Hive Time
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Hiveversary Update now available! See the devblog for more details.
Build a hive, make some honey! Hive Time is a bee themed management/base building sim. Harvest resources, grow your hive, and produce a new Queen before the current one dies.
Manage different bee roles in a totally scientifically inaccurate depiction of hive dynamics. Send Foragers out to find pollen and nectar, have Builders research new cell types, and ensure you have enough Beesitters to raise the next generation of bees.
Make interesting choices that affect the hive. Respond to wasp attacks, deal with outlaw slugs, or help a caterpillar realise a lifelong dream!
Hive Time's original soundtrack is available on Bandcamp, and you can find Hive Time t-shirts, stickers, and prints on RedBubble.
FAQ (click to expand)
Is this game free?
I believe that the effort we have put into creating and supporting Hive Time is worth at least $10. However, I also believe that in an ideal world, financial barriers should never prevent people from participating in culture. For this project, I'm in a position to make the game available under a pay-what-you-want model so that it can be accessible to people who can't afford $10.
If you can afford $10, but would prefer to not pay, that's up to you, but I hope that if you find enjoyment in the game that you'll come back to give some support that matches that enjoyment.
Similarly, Peter has released Hive Time's original soundtrack on Bandcamp under a pay-what-you-want model.
- Cheese
Is this game finished?
We consider Hive Time to be a complete game.
In the weeks and months following release, we shipped many patches as well as two large content updates, which are included with the game for free.
Default controls
Default controls are as follows (custom bindings can be set from the Controls menu):
- Left mouse - Select/interact
- Right mouse - Close radial menu
- Middle mouse/Cursor keys - Pan view
- Scroll wheel/Page Up/Page Down - Zoom view
- Home - Reset pan and zoom
- End - Zoom out as far as possible
- Space - Toggle bee inspection mode
- F5 - Trigger autosave
- F9 - Load latest save
- Shift - Hold before performing an action in a radial menu to be able to repeat that menu option with subsequent cell clicks
- Alt+Enter - Toggle fullscreen
- Escape - Close radial menu, close/select negative option in events, pause game
- Print Screen - Save a screenshot
Chat integration
Hive Time now has optional chat integration, including voting for preferred event choices, voting on periodic "gifts," and have chat participants show up as bees in-game!
If you use Twitch, you can use the Prefill for Twitch button and then pop in your channel name preceded by a hash symbol (eg: #ValiantCheese). That's it - no passwords or tokens needed!
The Community settings menu has a Show Instructions button with more details and information on how each chat feature works.
If you want every chat user to end up with a bee the first time they speak (providing the population limit hasn't been reached - you can still manually spawn them from the throne though), make sure the Chat Bees setting is set to Always.
Cheats and debug controls
My hope is that you won't need them, but if you get stuck or want to try specific stuff, there are a few "cheats" in place. To access debug functions, you must enable "debug mode" from the System settings menu. Pressing the Backtick key (typically the key with ~ on it will display a menu, which lists available debug functions and their shortcuts.
- B - Complete all in-progress construction
- C - Clear all in-progress cooldowns
- H - Raise resource storage limits by 999
- G - Give 9999 of all resources (won't increase storage limits)
- Shift+E - Show event debug/selection dialog
- Shift+V - Show vignette debug/selection dialog
- E - Force the next queued event to trigger (events with unmet conditions will not show)
- V - Force the next vignette to trigger
- T - Give 99999 progress to current research item
- R - Reload all data files (resets research!)
- F - Mark all foraging zones as explored
Log, save, and config file locations
Logs, saves, and configuration files can be found in the following locations for each supported platform:
- Linux:
~/.local/share/hivetime/
(note that this respects XDG_DATA_HOME) - Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/hivetime/
- Windows:
%APPDATA%/hivetime/
Selecting the Open User Folder option from the settings menu will open this location in a file browser.
Technical help
If you're experiencing troubles, please send a detailed description of what is occurring along with relevant save files and logs to support [AT] jbushproductions.com
Common technical hurdles and how to cross them:
No text is visible outside of the main menu
This occurs when the game is unable to load fonts (the main menu text is actually a 3D model!).
The most common cause of this is the game being unable to find the fonts folder. Please make sure that it is extracted into the same folder as the game's executable (.x86_64, .exe) and that the working folder is set to the same location when running the game.
If you're not feeling confident extracting the game properly or are still experiencing problems, consider playing Hive Time through the Itch.io App, which handles all of that for you.
MacOS says the app is damaged!
It's lying. Thanks Apple.
You should be able to run the game without problems if you install and launch it via the Itch app.
