to all users!) so we will still be very grateful for your feedback as things continue.
A short time into the beta, we should have a fairly good idea of how long itll take us to deal with the resultant feedback and its at that point that well decide on a release date. Exciting times!
Leafcutter-shaped Formica ereptor ants in the new formicarium
Since were so close to having things ready, there hasnt been much in the way of new stuff to show over the past month (not because theres nothing left, but weve reached a limit on things we want to share without spoiling the upcoming content too much).
We're now much closer to our first major update, featuring leafcutters. As well as continuing development of the update to completion, we've been dealing with quite a lot of meta-requirement systems in the meantime, such as subtitles (which will be a long-overdue feature beginning with this update). Once we're at a point where we can get meaningful feedback from our closed testing group, we will release it to them and that will soon give us a good idea of how long it will take to correct any detected issues. As always, our policy is to not give vague guesses on release timing, only solid dates once we're certain of them - but we're feeling good about the current pace of things and the rate at which the remaining task list is being ticked off.
A cloud of venom surrounds this Formica rufa queen from alexraptor554
There's been plenty of good visual things finalised and ready to show off over the past month - some of which show off some leafcutter mechanics. So let's have a look at some of the fun things that await when you introduce Atta cephalotes to your Formica ereptor colony!
Our first newsletter of 2019! A bright, shiny, spanking new year and itll be a big one for ants. After the holiday break the guys are back to working on the 3rd tier Formicairum levels. Weve also released a couple of glitch-fixing patches in the meantime to deal with some widespread issues. Firstly, lets get to whats ready to show from 3.1 and 3.2.
A Formica ereptor queen from MorPacke
In this patch we have hunted down a bug that is crashing the game on Queen of the Hill. We thought we had it solved in the last patch but people were still reporting it. Thanks to our great community we have finally found it and interestingly it was to do with the ramp and ants falling through them when the tide rises. We have now changed how these work.
We've pushed a hotfix update to Empires of the Undergrowth to fix 2 major glitches.
With the exception of a few necessary balance changes and fixes for the more recent playable builds, the teams sole focus for the past month has been the leafcutter update. Over the past few weeks weve been showing off some of the progress on the creatures of Ecuadorian jungle where these levels are based. Our artist Matt has been producing amazing work to bring this sublimely rich ecosystem to life within Empires of the Undergrowth. John and Liam have been working on bringing the creatures into the game and figuring out how they interact with our leafcutters. This newsletter will therefore focus mainly on the amazing biodiversity of the rainforest setting. Without further ado, lets get to having a look at some of these fantastic beasties!
The rainforest at night
Rove Beetles
Rove beetles are a diverse group of insects that can be found the world over - in fact, the European devils coach horse thats already in the game is a kind of rove beetle. The main distinguishing feature for these beetles is the short elytra (wing coverings) that leave most of their backs exposed. Many, many species of rove beetle exist, and some of them are rainforest dwellers. Theyll come into conflict with our leafcutter ants.
Rove beetle larvae
Although leafcutters do not eat other creatures, they are fully aware that other creatures will happily eat them - and so theyll defend themselves with the same deadly zeal that any self-respecting ant with giant slicing jaws would.
Two varieties of rove beetle adult
Spiny Devil Bush Cricket
The fearsome spiny devil bush cricket (Panacanthus varius) faces off against a leafcutter colony. Covered in defensive spines, this monster may well be guarding some of the choicest leaves for the harvest - which means it must be confronted. Bush crickets are also sometimes known as katydids.
https://youtu.be/H6ODtEzI4gs
In-game, the spiny devil's spines will mean that any creature that does damage to it will suffer some damage in return, whether or not it is actually being attacked by the cricket. It also has an area of effect bleed attack which will continue damaging the target for a time after.
The spiny devil is not idly named!
Praying Mantis
The mantids are an iconic group of insects - known for their "praying" folded forelegs and upright posture, as well as their covert hunting techniques. This particular species is a leaf-mimic praying mantis (Pseudoxyops perpulchra), specifically adapted to hide in the foliage with near-perfect leaf camouflage. In its final instar it's a voracious hunter of insects, using its natural stealth to get close to its quarry.
