Beneath the Roots is a grim underground tower defense where you run the whole colony at once: dig tunnels, raise ants, assign soldiers to living defenses, and keep the queen fed while swarms pour in from the surface. Macro map for the fight, colony panel for the nursery — one biomass economy, one queen, one chance.

READ FIRST: This game was made as a Solo Dev project, for the "AI Browser Game Jam 3" in roughly 3 days, using heavy support from AI tools. It's a working prototype although there are many functionalities still to be built, left aside because of time constraints.

The screen

• Top bar — biomass, wave timer, ant counts, queen HP & satiety
• Main map (left) — side-view tunnels: dig, build towers, fight enemies. WASD pans the camera.
• Colony rail (right) — nursery queue at a glance. Press M (or click the tab) to open the full colony drawer.

Biomass (your only currency)

Earn it by killing invaders, gatherer deposits, and wave clear bonuses. Spend it on digging, building, feeding the queen, upgrades, and ant upkeep.

Your colony

Queue births in the nursery (G: Gatherer, B: Builder, S: Soldier). The queen spawns an ant every ~10s (faster when she’s well fed).

Ant	Role
Gatherer	Passively hauls biomass from deposits
Builder	Digs new tunnel tiles and constructs structures
Soldier	Operates and powers your defenses

Ants cost upkeep — don’t overgrow without income.

Defending the tunnels

Use the toolbar (or keys 1–6):

• Dig (G) — click rock next to a tunnel to open new paths (costs biomass + a builder; takes a few seconds)
• Build (B) — place defenses on valid rock beside tunnels:
  • Spitter — ranged single-target
  • Crusher — short-range splash
  • Needle — long range shots
  • Gland — buffs nearby towers
  • Fungal mine — one-shot trap on a tunnel tile

Click a tower to assign soldiers. Each tower needs 1 operator to fire; extra soldiers boost damage and fire rate. Upgrade towers for more range, power, and soldier slots.

The queen

Her satiety drops during invasions. Low satiety slows tower fire rate. Feed her from the colony drawer (costs biomass). During heavy pressure she may auto-feed at reduced efficiency if you can afford it.

Waves

The first swarm arrives after 40 seconds. Clear each wave for a biomass bonus.

Tips

• Assign soldiers before the first wave.
• Watch towers with the warning icon — they need an operator.
• Balance gatherers (income) with soldiers (defense) and builders (expansion).

Tools Used

• Engine: Godot
• Concept Art: Midjourney
• UI/Design: Stitch
• Graphics: PixelLab
• Music: Mureka
• Coding: Cursor
• Others: Aseprite