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://i.imgur.com/dIJaraG.png It's written in Rust/Bevy, compiled to WASM, and is open-source, https://github.com/MeoMix/symbiants. 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…
In plain words
Symbiants is a digital ant farm game where players care for virtual ants that perform activities continuously. Built in Rust and Bevy and compiled to WebAssembly as an open-source project, the game combines simulation and pet-care mechanics. Players feed their ants once daily, but to unlock additional care features, they must complete mental health exercises, integrating wellness activities into the gameplay loop.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
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://i.imgur.com/dIJaraG.png It's written in Rust/Bevy, compiled to WASM, and is open-source, https://github.com/MeoMix/symbiants. 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://docs.google.com/document/d/17ACH1XLCn7hkKz2dhuL1c_nx... If you'd like to talk more directly - my email is in my profile or you can reach me through Discord - https://discord.gg/Qugp2Es4 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.
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