We’re 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[steamproxy.net/steamstore]

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The latest update for Empires of the Undergrowth introduces exciting additions to gameplay, balancing changes, and a plethora of fixes and optimizations.

Here's a breakdown of the most significant changes and additions:

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• New Game Mode: Remix
  
  • Play almost any level with nearly any combination of ants or termites. Custom colonies adapt to the feeding habits of the selected queen, providing a highly flexible and replayable experience.
    
  • Accessible from the Arcade section of the main menu.
    
  • Some combinations are unavailable due to technical constraints.
• Custom Colonies
  • Create colonies with nearly any ant or termite species in the game. Custom colonies adopt traits and worker designs matching their queen.
• New Custom Game Maps
  • Grasslands
    
  • Drive Them Back (customized for termites or regular ants depending on colony selection).
• Tier 4 and Tier 5 Achievements
  • 8 new achievements for Tier 4 challenge levels.
    
  • 45 new achievements for Tier 5 challenge levels, now accessible in New Game Plus.

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Level Changes

• Reduced the stun, confuse, and damage effects of sun spiders, centipedes, and emperor scorpions on Easy and Normal difficulties for fairer balance.
  
• In 5.2, increased casualties required for victory on lower difficulties, making it more challenging to achieve victory early.

Challenge Mode Changements

• Challenge scorpions now retain their health between days but regenerate 10% daily.
  
• Scorpions' escape behavior now varies based on combat location (surface or underground).

New Game Plus

• Enemy colonies now start with more workers and resources.
  
• Increased food storage capacity for enemy colonies in higher settings.

Specific Tweaks

• Matabele revival time reduced from 10 seconds to 7 seconds.
  
• Fire ant "Last Laugh" ability range increased from 200 to 300.
  
• Mounted creatures are displaced when large creatures move through nest exits.

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Custom games see significant changes tailored to the mode's unique dynamics:

• Black ant soldiers now cost less to hatch and take reduced damage from single attacks.
  
• Big-headed ant majors gain an adrenaline ability for damage resistance and speed boosts.
  
• Leafcutter media ants now cost less and harvest more efficiently, though their health and damage have been slightly reduced.
  
• Termite landmarks regenerate resources over time and maintain persistent spawn nodes for longer gameplay viability.
  
• Fire ant Vigorous ability buff reduced in custom games for better balance.
  
• AI colonies now prioritize building soldiers, especially for black ants, fire ants, and little black ants.

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• Achievements can now be earned in New Game Plus.
  
• Seasonal levels, like Festive Spider, have updated visuals, music, and weather effects (including snowfall).
  
• Several extra levels now use custom game stats instead of story mode stats for a more consistent experience.

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• Numerous AI improvements, including better handling of underground invaders and more balanced build strategies for AI colonies.
  
• Fixed issues with Matabele ant medics, subtitles, map resources, and various level-specific bugs.
  
• Reduced memory usage with on-demand asset loading and minor optimizations for queens and large creatures.

Read the full patch notes here:
https://steamproxy.net/games/463530/announcements/detail/547847869991747855

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.

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[steamproxy.net/steamstore]
https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/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.

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! We’ve 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 - we’ll see you next year for even more!

• New game mode: Remix
  • Can play almost any level with almost any combination of ants or termites
    
  • Custom colonies will adopt the feeding habits of the selected queen
    
  • Accessed from the Arcade area of the main menu
    
  • Some combinations disallowed for technical reasons
• New custom game feature: Custom Colonies
  • Allows colonies to contain virtually any ant or termite in the game
    
  • Can be selected in colony setup
    
  • Workers will match the queen
• New custom game maps - Grasslands & Drive Them Back (custom game version)
  • If playing as termites, will spawn in mounds otherwise in regular nest entrances
    
  • Non-colony fodder termites will otherwise spawn from unoccupied mounds if Matabele ants are in play
• Tier 5 & Tier 4 Challenge Mode Achievements
  • 8 new achievement for tier 4 levels with challenge mode
    