[url=https://i.imgur.com/fMCYXns.jpg]
The leaf-mimic mantis will have a unique stealth ability reflecting its natural prowess at ambush attacks. It will not appear on the minimap - nor will its health bar be visible - until it decides to engage the player. The range at which ants can notice and attack it is also much lower than it is for more conspicuous creatures.
Army Ants
The relentless march of the army ants is legendary. These ants form large colonies, living a nomadic lifestyle. They scour the rainforest, sending out waves of workers to demolish anything in their path to feed their expanding empire. Like many species of ant, they have a distinct caste system. In these pictures we see two separate castes of Eciton burchellii - small and medium-sized workers.
Featured below is the soldier caste - analogous to the large majors that the leafcutter colonies produce. These brutes protect the flanks of the armys trails from attack. Their large mandibles are more than capable of delivering a killing blow to any number of arthropods and a painful nip to things larger. Unless prepared for battle, it would be advisable for the denizens of the rainforest undergrowth to avoid the trails of the army ants lest they incur the wrath of their imposing protectors.
In Empires of the Undergrowth, the leafcutter colony will encounter army ants overlapping its territory. They represent a strong existential threat - unlike our leafcutters army ants readily eat meat, and the brood of a fledgling leafcutter colony would be a nutritious prize.
One Year On
As of 1st December 2018, its been one year since we released the early access version of Empires of the Undergrowth to you all. Weve had incredible support, love and kindness from all of you and that makes each day we work on the project a joy. Such an ambitious project is not without its difficulties and pitfalls, particularly for such a small team, but with you guys behind us we feel we can achieve everything weve set out to do.
The last year has seen some big changes to not just the game, but the lives of those of us on the team. All three of the developers have been able to give up their day jobs to work exclusively on the game. Our entire lives have been restructured around it and thats a very exciting thing.
As far as the game itself goes, were not too far from a huge update in the form of the leafcutter levels. We know youre all desperate to sink your jaws into them, and we cant wait to get them out to you. There are still some more surprises in store for this update, and well be teasing a few more of them as we complete the work. Keep an eye on our social media - particularly Facebook and Twitter - for those.
So, heres to the future! And heres to you all, you lovely bunch. Continue being awesome.
YouTuber Highlight - Flexible Games
Flexible Games has been playing Empires of the Undergrowth diligently for several weeks now. Whats made his playthrough fun to watch for us as developers is that hes gone into the game blind, with very little knowledge of whats in store. Genuine reactions like this are often hard to come by, and its been an experience watching him get to grips with the systems. Heres part 1 of the extensive series - hes now completed the current campaign levels and moved on to Freeplay.
https://youtu.be/gFZMfsYr9oA
Screenshot Central
Once again its time to have a look through the Steam screenshot gallery for our favourite submissions of the past few weeks. As always, thats the easiest way to get them to us (F12 by default from Steam) - but if you want you can email them directly to mike@slugdisco.com.
Testing the limits in Battle Arena in this snap from xw_elite06_wx
A funnel web spider claims a victim from z0mbiesrock
A simple, pleasing shot of a wood ant queen from M O T H
We've corrected some issues and resolved a final few things on our to-do list for Early Access V0.135. With any luck, this is likely to be our final patch before the upcoming major update (bar anything game-breaking). If you spot errors, please continue to report them in the forums, but as mentioned we're now cracking on full-steam ahead with the leafcutters!
Winter is... approaching. Since the last newsletter weve released what weve called the interim update, version 0.13 - interim meaning between Freeplay and the upcoming major update. That update introduced the planned challenge modes to the 2nd tier Formicarium levels, added a new level to Freeplay, addressed several issues, and included a spooky spider-based extra that you guys seemed to have a lot of fun with. In the meantime, the guys have also been working solidly on the next set of levels for the game, which of course will feature leafcutter ants. Lets dive in and see how weve been doing!
Happy Halloween! That and a few more changes to 0.13 make it the perfect time to try out the Hungry Spider level (click the cobweb on the main menu - before it disappears!). We've also made a few other changes. Notes below!
