Ants are industrious, organised and hungry - as anyone who’s seen one of the multitude of documentaries following their exploits will tell you. They also show a huge variety of adaptations and bizarre traits - qualities that make them seemingly ideal for this form of strategy game.

Above ground, players need to send their ants on long missions, far from the nest to secure and defend lucrative resources. The mechanics are more accessible than your typical RTS; control of your ants is achieved by placing pheromone markers, and gives the colony a more realistic, natural feeling.

Hooded Horse is excited to share that Slug Disco’s ant-themed strategy game Empires of the Undergrowth is leaving Steam Early Access and will launch into 1.0 on June 7, 2024.

The big 1.0 update will include a range of new features, including:

• A new savannah environment with its own creatures and hazards.

• New ant species you can play in the campaign or custom games.

• The final arc of the single-player campaign, featuring three new documentary missions with full voice acting and new artwork, as well as a final climactic challenge.

• New Game Plus mode so the campaign can be played again with further upgrades and increased difficulty.

• And many more quality-of-life tweaks and improvements.

Playable missions are narrated from the perspective of a documentary film maker studying the ants, who offers intelligent insight into the goings-on of the colony and the undergrowth beyond. The primary game mode in early access is Formicarium, where you take ownership of a laboratory colony of unique DNA-harvesting ants as they work to assimilate the desirable traits of their foes. You can upgrade them by playing one-off missions, sometimes with your home colony and sometimes with other ant species.

Empires of the Undergrowth is coming to PC (Steam / GOG / Epic Games Store) on June 7m 2024 for $29.99 / £24.99 / €29.99 / ¥3,980.