  • 45 new achievements for tier 5 levels
    
  • Can now be achieved and earned in New Game Plus

• 5.1 nighttime invasion changes:
  • On easy and normal, the sun spider’s stun duration has been reduced to 2.5s (down from 5s) and damage reduced to 5 (down from 8)
    
  • On easy and normal, the sun spider’s confuse duration has been reduced to 2s (down from 4s) and damage reduced to 4 (down from 7)
    
  • On easy and normal, the giant African centipede’s venom pool damage per tick reduced to 4 (down from 8) and initial target damage reduced to 200 (down from 400)
    
  • On easy and normal, the giant African centipede’s body slam area of effect reduced to 200 (down from 300), damage reduced to 30 (down from 40)
    
  • On easy to extreme, the emperor scorpion’s attack damage reduced to 20 / 20 / 35 / 40 / 45 (down from 45 on all difficulties)
    
  • On easy and normal, the emperor scorpion’s stun has been reduced to 1s (down from 2) and confuse reduced to 2.5s (down from 5)
• In 5.2, extra soldier tiles reduced on easier difficulties to 5 / 3 / 1 / 0 / 0 (down from 7 / 4 / 1 / 0 / 0)
  
• In 5.2, casualties required for victory increased on easier difficulties to 120 / 135 / 150 / 150 / 150 (up from 100 / 125 / 150 / 150 / 150)
  
• In 5.3 challenge mode:
  • The challenge scorpion now maintains its health between days but heals 10% life each day
    
  • The challenge scorpion no longer gets its abilities back when it respawns or moves underground (abilities that happen at 25%, 50% and 75% health)
    
  • The challenge scorpion will no longer attempt to walk away when it performs a ground thump
    
  • The challenge scorpion will only run away if engaged underground; if on the surface it will continue to fight so long as there are enemies to fight
    
  • The challenge scorpion now only escapes when termite sun damage is in progress
• In 4.1 New Game Plus, enemy colonies now receive more food storage at the start of the game and more workers (based on how high NGP is set). The little black ant colony also gets more starting resources
  
• Matabele anaesthetist revival time reduced to 7s (down from 10s)
  
• Increased range of fire ant’s Last Laugh ability to 300 (up from 200)
  
• Mounted creatures are thrown off when a large creature starts to move through a nest exit
  
• Changed final objective in 1.2 Subjugation to say raid instead of wave
  
• Added an extra harvesting slot on woodlice for faster food collection
  
• Stink ants can no longer climb smaller climbable creatures

The following changes only apply to custom games. They are likely to be subject to further tweaking down the line, but the thought process here is that balance in custom games has different requirements to the campaign due to its increased variance.

• Black ant soldier hatch cost reduced to 3 (down from 5)
  
• Black ant soldiers take no more than 40 damage from a single attack
  
• Black ants now have armour (0/1/2, up from 0/0/0)
  
• Big-headed ant major soldiers have a new ability - adrenaline. This reduces damage taken by 60%, 20% increased movement speed and 80% increased attack speed for 20s (10m cooldown)
  
• Big-headed ant major cost increased to 35 (up from 25) and egg hatch cost increased to 4 (up from 2)
  
• Leafcutter media harvest quantities increased to 20 / 24 / 30 (up from 17 / 19 / 22)
  
• Leafcutter media health reduced to 80 / 95 / 110 (down from 100 / 115 / 130)
  
• Leafcutter media damage reduced to 4 / 5 / 6 (down from 4.5 / 6 / 7)
  
• Leafcutter media build cost reduced to 65 (down from 80)
  
• Leafcutter colonies will start with 200 fungus (up from 100)
  
• Termite’s lignocellulose landmarks will now spawn 3 new nodes every 3m and will not despawn when empty
  
• Limited lignocellulose nodes per landmark to 15
  
• Increased time between termite spawns on the lignocellulose landmark (now every 6-30s, up from 4-20s)
  
• If a lignocellulose landmark has no mulch, termites spawned to harvest from it will despawn
  