We've made some changes to the recent 0.13 build and released the patch for our Mac and Linux-running friends. Hurrah! If you experience any issues with the build, please pop by our Steam forum and we'll have a look.
V0.131
Its time for an update! Were calling V0.13 the Interim Update - it adds a several things that were missing from the game and prepares the path for the major update to come. Without further ado, here are the patch notes! The game should update automatically through Steam. Please note, right now this is Windows only. Mac and Linux users - weve still got a few bugs (ha, ha) to work through for these builds. Weve made significant progress on that but just ran out of time tonight and didnt want to delay for everyone. Were confident we can get stable builds out for you lovely people in short order, so keep your eyes on the news page! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHjECOl1TJU
Greetings all! We hope you've enjoyed your summer. Time moves on relentlessly, and as we chug the first pumpkin spice latte of autumn we've made significant strides in the progress of the leafcutter levels as well as plenty of other exciting things. We've recorded with our voice artists Mary Jo, Eric and Callum (Scientist 1, Scientist 2 and Narrator respectively) for the next levels and we're delighted with their work. Before we conclude our work on 3.1, 3.2 and Formicarium Challenge 3, there are some missing bits and pieces in the existing game that need finalising in preparation. Our current plan is to do an interim update between now and the leafcutter update, and that's going to be fairly soon. Let's get on to what that'll include!
A lovely green Formica ereptor colony from jasong
Greetings everyone! This has been another one of those months where the general timings and various circumstances have meant we've not managed to get the newsletters done to the regular schedule - so enjoy this newsletter for both June and July! The biggest news since the last newsletter is obviously the release of Freeplay mode on the main branch. It's been available for everyone for several weeks beforehand in beta form, so those of you who were most keen are likely to have been fairly familiar with it when it finally landed for everyone on 2nd July. We've also got some great progress to show you with our next Formicarium update - Leaf Cutters ants!
There have been many changes since the last beta update. This will hopefully be the final version before general Freeplay release. Many of the changes have focused around having a better game experience, making the end game more difficult and improving performance. Along with this many bug fixes have been added.
With this update to the Freeplay beta comes saving! Due to the complexity of this there are likely to be bugs here and there and we would very much appreciate reports of them. As this will affect saves we strongly recommend you backup your saves before trying this update. We’re close to the end of the beta period for Freeplay and it will soon be made available for all players, but if you aren’t yet participating and would like to please follow the instructions here:
Good afternoon, morning and variations thereupon ladies and gentlemen. We're back to the monthly newsletters after the dual one last time - we're about to pick up pace on the news front! It's very near the end of the transitory phase now - all three developers are full-time on the project from now on, and we're finalising the plans for everything going forward. However, we do have to give a special mention to one of our team - John, our lead Freeplay developer, has been celebrating the arrival of his baby daughter. Congrats to him on the expansion of his colony!
We’ve just released our first feature-adding, bug-fixing and balance-altering update to the Freeplay beta build! We’re currently in the testing phase for Freeplay (sandbox) mode and it’s open to all owners of the game on Steam - if anyone would like to participate who currently isn’t doing so please see our most recent newsletter for details on how to join in (please note - the beta is Windows-only). Now, let’s get to the fun stuff.
Well met, one and all, for the March / April newsletter! As many of you know, a lot has happened since our last newsletter - the most important of which is the public release of the Freeplay beta. If you weren't aware of that and would like to participate, there are details on how to do so in the rather extensive section below this arbitrary introduction. In fact, let's end this arbitrary introduction and get straight to the best bit.
There are some pretty amazing Freeplay setups - like this one from Steam user Enablin
We have activated the beta for Freeplay and are opening it up to all owners on Steam! If you'd like to participate and are familiar with joining beta branches on Steam, here is your access code:
betatestants
If you're not, please follow the instructions in this post on our forums:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/463530/discussions/0/3211505894108961652/
That post also has a detailed changelog; there have been many fundamental changes to the game that this update introduces.
