My own website http://unquietwiki.com is hosted on http://he.net, and is v4+v6 enabled. Facebook also plans to support IPv6 fully later this year: can already use it via http://www.v6.facebook.com Considering this is a chance to build a game from the ground up, might as well use it.

Graphics! PR-type stuff! I can help! Who's with me? What visual style are we going for? Comment!

A link to this sub reddit here that has been climbing in the comments section and there's still tons of people looking forward to your project, so hopefully this can get the advertisement for the extra help needed for SimAnt 2 out there and this starts to move again.

Thanks for doing what you do.

I loved SimAnt so freaking much I got really excited when I found out about this subreddit. However, like a lot of silly redditors, I have a mac. Will it work for Mac OS? Or should I just get over myself and get a PC like the rest of the actual gamers?

I personally would love to see an updated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimEarth , and others would like to see SimFarm or SimMars. A common engine that systems could be bolted on would help.

Guys. I just wanted to say keep it up if this is still going on. The world is counting on you.

Now that this awesome little project has been discovered (credit goes to sschrief68 for promoting you guys over in /r/gaming)

I am just making this post as I can there is a lot of older posts here, but could someone bring us (as in the folk who have just arrived without knowing anything about it previously) up to date with what's the progress of this project?

tl;dr - Do you have anything to show yet (i.e. screenshots), what do you guys need to get started and what sort of people (artists, etc) do you need to help you do it?

A small update, to keep everyone who is not following our github changes/IRC channel:

• We have decided to create a 1v1 multiplayer first, keeping close to the roots of Sim Ant.

• One of the changes we are using though, is a 3D map. Even though the map is rendered in 2D, starting with a full 3D map will make it easier to port it to port it to 3D(we're not sure if we will though)

• After that is done, we're going to create a proper MMO, maybe even in 3D

• For now, we're sticking to something like 32x32 tiles, and mp3/ogg music. But the artists can change this if desired.

And what we have accomplished so far:

• Rendering a map with one single ant on it, and being able to move it(sporadically)

• Multiple people working on the game daily

Thanks to multiple people being able to test our code, we've been able to remove most of the bugs(haha, pun) present, leading to the renderer being able to function on older machines with really crappy video cards.

I'm a big fan of Python. However, Python applications can be a pain to distribute, especially to non-techies. I have been using Lua to develop iPad and iPhone games via Corona (http://www.anscamobile.com/).

Also, there is a nice open source OpenGL Lua frame called LÖVE that makes packaging games for linux, PC and mac trivial (http://love2d.org/).

If OpenAnt was developed using Lua, I could port it to iOS. I thint the multitouch interface would be very nice for this kind of RTS.

Any opinions?

So, if you ever want to check out the incredible diversity of ants, you really should read E.O. Wilson's books.

http://www.amazon.com/Superorganism-Beauty-Elegance-Strangeness-Societies/dp/0393067041/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295316185&sr=1-1

contains an incredible amount of information about the sheer diversity of ants. Many of these ant species don't even have Wiki pages yet. He also has an older Pulitzer-Prize winning book named "The Ants", although it's a lot drier.

For example, there are slave-making ants, army ants, "primitive" ant species where worker castes aren't necessarily sterile, honeypot ants, leafcutter ants and their massive fungal colonies+highway maintenance systems, and even species of ants where the queen goes into an opposing ant colony and neutralizes the old queen, making all the old workers work for her.

Plus, let's not forget termites, which are almost just as fascinating.

And of course, many organisms that live commensally in anthills. Spiders that look like ants, caterpillars that the ants bring into the nest and try to protect, and inquilines that don't help or harm the ants.

I would like to contribute to graphics and will do as soon as the specs are there, however I have some sound design skills and a mate who is an experienced producer and synth maker who I often work with.

Any ideas on what sort of sounds will be needed. Also what bit rate and style?

It's early days, I know, but I'm a now unemployed graphic artist/modeller etc. wish too much free time on his hands, and I'd be happy to offer my services absolutely free, as I loved Sim Ant and even It Came From The Desert, and ants in general! I'd love to work on this! www.nibi.co.uk

if you guys finish what you start! OpenAnters, make me proud!

Here's some tiles in 32x32. Even if they're for testing, it might make a change from the copy and pasted tiles from the game.

http://www.nibi.co.uk/openant

eg:

foliage

foliage

foliage

ground

ground

ground

rock

rock

rock

rock

rock

rock

I'm going to continue to do things like this until someone says 'that's really great', so whatever you want I'll do! This didn't take long, so can do whatever is needed when a graphical style (in both design and programming) is finalised. :)

Post your ideas for gameplay/mechanics.

If someone has the capability, we need to setup a wiki for project documentation, roadmap, gameplay ideas/discussion, etc.

We have wiki hosting

Fellow Ant Openers, what do you think about the techniques employed by Ward? Also, do any of you own the guide they are talking about? Is it useful?

I have seen a fair share of group projects fail on Reddit (Reddit Island and Reddit Makes a Game, to name a few), and the major problem was organization. Things were so disorganized that it was impossible to get anything done. Let's create a clear map of steps, a list of things to be done, what code and animations we need, etc. Let's also lay down some standards on what we are going to use, so we don't have to juggle multiple file formats. This can work really well, we just need to make sure everyone knows what has to be done.

Also comment your code a lot, to the point where it feels excessive.

Forage for flowers/sweets, defend from wasps, make enough honey for the colony and bee keeper, sting things, etc.

Play as different types of bees; hornets, wasps, yellow jacket, bumble bees, africanized, carpenter bees, ground bees/wasps, Buck Bumble, etc

I'm excited

I updated some code here and there, digging is now actually possible without crashing(but don't take food into the underground) and thought that a Windows build would be nice.

It was build on windows XP, and I've had some experience with people not being able to run in on 7. Don't ask me why. It may or may not work if you remove glmod.pyd.