• Fire ant Vigorous ability damage reduction buff is now 15% (down from 25%) in custom games
  
• Large giant African mantis and large hermit crab will no longer invade nests
  
• Earwig nymph should no longer invade nests
  
• Earwig juvenile, earwig and alligatorback scorpion juvenile added as possible cavern creatures in custom games
  
• AI colony queen workers are only sent out for the first 10m and return faster for smaller amounts of food. If harvesters are dead queen workers can go out again
  
• Timid AI colonies are less likely to invade and will harass less frequently
  
• Reduced AI colony food dropoff build priority (except for leafcutters and termites)
  
• Increased chance that Matabele soldiers will be built in AI colonies
  
• AI wood ant colonies make more melee tiles
  
• AI ereptor colonies likely to make more balanced build choices, not always favouring larger ants
  
• AI colonies receive damage reduction to patrols (differs based on cheat settings). This tapers off over time
  
• AI little black ant, black ant and fire ant colonies will make more soldiers than they used to (unless they are docile)
  
• Dead fish landmark replaced with map-appropriate large food sources
  
• Large food source landmark will spawn opposing ants that are map-appropriate
  
• Added Aloe Version of aphid plants for savannah custom games

• Achievements can now be completed on New Game Plus!
  
• Hovering over achievement in the achievements menu will show the highest difficulty it was achieved on
  
• The Nian Beast and Festive Spider levels can now be accessed at the appropriate times of year
  
• Festive Spider now uses the same music as Hibernation
  
• Festive Spider now uses the updated rotten log textures
  
• It will now snow in the Festive Spider level!
  
• Extra levels The Culling, The Culling 2, Tug Of War (1, 2 and 3) and Cramped will now use custom game stats rather than story stats
  
• Environmental textures will now be more detailed due to an extra ambient occlusion pass allowing for deeper apparent recessing
  
• Tile hover window now displays a message when tiles have been locked out
  
• Graphical updates to Tug of War 3
  
• Game engine updated to Unreal Engine 4.27 - please keep an eye out for any weirdness here
  
• DLC menu added to the main menu in preparation for future content such as the Kickstarter reward (Myrmecia ereptor worker skin)
  
• Updated the Slug Disco logo on the main menu
  
• Many, many localisation updates

• Fixed a bug where AI was sometimes unaware of underground invaders in freeplay
  
• Bullet ant attack damage increases from minor improvements should now work against targets that are not executed by their attack
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause Matabele ant medics to get stuck at the queen
  
• Fixed an issue in The Culling 2 where floating seeds were not falling in a small section of the map
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause resources to not count towards score in some levels
  
• Fixed an issue with Imprisoned where termites sometimes could not path to where the water would be
  
• Narrator in custom games should talk about termites more when they are fighting, rather than calling them ants
  
• Fixed an issue where termite kings would be removed in custom games if landmarks are set to random
  
• Fixed green lynx spiders being culled if they start climbing whilst in combat
  
• Fixed a missing subtitle related to earwigs
  
• Moved some unharvestable leaves in 3.2 to be reachable
  
• The Other Foot progress bar will now only display its tooltip when visible
  
• If the 5.3 challenge scorpion is killed on the surface its dialogue no longer plays on defeat (as it mentions being killed underground)
  
• Can no longer click to enter an enemy nest if it is unopened
  
• Down arrow will no longer show on enemy nests on hover if it is unopened
  
• Assassin bugs will now despawn after 10s like other creatures in 5.1 and 5.2
  
• Final objective in 1.2 Subjugation now marks as finished on victory
  
• Wave spawn should now continue after play more is pressed in custom games
  
• Prevented multiple versions of the hybrid fight sequence occurring
  
• Fixed a crash related to creature climbing
  
• Ants fighting titans when the titan dies are less likely to be automatically killed
  
• Pheromone markers in enemy nests now respond to the smoke visual option
  
• Prevented destructible barriers from being inspectable with the Inspect tool
  
• Fixed an issue where two voice lines were showing as the wrong scientist
  
• Fixes for UI scaling
  
• Minor optimisations to large creatures and queens
  
• Memory use reduction (more things should only load into memory as needed)
  
• Loading screen corrected for several extra levels

Happy Holidays, everyone!