Alternatively, you can use the xattr command line tool with -cr parameters on the game's .app folder to clear the quarantine flags that are preventing it from running. You can learn more about xattr by opening a terminal and typing man xattr
The game freezes briefly when bees commence construction on a cell
The construction progress indicators may require the shader cache to be updated for some graphics drivers, which may cause a brief pause. Turning off Construction Indicators from the Video Settings menu will prevent this.
Sound suddenly becomes garbled or stutters
When under high load, the Godot engine's sound server can become unstable and cause the rest of the game to lag.
Typically, this is caused by the Bee Sound Count setting in the Audio settings menu being too high. The default value of 25 seems to be appropriate for most systems that the game has been tested on, but lower may be more appropriate for your computer.
When this occurs, the game will typically need to be restarted in order for audio to return to normal.
As my hive gets big, the game's frame rate slowly declines
During development, I made the decision to not put a performance oriented maximum cap on hive or population size, so generally speaking, it will always be possible to make a hive that's too big for your computer to handle.
The game should still be playable at a low frame rate, and spawning a new Queen doesn't specifically require a large hive, so it's up to you to play within the constraints of what you're comfortable with.
The game's minimum requirements are based on running the game with Shadows, Anti-alising, and Depth Of Field settings all disabled, and with the Bee Sound Count audio setting set to zero. These options can have a big impact on performance.
If you find that sound is garbled or stuttering, please refer to the "Sound suddenly becomes garbled or stutters" section.
Current known issues:
- Keyboard bindings with modifiers that share primary keys with other bindings (eg: Ctrl+S and S) may behave unexpectedly
Gameplay tips
There's a lot to keep track of in Hive Time! Part of the fun is in exploring and learning how different systems work. Generally, the impact of your actions takes a little while to be apparent, so observing after experimenting can be important!
If you're feeling stuck, take a look at the Hints/tips section of the in-game "Beepedia"!
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- World Bee Day 2024 & v1.2-149, v1.2-150 changelogsMay 20, 2024
- Happy 4th beethday, Hive Time!Dec 12, 2023
- World Bee Day 2023 & v1.2-138, v1.2-139 changelogsMay 20, 2023
- Happy 3rd beethday and v1.2-129 changelogDec 12, 2022
- World Bee Day and v1.2-118, v1.2-119 changelogsMay 20, 2022
- v1.2-100 changelogJan 02, 2022
- Hive Time turns 2, and v1.2-95, v1.2-96 changelogDec 15, 2021
- v1.2-78 changelogSep 26, 2021
Comments
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I meant to go to bed an hour ago (it's midnight currently) but instead I am entranced by the motion of the bees as they fly around the hive and trying to make the hive look a bit more organized.
Wonderful game. Can't bee-lieve that it's taken me this long to play it. Can't wait to play even more with my first new queen! 🐝
Ah! Thank you for your kind words! I'm very happy to hear that your hive is progressing well and that you're having fun :)
Here's to a long line of happy, healthy queens who make good decisions for the hive \o/
I was curious about the newupdate, but it does not work for me: “Hive Time.app is damaged and can’t be opened” (M1 mac).
I double checked with version 1.1 and that one launches fine, but I noticed the following
1.2: Application (Universal) 1.1: Application (Intel)
So it seems to be a recent change.
Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Have you checked the "MacOS says the app is damaged!" section of the Technical Help section here on the Itch page? I have some suggestions that may help.
oh! I totally missed that section, that solves it thanks!
No worries. Glad to hear you're up and running!
Many downloads.
But not one version of the game works for me. :(
Hi! Sorry to hear you're having trouble.
Can you give some more detail on what's happening? Are you seeing an error? Does the game start at all? Does it crash, or does it freeze up? Can you also tell me which downloads you have tried?
It'd be good to check whether the game has created a log (there are instructions on where to find it in the "Log, save, and config file locations" section here on the store page). If it has, could you email that to the address under the Technical Help section of the store page?
I'm sure it's a fun game, but the game keeps freezing up during the tutorial, and I'm not exactly using a crappy computer. Not sure what's going on, but I'm not getting very far because of this.
Hi! Sorry to hear you're having trouble! Could you send a copy of a game log from a play session where this occurs to the address in the "Technical Support" section of the FAQ here on the game's page?
Hi again! I just wanted to follow up and check whether or not you'd sent through some more information. If you have, I haven't seen it arrive at this end. I would definitely like to be able to look into this, but currently, I am unable to reproduce the problem, so I don't have enough to go on.
So far I've played up until getting my first new queen and I absolutely love it. The look of the game is gorgeous, I love that you can physically see your bees going about their tasks. Gameplay was fun, relaxing, and super polished. Things come at you really fast in the beginning, but other than the relatively generous queen timer I never felt pressured to make too many decisions too quickly. Super fun game
Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Hive Time so far :)
very cool game. i like it
Thanks! I'm glad to hear you found it interesting!
