Hey! We're making a full release based on this jam game series! You can follow our progress @antstookmyeye or wishlist it on Steam.





                "Ants took my eyeball. I had to fight through the ant hill to get it back. Now I just want to go home."


You've ended up deep inside an ant hill full of hostile creatures. Ascend back to the surface by riding a series of elevators. Each ride lasts a full minute, and you'll need to defend yourself to survive each one!

Antscension is an action game packed with tight combat, precise platforming and neon lit explosions.


This is the third and final part to the Ants trilogy following its predecessors Ants Took My Eyeball and BOSSBOSSBOSS!

kasityokerho.itch.io/antscension



Controls

Move & Aim     ⌨️ Arrows     🎮 Left stick or d-pad
Attack     ⌨️ X     🎮 X
Jump     ⌨️ Z     🎮 A
Fullscreen     ⌨️ Alt + Enter    


Psst! If you want to, you can use these cheat codes to progress faster:

Skip to level 1, 2 or 3     ⌨️ Ctrl + 1, 2 or 3
Kill all enemies     ⌨️ Ctrl + Del


Credits

TEAM KÄSITYÖKERHO:

kasityokerho.com

kasityokerho.itch.io

Reaktori  🖌️ Art, some programming, sound effects
Riuku  ⚙️ Programming
dosto  🎨 Art
henrimikael  🎵 Music, sound effects


One of the fonts used: 04b03 by 03

GAME DEV COMICS FROM THE 38TH GM(48) WEEKEND:



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  • Discontent Creator
    Lv. 1

    I'd buy the imaginary full version of each part of this trilogy in a heartbeat.

  • Tero Hannula
    Patron

    Graphics are well made and there are quite few shader things used. I didn't manage to beat the third floor, though I got close ^^"

    Well made and good way to end the trilogy :)

  • Happysquared
    Lv. 15

    Your games always show this really cool level of polish that makes me reconsider what I think is possible for a game jam. You had time for cutscenes! Epic music! The gameplay itself was also really fun.

    Fitting end to an epic saga. You're really good at capturing a very fast paced and action vibe in all your games. The whole vibe is just an epic scale.

    I struggled a little with the controls using a keyboard. But I think it might be a little friendlier to controllers. I really enjoyed the cool weapon though! Also appreciated you added in cheatcodes to those that might not have been able to finish so they could also enjoy the story. Think that's a good plus!

    Your composer definitely captured the anime vibe too :D

  • Jackaroo
    Lv. 9

    Amazing work. The graphics, music, sound, gameplay. It was all amazing. Loved that you got some cutscenes in there too with the opening and ending. That was great. Really impressed that this was put together in 48 hours. Nothing more to say really.

    Revert
    Submitted

    Revert

  • Nyveon
    Patron

    WOW. SIMPLY EPIC! Just sad it's the last in the saga, I want more! :P

  • Veralos
    Lv. 38

    Wow, what a fantastic game! From the cutscenes, to the visuals, to the music, to the gameplay, eveything here is pretty much perfectly executed. The pixel art looks great and the lighting effect is really cool. The gameplay is challenging but fair and the slime weapon is fun to use. There's nothing bad I can think to say - great job!

    Dreamscape
    Submitted

    Dreamscape

  • Jupiter Hadley
    Lv. 13

    Great graphics! I included it in my GM48: Sixty Seconds compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/huP5ApnGTE0

  • Ethan Wake
    Lv. 10

    Wow, so impressive! The graphics and music are outstanding (especially level 3's music... hoo boy, that's good stuff), and the gameplay is super fast-paced and challenging. The slime-throwing mechanism is something I've definitely never seen before, so kudos on that. Now I need to go back and play the first two games in the series, because I have no idea what just happened haha. Great work!

    Revert
    Submitted

    Revert

  • Quentin Van Deutekom
    Lv. 7

    I'm sad the trilogy is over!

    The art, sounds, music, style, gameplay all work so well and are polished to such high standards. I love the fact it has controller support too, enough to make me to a second run through with it anyway.

    The calming music is especially great in my opnion (when you die and your buddy is talking). Also figuring out I could hold X to keep my weapon extended for longer let me time the retraction better as to get multiple flying enemies in a single swing.