We’re 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[steamproxy.net/steamstore]

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We’re hard at work on the next major patch, and if you haven’t already, check out the optional beta. It introduces custom colonies for skirmish and freeplay modes, new freeplay maps like Grasslands and Drive Them Back, and REMIX Mode, which lets you play almost any level with different colony setups.

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/news/app/463530/view/4440081305187648587?l=english
https://steamproxy.net/games/463530/announcements/detail/536588230305251482

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.

• Fixed an issue where formicarium and custom colonies could end up not having heating tiles in Hibernation
  
• Fixed an issue that broke formicarium colonies in skirmish mode
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause an Aloe aphid farm to spawn in the air in Drive Them Back (custom game version)
  
• 1.2 Subjugation now counts all soldier types for objective fulfilment
  
• 1.2 Subjugation now updates objectives on construction rather than a periodic check
  
• The Other Foot now accepts any worker for tube objectives
  
• The Other Foot progress bar will now only display its tooltip when visible
  
• The Crucible no longer requires mediae to be built if the colony doesn’t have them
  
• Drive Them Back (custom game) fixes to prevent pathing and culling issues
  
• Can no longer click to enter an enemy nest if it is unopened
  
• Down arrow will no longer show on enemy nests on hover if it is unopened
  
• Changing the game type in freeplay will no longer reset landmark settings
  
• Fixed a missing subtitle related to earwigs
  
• Moved the landscape in 5.1 to prevent it interfering with the tile grid
  
• Matabele medics and bullet ants can now harvest mulch if in a termite colony
  
• Fixed wood ant melees having different AoE resistance values then they should in NG+
  
• Stink ants can no longer climb smaller climbable creatures
  
• Prevented multiple versions of the hybrid fight (FC4) sequence occurring
  
• Termites should no longer be able to spawn from mounds that are currently occupied
  
• Fixed an issue causing Formicarium Challenge 3 tunnel exits to be inaccessible
  
• Drive Them Back (custom game version) should no longer display formicarium rewards on victory
  
• All non-worker ants should now be able to fight off phorid flies at level 3
  
• Increased chances of Matabele soldiers being built in AI colonies in custom games
  
• Fixed some collision issues on Drive Them Back (custom game version)
  
• Ants fighting titans when the titan dies are less likely to be automatically killed
  
• Fixed an issue where queen death would not cause a colony to become food in Drive Them Back (custom game version)
  
• Wave spawn should now continue after Play More button is pressed in custom games
  
• Fixed an issue where termite kings would be removed if landmarks are set to random
  
• Attempted fix for lynx spiders being killed if they start climbing whist in combat (please let us know if you see this still happening)
  
• Fixed an issue where fog of war could be seen through on the top of both the nest and linked termite mound in the savannah custom game maps
  
• Fixed some instances of Matabele medic tiles displaying as black ant tiles
  
• Drive Them Back achievement icon fixed
  
• Fixed achievement “A Bridge Too Many”
  
• Fixed achievement “Finish Your Vegetables”
  
• Fixed "Just Ignore Them” achievement
  
• "Finish Your Vegetables" tracker no longer says ‘Termighty’ has been fulfilled

As we barrel towards the end of the immense year that was 2024, we’re 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, we’ll 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! That’s been an interesting one to implement, and we’ll get to that shortly. First, let’s go over the recent extended beta period and how we’ve been gathering feedback.


Once again, hats off to everyone who’s given some time testing out the latest balances, fixes and new stuff in the currently running optional beta. We appreciate everyone who can spend a little bit of time experimenting with things that are probably not entirely functional yet! This has been our longest optional beta period, and we hope to bring it to a conclusion in the near future and release the results for everyone to see.

