Ant Hill: a free cosy ant colony game with twikoi's art

What is Ant Hill?

Ant Hill is a free, cosy ant colony game made with twikoi's art. Her ink ants live in a side-on slice of soil under her garden, with their queen in a little room by the door.

You paint the tunnels and rooms, and the ants do the work: diggers dig, foragers carry her food home, nurses feed the larvae, and guards chase off the bugs that come to steal.

Every rain and every raid is warned ahead, and nobody is ever lost: an ant that loses a fight just faints for a while. Can you grow the biggest colony?

How to play

Drag your finger over the soil to paint cells. Diggers dig them in the order you painted. Stones and roots can't be dug.
Tap 🏠 Room, pick a room and tap where it goes: a 🥚 nursery for the brood, a 🍯 pantry for food, later a 🛡 guard post and a 🌿 leaf garden.
Share out the jobs with − and +: diggers, foragers, nurses and guards.
Tap a food pile to send your foragers to it.
Rain runs in at your doors and falls to the lowest spot. Dig a deep dead end (a sump) under the door to keep the rooms dry.
Bugs walk in to steal food. More guards, and a guard post near the door, chase them off.

Features

Eight gardens, from soft Strawberry Patch to The Big Hill, each with a season and three goals.
New rooms and upgrades for your colony as you go: guard post, leaf garden, leaf roof, strong jaws, quick feet and more.
Rain that really flows: it falls down your tunnels and settles in the lowest cells, so how you dig matters.
A lesson you play, pause, ×1, ×2 and ×4 speed, and painting that works while paused.
Phone first: paint with your thumb, a note above your finger says what will happen, ✓ to place a room, undo, and pinch to zoom.
A daily garden, the same for everyone, with medals and a result to share, and a calm garden that never ends.

Modes, levels and unlocks

The gardens: Eight gardens in order. Meet the first goal of one to open the next, and win one of her pictures.
Calm garden: No bugs and no season end. Dig and grow as you like.
Daily garden: One garden a day, the same for everyone, with five days to grow the best colony, medals and a result to share.

Tips

Put more ants on foraging early: more food means more eggs and more ants.
Build the nursery early, and a pantry soon after, so the queen can keep laying.
Before a rain, look where the blue line lands and dig a deep hole there.
Short tunnels to the food save a lot of walking. A second door near far food helps, but rain comes in there too.
When a raid is warned, add guards with +. A guard post next to the door makes them bite harder.

Who will like Ant Hill?

Ant Hill is for anyone who likes calm building and planning games: easy to start with a lesson, and deep enough to keep improving your nest for hours.

It is also for fans of twikoi's art: her ink ants are the whole colony, her bugs and food fill the garden, her pictures are the rewards, and the game links to their pages on her site.

Questions

Is Ant Hill free?

Yes. Ant Hill is free to play in your web browser. No sign-up and no ads.

Does it work on phones?

Yes. It is made for phones first: you paint tunnels with your thumb and a small note above your finger tells you what will happen. Rooms go down with a ✓, there is an undo button, and you can pinch to zoom into the nest. It also plays well with a mouse and keyboard.

Does it save my progress?

Yes. Your gardens, stars, unlocks, daily gardens and the creatures you met save in this browser on your device, and Continue puts you back into an unfinished season exactly where you left it.

▶ Play Ant Hill