    The second elevator was my favorite but I also thought it was the least challenging, but I liked the idea of flipping between hiding under the platforms and then rushing onto them when the room fills from below, just the enemies here were a little bit predictable in my opinion.

    Overall a very solid game, had fun with it

    Revert
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    • Reaktori
      Lv. 17
      Reaktori Developer of Antscension

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for playing and giving such detailed feedback! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the game! It sure was a lot of fun to make, and we are very pleased with the end result!

      This game definitely marks the end of the anthill saga, at least as jam games. That said, maybe one day we'll see it in some other format! So keep your eyes open (and don't let ants take them)!

  • tfg
    Lv. 8

    I think the difficulty is too high - but that might also just be me being bad at the game, heh. The flying enemy seems to get stuck quite a bit, other than that awesome job! I especially liked the grapple hook tech

    Pancake%
    Submitted

    Pancake%

    • Riuku
      Lv. 19
      Riuku Developer of Antscension

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for the feedback! We're seeing some players having challenges with the level of difficulty but other players beating it on their first try without issue. I'm guessing that the control scheme is one of the reasons for this imbalance - not all players are into the fact that moving and aiming are both done with the same arrow keys. Personally I like the control scheme so I didn't even give it a second thought until we received some feedback about it!

  • The Great Gatsby
    Lv. 9

    absolutley loved it. the intro, music, everything was super good. the last elevator was difficult, I think it would have been better if the beetle AI was a little easier to understand. one suprising thing is that the easier AI is to understand by the player, the more fun the game is, as it feels less like the game has cheated you.

    the power of democracy: so, the theme for the game jam is going to be 60 seconds. is that alright with you?

    me who will be doing speedrun theme: sure.

    You who will be doing ascending theme: yeah

    a bunch of people who will be doing become crab: fine by us

    • Riuku
      Lv. 19
      Riuku Developer of Antscension

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for the feedback! I think the flying enemy in question (it's actually a flying ant) is the jankiest enemy in the game. I wanted to give it more time to design and implement it but had to let it go because of the time constraint. I totally agree on what you're saying about predictable enemies. The flying ant, like all other enemies, does actually follow a deterministic pattern but it's just too fast and tough that there might not be time for the player to read its behavior and learn to play against it.

      Not gonna lie, we were definitely hoping for an ascension related theme :D We were planning on making this sequel all along and knew that there had to be some sort of ascension or climbing to make it fit into our story. But we didn't do any further game design at all before the start of the jam other than having this vague idea of the narrative.

    • dosto
      Lv. 16

      Dying for the theme part. Thanks for the comment!

  • Chris
    Patron

    Outstanding. The intro was especially awesome

  • Tydecon Games
    Patron

    Beautiful, simply amazing, I am in awe at this one! Fantastic work!

  • 2102
    Patron

    Really good game! The jumping was a little wonky, but everything was smooth.

    Sixio
    Submitted

    Sixio

  • NukGames
    Lv. 4

    Hey, I trully loved the artstyle and gameplay is solid. I feel that if the game had controller support it would be great to play. Anyway a great entry.

  • SpritePainter
    Lv. 21

    I really wanted to love this game. The art and sound were absolutely wonderful. The first level was a lot of fun and the weapon felt really satisfying. However, the second and third level quickly made it clear that the controls just didn't work for me at all. Specifically, having movement and aiming tied to the same input was incredibly frustrating. Coupled with enemies that moved faster than my weapon, the precision needed to hit them, and the fact that getting hit applied a knockback effect, having the level open up so that falling meant instant failure was just too much. This may be exactly the kind of thing some people are looking for, but unfortunately I couldn't get through it.

    edit: I just want to stress that this was my impression immediately after playing, and fueled by frustration at wanting to finish the final stage. The game was quite compelling, so hopefully my immediate impressions are useful. Please don't take it too harshly though. The game is very solid.

    • Reaktori
      Lv. 17
      Reaktori Developer of Antscension

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for playing! I feel your pain, it's pretty tough to attack up or down without moving too much, but we devs got used to it at some point and forgot to fix it in the end. Especially the final level is way too punishing with narrow platforms and instant death.

      In case you feel like trying to reach the ending again, there are actually some built-in cheats to help you!

      Go to level 1: Ctrl + 1

      Go to level 2: Ctrl + 2

      Go to level 3: Ctrl + 3

      Kill all enemies inside the room: Ctrl + Del