There are plenty of good reasons to venture into a gigantic underground ant colony. Treasure, perhaps. Scientific curiosity. Maybe somebody you care about has been dragged down there and desperately needs rescuing. Having your eyeball stolen by the ants, however, is a new one.
Here at AllRogues we love games that dare to be different and Ants Took My Eyeball, a 2D action platformer roguelite from Finnish indie developer Bosmic Forge, is definitely unique. Released on Steam in April 2024, the entire game revolves around descending deeper and deeper into a procedurally generated ant hill, murdering an unreasonable number of insects, and hopefully finding the eye they had absolutely no right to take in the first place.
It sounds ridiculous, looks wonderfully chaotic, and somehow has fewer than 250 Steam reviews more than two years after release. Even better, 93% of them are positive, giving the game a Very Positive rating.
Somebody Give Me My Eyeball Back
The ant hill changes every time you enter it, with procedurally generated levels spread across different biomes, each bringing its own enemies, traps, loot, and opportunities to get yourself killed.
Combat is fast and built around staying mobile. You can run, jump, and dash around enemies while switching between guns, melee weapons, gadgets, and trinkets, which means you’re not locked into one particular way of dealing with the creatures standing between you and your missing body part.
There is plenty of loot to find along the way, too. Weapons can be upgraded into more powerful variants, unwanted gear can be scrapped for gold and components, and trinkets can be piled together to improve your chances of surviving whatever the ant hill decides to throw at you next.
Naturally, this being a roguelite, dying means losing your run and heading back to try again.
At Least You Don’t Have to Fight the Ants Alone
One of the more interesting parts of Ants Took My Eyeball is that the entire thing can be played alone or with up to four players in local co-op. Steam Remote Play Together is supported as well, so you don’t necessarily need to squeeze four people around the same PC to start exterminating insects together.
There is also some permanent progression waiting back at your base. Gems collected during your adventures can be spent on furniture upgrades that provide advantages on future runs, while additional permanent unlocks are hidden somewhere deeper inside the ant hill.
It gives you something to work toward even when another expedition ends with the ants very much still in possession of your eye.
From a Game Jam to a Very Positive Roguelite
Perhaps the most interesting part of the story is where Ants Took My Eyeball actually came from. Bosmic Forge is a small team based in Tampere, Finland, consisting of developers Aapo Nikkilä, Rama “Reaktori” Hannula, and Henri-Mikael Turunen alongside collaborators. The team had been making smaller projects and taking part in game jams for years, and Ants Took My Eyeball grew from a series of games they originally created for the gm(48) game jam.
That small project eventually became a full roguelite with procedural generation, permanent progression, co-op, boss fights, 45 Steam achievements, and enough weapon combinations to make repeatedly throwing yourself into an ant colony considerably more tempting than it probably should be.
With a Very Positive Steam rating and only a few hundred reviews, this is exactly the kind of game Rogue Discovery was made for. If fast action roguelites, pixel art, ridiculous amounts of loot, and getting revenge on insects for stealing your organs sounds like a good evening, Ants Took My Eyeball might be one to check out.