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Empire of the Ants

An Epic Journey in a Microscopic World (Gamescom) - Empire of the Ants Interview with Tower Five

We spoke with senior game designer Matthias Varlet to learn more about this ambitious strategy game that focuses in on the tiny for a grand and sprawling adventure.

Audio transcription

"Hello everyone and welcome back to Gamereactor.
As you might be able to tell by the beautiful screen that I've got going behind me, and also the poster in the back."

"Today we're talking about Empire of the Ants.
I'm here with Matt. Matt's going to tell me a whole lot about the game, if you aren't familiar with it.
So, that's actually a great place to start.
What is Empire of the Ants and why should people be excited for it?
So, Empire of the Ants is an RTS based on the Bernard Werber saga."

"It's an RTS with a kind of original take on it.
We place the camera on a third person view, as you can see on the screen.
And the main goal of the game is to, well, tell the story, kind of the same story as the books, a bit more.
But at the same time give you a very immersive and beautiful experience while giving you the traditional RTS game."

"It's as much an introduction to RTS games as it is a full-fledged RTS game.
Yeah, of course. And there's exploration elements, adventure elements sort of thing.
And then you've got the actual strategy elements and the tactical elements of leading troops and all that.
How have you managed to bring that all together and not make it feel overwhelming?
So, we decided to kind of cut the content into three different parts."

"So, we've got, as you said, strategic missions, tactical missions and exploration missions.
Basically, the strategic missions are the typical RTS game mode.
Where you go, you've got your base building, you've got the enemy base building, and you try to build your base quicker, better, and then wreck your opponent."

"Then you've got tactical missions. These are like the strategic, but we cut off some bits of it.
Like, for instance, the one we have in the demo is you only have troops to move and order around.
You've got some powers to use, but you don't have the whole economy part.
You don't have the nest to take care of."

"You've just got your troops and the powers to try and basically navigate this kind of puzzle-like challenge.
Where you need, okay, how do I get through this with those units in this situation?
It could also be like an economy race, where you basically need to build up your economy as fast as possible.
You don't have a lot of combat challenges, but choosing how to spend, when to spend, and when to stop spending to start getting enough resources to win the mission."

"Knowing that it's in some ways either timed or you have waves of enemies coming to you, and they get stronger and stronger until the point where you can't actually manage them.
So it's kind of timed.
So yeah, those are tactical missions."

"And then you've got the exploration missions, which are more contemplative.
It's more about looking at the beauty of the game, having a nice kind of thing to do.
So here in the demo, you have to catch three fireflies.
But you don't have any pressure on you."

"You can just take the time of the world and admire things and try to do that small little challenge.
So it's still a bit of a challenge, but it's a non-threatening challenge.
So the idea is with these missions to cater to the fans of Bernard Werber, or to fans of Antz and stuff like that.
People that will want to play the game in a more kind of, you know, I don't want pressure, I just want to have fun."

"And at the same time, the RTS people that want to have the pressure, that want to have the adrenaline of, oh, I need to defeat my opponent.
He's in a better situation than I am from the get-go.
How do I defeat him with the tactical and the strategic missions?
And so to go from chapter to chapter, you don't need to do all the missions."

"That's a trick.
You need to do half of them.
So you need to do at least some tacticals.
But then you can either do only strategic or only exploration missions."

"And, yeah, that's it.
And once you've done your bit, you can move on.
Obviously, you have the option to say, no, I actually want to do everything.
I want to finish the game whole, 100%."

"And obviously, we offer you the choice.
When you get the NPC that tells you to move on, you can tell him, well, actually, I want to finish here first.
And you mentioned a minute ago that the game is really beautiful, and it is.
How did you go about sort of authentically representing this really unique perspective?
This sort of, I want to say down-to-earth, but this miniature down-to-earth experience?
So, well, we use a tech that is called photogrammetry for all the environments."

"And then we have our artists that kind of touch on those elements to make them a bit more beautiful or make them pop a bit more.
But it's basically photos that are transferred into 3D models.
And then we just make them a bit better."

"That's for the kind of environment elements.
Then we have the insects themselves.
And they, well, for these, we have our 3D artists that actually have done an awesome job where they just basically make a lot of research on the insect itself, on its characteristics, how it moves, what it looks like under all the different things."

"And so we've seen, there's a lot of videos on YouTube, which are amazing.
We didn't know that before we started the project, of people, oh, I would say cultivating, but that's not the right word.
They kind of have ants and make the city of those ants grow."

"And by doing that, they document what they do.
And with that, we could actually have a lot of very good images of how ants behave and what they do and what they look like.
Same for all the other insects."

"There's a lot of documentation online and stuff.
So we documented ourself a lot.
And we're like, okay, let's go and see exactly how this insect is and how it lives and how it moves so we know exactly how to animate it, not only how we can represent it in 3D."

"And tell me about some of the challenges, then, that the Empire of the Ants will be facing.
Different insects, different threats.
What sort of enemies are on the horizon?
Quite a few."

"Quite a few different.
So I'm going to talk about one of the most scariest things for a lot of people with a kind of caveat to reassure you.
We're going to have spiders in the game."

"They can be pretty threatening.
So you're going to have a troop of small spiders but plenty and another one with less spiders but bigger.
But we have a mode that can turn off spiders if you don't like them so you can actually play the game without being jump-scared."

"My wife personally is like, yeah, she can't stand spiders.
Let's just say they're not friends at all.
She doesn't want to hear the word.
So for her, she'll be playing with that."

"But we've got a lot of other interesting challenges.
One of the most impressive ones, and it has been shown on video already, is the mantis, the praying mantis.
Huge thing."

"The ants actually go on it.
And you need a few ant legions to be able to defeat it.
Just one small ant legion like the one we have on screen.
Well, we don't have it on screen, but it's over there anyhow."

"It's not powerful enough to defeat it on its own.
And apart from that, we've got ladybugs.
We've got firebugs.
We're going to be fighting here."

"We're going to be fighting termites.
Well, if you continue the mission.
We're going to have black ants, which are bigger ants.
And plenty of other things I'm not going to spoil to keep a few secrets."

"And as a final question then, or a penultimate question, when Empire of the Ants does make its actual full debut, what's something you're really excited for fans to experience for themselves in-game?
Well, I'd say the story first, and then I'd like to see who wants to defeat me in PvP."

"And with that being the case as well, when can people be looking to find you online, PvP?
When is Empire of the Ants going to be debuting?
Oh, we're launching the game the 7th of November of this year on PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and on PC."

"Well, there you have it.
Stay tuned for then because no doubt you'll be able to find Matt online, be able to take him on at some point, challenge him to some Empire of the Ants."

"But otherwise, yeah, November, check it out.
It's a lot of fun. You're going to love it.
And, well, yeah, until then, this has been another Game Reps interview, and we'll see you all on the next one."

"Take care, everyone."

Gamescom

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