Ant Nation

In Ant Nation, the player controls an ant hive and has to keep them save by expanding. There is no story, but it is implied that the player takes the role of a scientist who experiments with the hive: all interactions with the ants takes place through tools, e.g. a pipette to quickly move them to one place to another, a magnifying glass to inspect the environment or a pointer to select a single ant.

The basic game structure is that the ants have to collect food and bring it to the hive in order to expand the population and grow stronger. The food is purchased (and then dropped in the playing field) with gold which is earned by completing missions (solving tasks - usually killing invaders - within a time frame). Outside the (finite) missions, gold can be found by searching the environment with the magnifying glass and food by killing invaders which sometime show up. While sheer numbers play an important role, each ant also has statistics which influence the outcome. These can be improved by squeezing them enough to come seriously hurt, but not enough to die. Later in the game, more torturing tools (e.g. a Bunsen burner) are unlocked.

In addition to the main playing mode, there is a bonus game with 20 levels in which the player uses weapons (e.g. a hammer or rocket launcher) to kill as many ants as possible within a time limit.