Note that the beta is Windows only. We're likely to release it for Mac and Linux a short while before the end of the beta period to ensure things are working properly.
As an added bonus, we're also adding in the Battle Arena at the same time! This mode allows you to test creature army compositions against each other to see how they work. Find it in the "Other Modes" main menu option along with Freeplay.
We're interested in hearing your feedback with regards to balance, glitches and crashes. Note that the beta version does not have saving, but the final release of this update will - so for now if you'd like to have a good long session, free up your afternoon!
Hi guys! We're approaching a point where we can get Freeplay mode out, without the saving functionality. After some internal discussion we feel our closed beta testing group isn't going to be big enough for feedback for this one, since it's a complete unknown and such a hugely randomised game mode that balancing it is going to be really tricky. So, we're going to open up a beta branch on Steam to owners who don't mind testing. There are some important caveats, please read:
Hi all - gosh, March already! Time flies when you're having fun - and for that reason it certainly flies when you're developing a game about ants. We've recently been assessing the way we tell you all about the future of the project, and we realize there's a deep need for us to communicate better - as we posted in a mini-update a couple of weeks ago. Although we have been developing Empires of the Undergrowth for several years, we only launched on Steam in December and therefore we're new to having a big community that we have responsibilities to. We want you guys to feel justifiably assured that things are progressing well (as they are) - and for this reason we're going to be doing our best to communicate here. We've been doing these newsletters for some time - but this is the first time we've worked out that we can actually post them properly formatted to Steam, rather than just a link to elsewhere. Always learning.
Screenshot credit: Garenator on Steam
We're certain that we don't want to rush - and that's always been the case. Our modus operandi has been quality first - ultimately, we're making our dream game here and we want it to be great just as much as you do. Given our limited resources (our team size is 3) we've made decisions - like not releasing small, incremental updates and instead focusing on the bigger picture with larger updates. That's because the whole process of an update is a drain of resources and time. In a larger team or for a game of lesser scope, this might be doable. We feel we're in the right place here.
With that clarified, due to many understandable requests, we've made what is often referred to by makers of early access products as a "road map".
Hi ant fans! We're increasingly hearing complaints that we're not being communicative enough. We do our best - but we're new to this, so we're always learning. This isn't going to be a full newsletter (that will likely come next week) but just a bit of a round-up of what we're up to currently.
We've heard a lot of people fearing that the project is abandoned or in trouble due to a lack of updates - far from it! In fact the game has been successful enough on Steam that all 3 of our developers have been able to quit their day jobs and will soon (but not yet) be working full time on the game! Given the small size of the team we prefer to release larger, more complete updates rather than lots of smaller ones. Every time we update development is slowed for the testing and compiling processes - so you can see why this is our preferred model.
All 3 of our developers will, from April, be working full-time on the project. Naturally the pace of work will speed up then, but please be aware that 2 of the 3 are still working their day jobs up until then. So please welcome John and Liam, the newest full-time Slug Disco employees!
Thanks to Exquisite Bolagnese for this screenshot!
We'd hoped to get Freeplay mode out to you in February, but that is unlikely now and it's looking more like March. These things happen all the time in game development (as I'm sure you're aware - even the really big developers have trouble pinning down release dates for features) and although it's frustrating we're not going to give you something we feel isn't fun and worth playing.
We are doing some new stuff for Freeplay - check out this poppy head model! This is one of several "landmarks" that can appear in a Freeplay map - the landmarks will take random forms on loading. The poppy heads will drop seeds for your ants, giving you a regular food supply - but free food won't go unnoticed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TB4sEA6j10
We've recently finalized our plans for the third formicarium tier - which will feature leaf cutter ants (Atta cephalotes). The mechanics they'll use to harvest leaves for food will be integrated closely with the different castes that exist in their society - which includes really huge Major ants, as well as Medium and Minor castes. We're excited to be adding some more complexity to the game mechanics in the levels going forward.
And finally, we're working on the challenge mode for 2.1 and 2.2. "Ant" and "lion" should rarely be uttered in the same sentence, let alone the same word!