As detailed in the previous vlog, we’ve been experimenting with separate stats for some creatures in custom games (as opposed to the campaign) and in some cases separate abilities. The most obvious of these is the big-headed ant major soldier ‘adrenaline’ ability, which gives them a timed buff on entering combat. Also, leafcutter media ants have been rebalanced to be slightly worse fighters but much better gatherers, and black ant soldiers are way tougher with a maximum damage they can take in a single hit.

The thought process behind these changes is that the campaign and custom games have much different needs, and although we’ve had the stats for the two different game modes divorced for quite a while now we haven’t made use of the facility until now. Custom games can be much less predictable than the carefully scripted campaign levels, and certain species are inherently tougher to use. We hope these ongoing tweaks will make some of the lesser used custom game species more attractive to more people.


As mentioned earlier, ‘custom colonies’ is a new features that allows a custom game to contain a colony of nearly any makeup that is currently being tested in the optional beta. You can have a colony with a leafcutter queen, but containing big-headed ant supersoldiers, little black ants and termite major soldiers, for example. There are some exceptions for technical reasons (ie, no Matabele medics in leafcutter colonies) but the possibilities are still very expansive.

A termite in an ant colony?? Such things are possible with custom colonies!


A larger game mode related to this called Remix has recently been introduced to the beta, which allows almost any level (campaign, extra and demo) to be played with almost any combination of colony creatures that make sense. When I say make sense, I mean in the way that there’d be no point trying to beat 2.1 Rising Tide as leafcutter ants given the lack of foliage on that level.

Something a bit weird going on here...

This has proven to be a little tricky since it introduces a bunch of extra considerations, but we’re getting there. Campaign levels played in this way will be apart from a saved run, and played in a standalone fashion similar to extra levels now. This mode also follows the same technical limitations as custom colonies in custom games do.


Two new freeplay maps are also currently undergoing testing - Grasslands, and Drive Them Back (custom game version). In both of these, there are 8 colony entrances on the surface of which four can be in play in a single game. If playing as a termite colony, you’ll start in one of the 4 termite mounds. Otherwise, you’ll be in a regular nest entrance. This can be overwritten via a checkbox and any colony can occupy a termite mound - I guess you moved into an old one!

The Grasslands of the savannah beckon

In the case of Drive Them Back (custom game version), we’re responding to a long-requested feature of making custom game versions of the campaign levels. While they can’t have the complex scripting that goes on in a story mission, some of the campaign levels are quite suited to custom games from a layout point of view. Please let us know what you think about how Drive Them Back (custom game version) plays, and if the response is positive we may well make custom game versions of other campaign maps in the future.


All of the tier 5 achievements are now active in the optional beta, as are ones for the tier 4 challenge mode (with the six-spotted fishing spider). Although we tried to get these ready in time for 1.0 back in June, we wouldn’t have been able to get many of them in so we thought it was best to wait until we had a full set of ‘chieves worthy of your time.

One or two issues with these have been identified now thanks to the testing (again - thank you) so we’re working on getting those fixed up before the patch gets a wider release.


Although it won’t make it in this side of the new year, the art refresh of tier 3 is continuing and we’ve been extremely happy with the results. Our environment artist DanC was a little sad when he realised that whip spiders aren’t actually spiders and spin no silk of any kind - but we think you’ll agree he’s found a nice alternative in this twisted knot of plant roots act as Big Whippy’s lair in 3.2.

A lair fit for a legend!


We realise it’s a bit late this year, but if you’re in the optional beta you’ll be able to access the Festive Spider level by clicking on the gift that appears in the main menu! As always, the Hungry Spider levels are deviously difficult and come with their own special achievement for completing them. Expect multiple repeats for this ARPG-like game mode. When we leave the current optional beta and set the patch live for everyone, this will of course be available in the live build.


