Empires of the Undergrowth

Ant colony RTS about building nests and commanding insect swarms

Slug Disco · Published by Hooded Horse, Slug Disco · Released Jun 7, 2024

Reviews: Very Positive; 94% of 19K
Recent reviews: Very Positive; 94% of 221 in 30 days
Playing now: 314; right now
Steam Deck: Playable
Last update: 4 months ago; May 4, 2026

Free demo available, 0 playing it now: get the demo.

What is Empires of the Undergrowth?

This single-player real-time strategy game centers on managing an ant colony above and below ground. Across scenario-based missions, you dig a hex-grid nest, gather food, hatch specialized ants, and direct workers and warriors against predators and rival colonies while protecting the queen.

For you if...

+you enjoy balancing food collection, expansion, and colony defense
+you like strategy missions with time pressure and varied goals

Not for you if...

−you want a persistent, freeform colony simulation
−you prefer precise control over individual combat units
−you want a relaxed or forgiving strategy game

What players say

94% of 18,942 reviews are positive · 94% of 221 in the last 30 days

Players praise the narration, insect facts, soundtrack, and large, active ant swarms. Their most common complaint is the lack of mid-mission saves, which can mean restarting a scenario after an interruption or failure.

Screenshots and trailer

Empires of the Undergrowth system requirements

As published by the developer.

Minimum

OS: Windows® 10 (64-bit)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-760 (quad-core) / AMD® Phenom™ II X4 965 (quad-core)
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 440 (1 GB) / AMD® Radeon™ HD 6750 (1 GB)
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Storage: 5 GB available space
DirectX: Version 11

PC version details

DRM, required accounts, controller support and Steam features.

DRM: None declared on Steam
Controller: Full controller support
Platforms: Windows, macOS
Achievements: 186
Steam features: Cloud saves, Family Sharing, Trading cards

Steam Deck: Playable

Some in-game text is small and may be hard to read
All functionality is accessible with the default controller configuration
Shows Steam Deck controller icons
Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck

Multiplayer and co-op

Single-player

Languages

Full audio: English. Text only: German, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Spain, Russian, French, Czech, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Italian, Hungarian, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Portuguese - Brazil.