Desktop companion · Idle sim
You type,
they eat
A colony lives on your desktop and runs on your keystrokes. The ants forage, gnaw, and haul food back to the nest on their own — never stealing focus, never covering a window, just quietly busy while you work.
Core loop
One loop, five steps
It doesn't ask to be watched. You work; the loop runs.
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01
Type
Keystrokes anywhere become energy. Code, docs, chat — all of it counts.
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02
Put out food
Spend energy to drop a biscuit, a nut, a wedge of cheese. 11 buyable foods, each harder than the last.
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03
They forage
Ants find it, gnaw it bite by bite, and haul the crumbs home. Too little bite force and they can't get through.
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04
Bank nutrition
Whatever reaches the nest converts to starch, sugar, and protein — each food in its own ratio.
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05
Upgrade
17 tracks across 103 levels: population cap, speed, bite force, the golden gene — then harder food unlocks.
What's in it
A colony that fights back
Food brings visitors
Each food draws its own insects. A biscuit gets you flies; a salmon slice brings mantises and rhino beetles. Of the 9 insects, 5 are passive and 4 will fight — your colony has to swarm them.
Stays out of the way
Drag the nest anywhere; windows and desktop icons act as obstacles. There's no UI at rest — double-click the nest to bring up the controls.
Key counting is optional
Energy comes from your keyboard, but the toggle is a real one: turn it off and no keyboard hook is installed and nothing polls global input.
Off by default on first launch; you have to opt inWorkshop swaps the world
A theme pack replaces the ants, insects, nest, and copy wholesale — a wolf pack, a stone-age tribe. The loop stays; who lives on your desktop changes.
Data and art only — no scripting- Achievements
- 66
- Foods
- 20
- Insects
- 9
- Upgrade levels
- 103
- Languages
- 10
Coming soon
Still in development
Keyarium hasn't launched yet. Wishlist it and Steam will tell you the day it does.