Show HN: Symbiants – digital ant farm / mental health companion https://ift.tt/hOF7zPQ

Show HN: Symbiants – digital ant farm / mental health companion Hello HN! Hope you are well. I'm creating my first video game. It's nowhere near complete, but I am eager for feedback, so here I am! My game is a digital ant farm. You should think SimAnt + Tamagotchi. Here's a picture: https://ift.tt/1PAsiod It's written in Rust/Bevy, compiled to WASM, and is open-source, https://ift.tt/7OlegUy . Fair warning, though, this is my first time writing in Rust/Bevy. My goal is to give people cute ants that do cute ant stuff 24/7, ask people to look after their ants and to feed them once-per-day, and then deny people the ability to provide ant care unless they engage in mental health exercises. I started working on this project for a few reasons: 1) I've been a dev for ~15 years, but, on a personal level, I have very little to show for it. I've worked on multiple, multi-year projects which were subsequently shut down by lawyers and, frankly, I'm tired of practicing non-attachment with my work. So, I'm creating this as a personal affirmation. 2) I enjoy my fully-remote, WFH lifestyle, but I find myself more isolated than ever. The lack of disruption allows for some serious focus. Sometimes I get so focused on a project that days slip by without me practicing self-care, and I'll keep going until my output wanes due to lack of healthy behaviors. I thought having a digital companion who is interested in ensuring I remain consistent in caring for myself, by expecting consistent care for itself, would be effective and beneficial. 3) Ants are sweet. Obviously there should be more ant sims. :) Currently, "Sandbox Mode" is all that exists. This mode provides the user with developer tools and allows them to treat the world like an unbounded playground. I use this mode for prototyping. In the future, I'll combine mechanics from Sandbox Mode with cutscenes to create a more restrictive/compelling Story Mode. Sandbox Mode includes the following features: * Queen Ant spawns, searches for a nesting spot, and begins to dig out a nest by hauling sand to the surface. * Queen Ant establishes a nest and begins rearing worker ants once per hour. * Worker Ants haul sand to the surface and emergently expand the nest with tunnels/chambers when they feel cramped. * Ants get hungry and starve if not fed every 24 hours. * Sand-fall physics applies to the environment. Food, sand tumble down surfaces. * Basic day/night cycle. Sky background lightens/darkens with time of day. * Option to link in-game time to real-world time and to sync sunrise/sunset. * Ants go to sleep at night. * Ants emote when sleeping and eating food. * User Actions allow user to spawn sand, dirt, food, and ants. You can kill ants, despawn ants, despawn food, and select entities, too. * Settings allow user to affect simulation speed (Sandbox Mode only), ant color, etc. * Breathwork Prompt encourages user to meditate on a loose schedule in exchange for feeding ants. Today, I am working on adding eggs to the birthing lifecycle and then allowing ants to carry eggs as well as other, dead ants. :) If you'd like to read more about my stretch goals for Story Mode, feel free to peruse my ramblings. The high-level goal is to create a homage to Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, https://ift.tt/8RcEkAV... If you'd like to talk more directly - my email is in my profile or you can reach me through Discord - https://ift.tt/ZPTMfoN So, what do you think? Good idea with poor execution? Love everything and just want to see more? Feel that I'm just throwing away time with a non-viable starter? Want to help but don't know where to start? Let me hear it! Thanks for your time. https://ant.care/ November 1, 2023 at 11:47PM