A few weeks ago, community manager Mike wrote https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/postmortem-how-empires-of-the-undergrowth-came-together-in-over-7-years-of-early-access that goes over the entire history of Empires of the Undergrowth as a project, from initial ideas and inception to final release. This will be good reading for anyone who has an interest in how a project like EotU grew from an initial frustration with the contemporary offerings at that time, to becoming very much its own thing with an almost accidental discovery of the game’s most unique features.

Check out the article here![www.gamedeveloper.com]


For those who don’t know - while the only game that Slug Disco develops is Empires of the Undergrowth, we act as a publisher for a number of other indie developers making nature-inspired games. That means that while we don’t work on those projects directly, we help out with marketing and other promotion.

A new project has just joined our publishing ranks - Strange Seed! In this evolution game, you begin as a very basic blob - but have the ability to acquire traits. To solve puzzles and progress, you’ll need to take on traits from things that you eat - as the trailer shows, for example, acquiring a shell to become heavy enough to push open a door.

So, welcome Strange Seed to the Slug Disco publishing portfolio! And of course, welcome Chris of Chronicle Games (the developer). Check out the above trailer and find the game’s demo - we think you’ll be as utterly charmed by it as we were. Join its Discord[discord.com] while you're at it!


For anyone who’s interested in our company goings-on, please welcome Ethan and Kartik, who have joined Slug Disco as C++ developers. They’ll be helping us out with Empires of the Undergrowth, and a variety of other stuff as well. We’re also near the end of the process of hiring a dedicated creature artist, for similar reasons. 2025 will be full of developmental goodness!


Always my favourite part of these newsletters - if you’d like to be included in the future, the easiest way to get these to me is to join our Discord[discord.com] and post in the dedicated screenshot channel. To get some interesting angles, hold shift while pressing the photo mode button to uncouple the camera from the ground plane.

A topical Festive Spider shot from ArmyAntGaming

A fishing spider blocks the way of the fire ants from Zvistic

Cinematic driver ants from Medin


Finally, in this last newsletter before 2025 arrives, thank you from the very bottom of our hearts for being here for Empire of the Undergrowth’s full release. We’re not exaggerating even slightly when we say that we’re nothing without your support, and you’ve stuck with us through nearly 7 years of early access. We are far, FAR from done with EotU - and there will soon be an updated roadmap detailing our intended path through 2025 and beyond. See you there!

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[steamproxy.net/steamstore]

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/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 we’re seeking something a little different – a nomination for Most Innovative Gameplay during this year’s Steam Awards.

Since we launched Empires of the Undergrowth earlier this year, we’ve received a swarm of positive feedback about its unique blend of colony management simulation & RTS gameplay. It’s 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, we’ve 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.

And there’s plenty more to come! For a more complete look at some updates from the last year, you can check out our update notes:

• Post-Release Patch 1
  
• 1.0 Release Update
  
• New Year’s Feast & Fixes Patch
  
• Custom Game & Achievements Update

We’ve been working on the game's next steps, and the beta branch is now live on Steam.
Here’s what’s included:

• Two New Custom Game Maps: Savannah-themed environments offering unique challenges.
  
• Custom Colony Options: Use any ant species in custom games.
  
• New Game Mode: Remix: Replay levels with different or customized colonies.
  
• Tier 5 Achievements: New objectives for players to complete.
  
• Balance Changes, Fixes, and Optimisations: Adjustments and updates for a smoother experience.

How to Access the Beta
You can access the beta branch on Steam now. For instructions on how to join, click here and use the provided password. Your feedback is appreciated as we finalize these changes.

Creating Empires of the Undergrowth has been a truly spectacular experience for our team. While we knew we could make a great colony management sim, we never expected to build such an incredible community alongside it. Your support has been invaluable in making Empires of the Undergrowth’s v1.0 launch a fantastic success. We’re so thankful to have your support now and for all the future updates to come.

Competition is high for the Most Innovative Gameplay award, so every nomination helps. Check the “Nominate” button at the top of this post to nominate Empires of the Undergrowth for this category in the 2024 Steam Awards.

Thank you all,
Slug Disco