Your colony starts with a single queen in a jar of sand. Everything else grows from her.
The first ten minutes
Tap the Founding Chamber to see its upgrade card, and build it up: it sets how many ants the colony can hold. The Brood Chamber turns Food into new ants, the Forager Trail brings in Food and the Twig Yard brings in Materials.
Slide workers between foraging, building and nursing in the colony panel. Buildings work at full speed with 10 ants per level; extra ants still help, at 25% speed.
Tap critters that wander across the scene (flies, moths, silverfish) for bursts of resources. Only tap targets pay, and tapping can earn at most 60 seconds of production a minute, so there's no need to tap constantly.
Moving up an age
Each age ends with a gate research that costs Materials. Finish it and the colony moves to the next age, with new buildings, research, cards and scenery. A first run reaches the Bronze Age in about an hour and the Great Leap in roughly 14 days of normal play.
While you're away
The colony keeps working when the game is closed. You earn 50% of normal production for the first 8 hours, then 15% until 24 hours. Research raises this to 100% for 24 hours. Storage always holds at least one full absence, so nothing is wasted by coming back late.
Don't let the Food run out
At zero Food the colony stops hatching ants and produces 25% less. After 5 minutes, 1% of the colony starves each minute, up to 20% while you play or 10% while you're away. The queen never dies.