Development

How Ant Laboratory is made

Ant Laboratory is made by one independent developer. It is built slowly and carefully: the biology is researched first, every change is tested, and each release is played on real devices before it goes out.

• One developer
• Real ant biology
• Tested on real devices
• Releases so far
• News

One developer

I set the vision and the design, decide how the game plays, direct every piece of art and test every build myself. There is no studio and no publisher. The ants, the island and the lodge are drawn by the game itself, from measurements of real ants. Most nature sounds are recordings I made, and the lodge radio plays my own soundtrack.

The game is paid for once. It has no ads, no in-app purchases, no accounts and no tracking, and it plays offline: see the privacy policy.

Real ant biology, with sources

Before a behaviour goes into the game, it is checked against published studies, field guides and specimen measurements, and written up with its sources. A second reading then looks for what is wrong: claims a study did not really show are cut or softened, and a study of a related species is not taken as proof for ours. Anything beyond real biology is marked Experimental in the game.

• Bodies: each species is drawn from about forty measured parts, from AntWeb and AntWiki specimens and taxonomic keys.
• Turtle ants: their nests, doors and soldiers follow Wilson (1976) and Powell & Dornhaus (2013).
• Hunting: how ants carry big prey together follows Czaczkes & Ratnieks (2013), Gelblum et al. (2015) and McCreery & Breed (2014).
• The zombie-ant fungus: follows Hughes et al. (2011) and Araújo et al. (2018).
• Brood and warmth: follow studies such as Porter (1988) and Cassill & Tschinkel (2000).

The game shows its sources too: the field guide and Ant Facts name them. The full list is on The science.

Tested on real devices

• More than 100 automated tests play the game after every change. They check that the same seed still grows the same colony, that every colony saved by a released version opens again, and that the ants do what the studies describe.
• On real devices. Before a release, the game is played on real iPhones, iPads and Android phones, at every speed, to see that the ants really reach what they carry and that it runs smoothly.
• With players. Testers try each build before it goes out, and people in Android early access tell us what goes wrong. Every message to support is read.

The simulation follows real biology in what happens, but its rates are sped up and simplified, so it is a way to explore ants, not a scientific instrument.

Releases so far

1. 1.0.2On the App Store, 15 October 2026

   The first public release

   A colony that runs itself in a glass ant farm, a living habitat to look after, and an island to spread across.

2. 2.0On the App Store, 19 October 2026

   The Naturalist

   A new look, lifelike water, day and night, a lodge with windows onto the island, ants under the lens and a field guide.

3. 2.1On the App Store, 30 October 2026

   Hunters & Gatherers

   Ants that hunt together, turtle ants in a home of wood, a wolf spider, the zombie-ant fungus and games on the lab computer. See what’s new.

4. AndroidEarly access on Google Play

   Ant Laboratory on Android

   The full game for Android phones and tablets, in paid early access. How to join.

News

Updates and notes from the making of the game are in News. Ideas and questions are always welcome: get in touch.