Ant Architect Press Kit

Fact sheet

Ant Architect at a glance

Developer: Bus Built Games, an independent game studio
Genre: City builder, colony simulation, roguelike
Platform: Steam (store page coming soon)
Release date: To be announced
Art: Pixel art, drawn in code
Website: antarchitectgame.com
Social: YouTube, TikTok and Instagram: @busbuiltgames
Press contact: Email Bus Built Games

Description

A city builder where the ants do the building

Ant Architect is a city builder about a leafcutter ant colony. A newly mated queen lands, sheds her wings and lays her first eggs. From there the player plans the nest from a card dock of ants, rooms and upgrades, and the colony builds it: diggers carve every tunnel and chamber out of the soil, leaf cutters harvest the meadow, gardeners grow fungus, and the queen turns fungus into eggs. Every world is generated from a seed, and seeds buried in the dirt offer a draft of bonus cards, so each colony grows differently.

Story angles

What makes it worth a story

Real ant farming, as a city builder. Leafcutter ants don't eat leaves; they farm fungus on them. Ant Architect's whole economy is that loop: cut leaves, grow fungus, feed the queen, hatch more ants.
Every crumb is dug on screen. The player draws the plan, but nothing appears by magic. Diggers excavate each room crumb by crumb and haul the soil up to mounds outside, so a nest's growth from one chamber to a sprawling city is visible from start to finish.
A roguelike draft under the dirt. Seeded worlds scatter rocks, boulders, a buried log and reward seeds through four soil layers. Where the player digs decides which bonus cards they find, and which colony they end up building.
Built to be watched. Day turns to night every three minutes while the ants keep working, which makes colonies satisfying to watch grow. Colony time-lapses: @busbuiltgames on TikTok and YouTube.

Features

Plan tunnels, leaf stores, fungus farms, egg chambers, queen chambers and pheromone rooms on an underground grid.
Hatch leaf cutters, diggers and warriors from eggs the queen lays.
Keep the colony fed: every ant eats fungus each day.
Dig into buried seeds for a draft of bonus ants, rooms and upgrades, with rerolls.
Seeded worlds with four soil layers, rocks and boulders to build around.
A full day and night cycle over a meadow, forest and river, all in pixel art.

Screenshots

Click any screenshot for the full-resolution PNG (2400 × 1350).

A grown Ant Architect nest from the surface down to the clay layer — A grown nest, surface to clay.

The Rooms dock open over a colony in Ant Architect — Planning rooms from the dock.

A seed reward offering three bonus cards in Ant Architect — A seed's bonus card draft.

The Ants dock with leaf cutter, digger and warrior cards in Ant Architect — Hatching ants from the dock.

Close view of fungus farms and ant trails in Ant Architect — Fungus farms and ant trails.

An Ant Architect colony at sunset — Sunset over the colony.

An Ant Architect colony at night under the moon — The night shift.

A trailer and logo are not available yet.

About the studio

Bus Built Games

Bus Built Games is an independent game studio. Ant Architect is its first game. For interviews, assets or questions, get in touch.