Ants with wings

Last week colonies of the species Prenolepis imparis were releasing thousands of winged reproductive ants into the woods all over the north eastern United States. I (along with “bee boy” from We Bee Brothers) was lucky enough to witness some pretty serious clouds of the winged males throughout Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.

Feeling inspired, I decided to throw together some Optera concept art depicting a nuptial flight of a species resembling P. imparis.

I guess I haven’t mentioned it anywhere yet, but nuptial flights will be an extremely important aspect to the gameplay of Optera and will be key to the success of a player in the long term. There is a lot of work to do however before I begin to tackle that section of Optera’s design document.

For those of you who are super observant: No, Snakeroot does not bloom in early spring. Yeah I need more art but I’m a busy guy!