Colony
Pixel-art ant colony simulation with emergent behavior — tunneling, foraging, brood care, pheromone trails, day/night cycles, trophallaxis and necrophorese.
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Day 011 — Colony
Pixel-art ant colony simulation. Watch a colony grow from 20 workers and a queen — tunnels branch, chambers form, foragers collect food, nurses tend brood, corpses get carried to waste areas.
Features
- ImageData rendering — pure pixel buffer, no fillRect
- Pheromone system — trail (yellow) and home (blue) gradients
- Brood lifecycle — egg → larva (needs feeding) → pupa → worker/soldier
- Age polyethism — young ants nurse, old ants forage and dig
- Trophallaxis — worker-to-worker and worker-to-queen food sharing
- Necrophorese — dead ants carried to waste areas
- Tunnel planning — dig goals with ~120° branching, functional chambers
- Day/night cycle — foragers stay inside at night
- 3 food types — crumbs (red), seeds (yellow), honeydew (green)
- Zoom — mouse wheel + drag to pan
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Click | Drop food |
| Mouse wheel | Zoom in/out |
| Drag | Pan (when zoomed) |
| Space | Pause/resume |
| +/- | Speed (1x–20x) |
| R | Reset colony |
| Esc | Reset zoom |
Tech
- Canvas 2D with ImageData pixel manipulation
- No framework, no external dependencies
- ~1400 lines vanilla JavaScript
licenses
No external dependencies.