At some point in our lives, we all had an ant farm to play with. It’s cool for a while, but it ultimately gets kinda boring since there’s no real way to control the ants’ paths. However, Glu Games is providing iOS gamers with the opportunity to directly affect their insect population in the upcoming Bug Village.
At some point in our lives, we all had an ant farm to play with. It’s cool for a while, but it ultimately gets kinda boring since there’s no real way to control the ants’ paths. However, Glu Games is providing iOS gamers with the opportunity to directly affect their insect population in the upcoming Bug Village.
The game looks a bit like a microcosmic version of Black & White, which had players acting as gods who managed the lives of villagers who worshipped them. Players assign tasks to worker insects (bees and ants, apparently) in order to gather resources which are then used to purchase upgrades to the village itself. As they work, these bugs need to be cared for and protected from antagonists.
Upgrading the village means building new houses (as well as other structures) that allow the population to increase. Eventually the villages will be home to hundreds, instead of dozens, of bugs. The title will follow developer/publisher Glu’s new “freemium” business model, meaning that players will be able to exchange hard currency for virtual currency within the game.
When bugs get hungry, players have to purchase cookies and sugar cubes to keep the workers’ energy up. On top of that, various minigames will pop up in order to break up the main management action.
The game sports some fairly impressive 3D graphics, and a lot of bugs will be able to appear on the iOS devices’ screens without any noticeable slowdown.
Bug Village is expected to come out for both the iPad and the iPhone sometime this month.