Good morning, evening and variations thereupon everyone - we've compiled and posted our January newsletter for 2018! The newsletter focuses mainly on the upcoming Freeplay mode (which we hope to have out to you in its basic form in a few weeks).
You can see the full thing on our website. We go into quite fine detail of what is currently being worked on for Freeplay - a potentially endless game mode where you can build your colony at your own pace, save it, and come back to it as and when you want. Some other games call this sort of feature "sandbox" or similar.
http://slugdisco.com/january-2018-newsletter/
Note these are minor fixes added for a couple of issues that have come to light recently. Mac and Linux users do not yet have these hot fixes and so we recommend turning Arachnophobia mode off for these users. We will get fixes for those platforms up as soon as we can! Bug Fixes
For now this is available in windows. We will try and get the mac and linux builds up in the next couple of days! At the moment these are still mostly bug fixes, however there are a couple of balance changes and additions in there as well! We very much appreciate your feedback and do keep letting us know if any issues occur. Additions and Improvements
Please note we are still making the build for Mac and Linux. We will update this message once it is available. This is a very small patch that fixes a couple of the most major issues (and a typo). Bug Fixes
The Steam wizards have let us know we can release today after-all! Keep an eye out for us going live! And watch our social media channels for updates: https://www.facebook.com/slugdisco/ https://twitter.com/SlugDisco
TLDR: We cannot launch on Steam today however we are launching on itch.io RIGHT NOW and you can buy and download the early access version of the game from here RIGHT NOW: https://slugdisco.itch.io/empires-of-the-undergrowth This includes a Steam key that when it does release on Steam next week will allow you to download it from there! We've messed up a bit. As you'll no doubt have gathered by the multitude of YouTubers playing the game, Empires of the Undergrowth is ready to go into early access on Steam. Outside of some small intermittent issues, this has been the case for a few days now. We were hoping for a smooth release to Steam and were looking forward to sitting back a little and watching you all play, like proud parents watching their toddlers seeing the snow for the first time. Sadly it didn't work out quite as idyllically as that (what does?) this time around. And we're somewhat to blame. Steam has very rigorous standards for the curated set of games that live there. In our haste to prepare EotU for release to the platform, we've forgot to set up a few things in our Windows and Mac builds (with some noted irony given the headaches it's been causing us lately, the Linux build is the only one that passed!) and have therefore run afoul of some rules owing to the UE4 engine we use. Being entirely new to it, we hold our hands up and take the blame - it's our fault. Unfortunately the way that the review process works, we are unlikely to be able to launch on Steam until next week. So, the question is, what do we do now? The game is ready for early access as far as we're concerned and we'd love you all to play it as soon as you can. So - we're going to make the game available through itch.io! This will include a Steam key so when it does finally come out on Steam next week you will also be able to download it from there! We are really sorry about this, this is our first game on Steam and we will learn from this. In the meantime the game is now available on itch.io! https://slugdisco.itch.io/empires-of-the-undergrowth
Finally.
You've all been amazingly patient, understanding and supportive as we've worked through our list of tasks and solved our problems, but we are entirely delighted to announce that Empires of the Undergrowth will be entering early access on December 1st, 2017!
Early Access Trailer
Early access brings an entire overhaul of the game - the biggest of which is Formicarium Mode, where you build an ant colony in a lab and upgrade it by playing missions out in the wild as different species of ant! There are four entirely new missions, two special challenges for your Formicarium, and you can explore the bountiful yet dangerous outworld above your nest.
This means the game will be for sale on Steam, and those of you who already have a copy (by backing the game or through itch.io) will be able to download it through Steam on this date!
It's been a tough few weeks for our dev team. We've taken feedback from beta testers, worked through a huge number of game-breaking glitches, balanced, tweaked and tinkered. Obviously that won't stop - when early access is underway we'll still be listening to suggestions and responding to balance issues, whilst we begin work on the first new content for early access.
So you'll all be building your formicariums and battling the critters of the undergrowth in two weeks. In the meantime, enjoy the epic announcement trailer!
[ 5417 ]
[ 1294 ]
[ 4061 ]