Crumb Colony icon

Crumb Colony

Release colored ants, eat a pixel picture from the outside in, and keep the five-slot nest from jamming.

Category
Games & Culture
Platforms
Web
Pricing
Free to play in the browser, no download or sign-up
Open Crumb Colony (ants.pomodiary.com) →

Overview

Crumb Colony is a free ant pixel puzzle game that runs in the browser on phones and computers. Every level is a pixel picture built from colored blocks: a fried egg, a bowl of noodles, a scarecrow, a tractor. You tap a box in the tray to release a squad of ants of that color. They march along the frame, nibble the picture from the edges inward and carry every block back to their nest.

The puzzle is the order in which you send them. Ants can only bite blocks of their color that are exposed, meaning on the edge of the picture or next to a cell that has already been eaten. The nest has only five slots, and a color sent before it can be eaten keeps its slot busy. If all five slots fill with colors that cannot bite and no box can be taken, the level is lost. Early levels feel calm and satisfying; later ones become real planning problems.

There are 180 handcrafted levels in nine chapters of 20: Snack Street, Night Market, World Tour, Festival Table, Chinese Classics, Meadow Feast, Autumn Fields, By the Creek and The Farmyard. New mechanics arrive along the way, including chained boxes, locks and golden keys, ice, spider webs, number blocks, a conveyor tray, gift wrapping and noodles that can only be eaten from their ends. From chapter 2 on, every level has a difficulty curve that shows where the pressure falls: a hard opening, a hard middle, a hard ending, waves, or tight all the way.

Every level was played through to the end in the real game by a test script before release, so none of them is impossible, and each level has its own guide page with a step-by-step verified solution. Progress is saved in your browser. Be aware that the later chapters are deliberately hard and may take many attempts.

Key features

  • 180 handcrafted levels in nine chapters

    Levels progress from snacks and night-market food through world dishes, festival foods and Chinese classics to meadow insects, autumn fields, creek-side life and farmyard scenes. There are five difficulty tiers: Intro, Normal, Advanced, Hard and Expert.

  • Mechanics that change the order

    Locked boxes open when ants dig out a golden key, ice takes two bites, a spider web must be cut by soldier ants, number blocks need several bites, chained boxes must be taken together, the World Tour tray turns like a conveyor, and Festival Table dishes arrive gift-wrapped.

  • A visible difficulty curve

    From chapter 2, a small curve in the top-left corner shows the rhythm of the level, with a white dot for your progress. The red stretch is where the nest is most likely to jam, so you know when to free up slots.

  • Boosters you earn, not buy

    Extra Slot adds a sixth slot, Grab takes any box from the tray, Machine Gun fires 12 random shots across the picture, and UFO lifts one slot's color out of the picture. You start with two of each, the first three-star clear of a level awards one at random, and using a booster costs a star. Every level can be beaten without them.

  • A guide page for every level

    Each level page lists its block count, colors, number of boxes and mechanics, explains how the picture comes apart layer by layer, and includes a solution that was verified in the real game. Separate guides cover each mechanic.

  • 16 interface languages

    The game and its guides are available in English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai.

How to use Crumb Colony

  1. Open ants.pomodiary.com in a phone or computer browser. There is nothing to install and no account to create.
  2. Pick a level from the menu. Chapter 1 starts with simple pictures, and a short card explains each new mechanic when it first appears.
  3. Before tapping, look at which colors sit on the outer ring of the picture and check whether the front row of the tray has them.
  4. Tap a front-row box to send its ants into one of the five nest slots. Send colors that can bite right away first.
  5. Keep one slot free whenever you can, for the box that blocks the front row but cannot be eaten yet. Look at what is stacked behind each front box, not only at the front.
  6. Use the speed control if you want the ants to walk faster; it does not change how hard the level is.
  7. If you get stuck, retry, use a booster, or open that level's guide page for the verified solution.

Who it’s for

  • Players who enjoy color sort and pixel art puzzles and want something that runs in a browser tab.
  • People who like calm, satisfying puzzles at first and real planning challenges later on.
  • Anyone who prefers a game without accounts or downloads, with progress kept in the browser.
  • Fuse bead and pixel art fans: each level picture can be turned into a bead pattern with our sister site, Bitbead.

FAQ

Is Crumb Colony free?
Yes. It is free to play in the browser and needs no account or download.
How many levels are there?
180 levels in nine chapters of 20 each, from Snack Street to The Farmyard. The last three chapters, Autumn Fields, By the Creek and The Farmyard, are the hardest so far.
Can every level be beaten?
Yes. Before release every level was played through in the real game by a script, and each level guide includes that verified solution. No level requires boosters.
Why did I lose?
The nest jams when all five slots hold colors that cannot be eaten yet and no box can be taken. Sending colors that can bite right away and keeping one slot free avoids most losses.
Where is my progress saved?
In your browser. If you clear site data or switch to another device or browser, that progress will not follow you.

Guides and articles

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Questions about Crumb Colony? Email hi@pomodiary.com or visit our contact page.