In SimAnt, the player plays the role of an ant in a colony of black ants in the back yard of a suburban home. This ant can, in a limited way, control the other ants (by ordering a certain number to follow it, for instance). To change which ant is the yellow ant, the player simply double-clicks on another friendly ant. (A little known fact is that the spider available in the game can also be controlled by double-clicking it.) The ant colony must battle against enemy red ants. The ultimate goal is to spread throughout the garden, into the house, and finally to drive out the human owners. In this respect, SimAnt differed from other 'Sim' games, which largely had no "win" or "lose" situation.
In the Quick Game, the player establishes a black ant colony in a small patch of yard, shown in top-down perspective. The computer opponent establishes a competing red ant colony in the same patch. Underground ant colonies are depicted in a side view. The player has direct control of a single ant at a time, indicated by a yellow color, and may switch control to a different ant at any time. The player's yellow ant may influence the behavior of other black ants by leaving pheromone trails to destinations such as food and enemy ant colonies. The quick game is won or lost when either the red or black colony in said patch is defeated.
The player's yellow ant may pick up food and rocks, regurgitate food for friendly ants, and attack enemy ants, spiders, caterpillars, and antlions. Natural hazards include human footsteps, spiders, antlions, lawnmowers, and rain, which washes away pheromone trails and can flood the bottom of ant nests.
In the Full Game, the player begins with an ant colony in an overhead view, much like the Quick Game. The region of this overhead view is a single square of a map containing a yard and house, and the player wins by colonizing the entire map. The player spreads to other areas by producing young queens and drones to mate with each other. The full game is won or lost when all colonies in the yard are of one color.
The Experimental Game is similar to the Quick Game, except the player can also control red ants and has access to a set of experimental tools. These tools allow the player to place pheromone trails, maze walls, rocks, ants, and food.
The boxed game also comes with a thoroughly researched instruction manual, which not only covers game mechanics, but also contains a large amount of information regarding ants and ant societies.
Creatures
There are a variety of creatures in SimAnt such as spiders, antlions, caterpillars, pillbugs, birds, and even humans. All of these creatures are hazards to a player's ant colony, though the player can switch to playing a spider in order to destroy opposing ant colonies
The ants' caste system in the game is simple. Workers normally make up most of the colony and their jobs are to gather food, dig out the nest, and care for eggs, larvae, and the queen. They also help defend the nest. Soldiers are stronger than workers, and better at fighting other ants; they can do most of the same jobs as workers but need more food and can't care for eggs and larva. The queen ant only has to lay eggs and is the most important ant. New queens and males (drones) have wings and their only job is to mate and make new colonies.
Legacy
This game never achieved much popularity (except on a small-scale cult level, as in cult films), although it was re-released by Maxis as part of the SimClassics suite. However, it is considered by many of its players to have been one of the best of Will Wright's games.
Also, Will Wright's later game The Sims was heavily influenced by SimAnt. In SimAnt, the artificial intelligence of the ants was based on the objects in their environment. On a more complicated level, people in The Sims act much the same way.
See also
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