Just to be clear I wasn't actually asking for your help with resolving the issue I was having & I know something like this is better suited to a tech forum etc.
I just thought it was something you might want to know given that yours was the only game that gave me an error like that. I originally played the game on an old laptop (manufactured in 2006) w/ an intel Celeron CPU & Family 4 Graphics chipset (integrated) & had no issues getting it to run. But on my much newer laptop (Manufactured in 2017) Intel i5 w/ Intel HD-3000 Graphics (integrated). <the msg basicly told me I needed to get a new vid card & I already have the newest drivers intel released in 2015.>
I have experiance in various game engines etc, so the only ideas that made sense to me is maybe the use of Vulcan in place of older versions of Open GL is causing the issue. I do know that older support for Open GL 2.2 & below <non-vulcan> hasn't been added into Godot 3.4 yet. Considering formal adoption for Vulcan was in 2016 by AMD/Nvidia & this graphics chipset came out in 2011- but it claims to support up to DirectX 11.1.
I can run other games that do use vulcan as a backend & things like like the Gadot engine, so maybe it doesn't support the specific version your game uses, or maybe your game is having issues trying to detect what features the graphics card is actually able to use. For instance I can run games like factorio, autonauts & Autonauts-A-vs-PB, Terratech, Subnautica, & Subnautica below zero flawlessly- the only other kind of issue i've ever had was with certain assets showing up either all white, or all black & that was in only 2 games- Astroneer & Dyson Sphere Project. I deal in IT daily, so I will either fix the problem or migrate to something that will- like the Ryzen 5 I'm repairing.
Anyways, I appreciate you reaching reaching out, despite you not having to & hope you have good luck in your endeavors.
Thanks for the extra information! I don't get notifications for and don't look at my reviews very often, so it's very easy for stuff to slip by me there.
I use Godot 3.4's GLES 3 renderer (which does have a GLES 2 fallback - you can launch it with --video-driver GLES2 to force that, though it doesn't look ideal), and I've had the game running on Intel HD-3000 chips in the past. It's Godot 4.x that doesn't have an OpenGL 2 renderer.
I'd love to see a copy of your game log if you're willing to share one. If not, please do let me know if you come up with a solution. There might be something I can do to help the situation, and I'd like to have a solid understanding of the problem so that I can help others in the future.
I have tried to run it from a Std directory, as well as a ramdrive <which is how I run pretty much any game that will fit.> Both had the same error.
All the logs had the exact same 1-line error before stopping without logging any further data, so I only sent the latest one, & the screenshot of the error msg itself from the game.
I also thought I'd mention that this laptop has the latest 2015 intel drivers; not the 2012 ver. like the older laptop that ran it fine did.
I thought Id leave some relevant device info here
OS: Win 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-Bit)
Make: ASUS
APU: Intel i5-2450(Mobile) @2.50GHz
RAM: 8 GB (7.78 usable)
It is definitely the GLES 3 renderer,
However; I tried with the GLES 2 fallback & it does let the game run again, so thanks for that- I'm also including the working log for the (GLES2 Fallback) in a seperate file just in case. <oh it did run fron the ramdrive w/ the fallback, hence the Drive:L in the log>
The bees are angry no more ;) ...
hive-time_2023-01-02_05.30.39.log
Godot Engine v3.2.2.stable.official - https://godotengine.org
**ERROR**: Error initializing GLAD
At: drivers/gles3/rasterizer_gles3.cpp:141:is_viable() - Error initializing GLAD
<So the GLAD rasterizer isn't initializing properly.>
==========================
hive-time_2023-01-02_05.33.06.log (GLES 2 Fallback)
Godot Engine v3.4.4.stable.official.419e713a2 - https://godotengine.org
OpenGL ES 2.0 Renderer: Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000
OpenGL ES Batching: ON
WARNING: Cannot allocate back framebuffer for MSAA
at: _render_target_allocate (drivers/gles2/rasterizer_storage_gles2.cpp:5141) - Cannot allocate back framebuffer for MSAA
ERROR: MSAA not supported on this hardware.
at: render_target_set_msaa (drivers/gles2/rasterizer_storage_gles2.cpp:5700) - MSAA not supported on this hardware.
Setting up population menu
Loading external resources
Loaded 218 vignettes
Loaded 10 Queen portraits
Done loading external resources
Using random queen name
New queen name is Evelyn
Queen actions: 9
Queen idles: 5
Unable to open blacklist file user://chat_blacklist.json for reading (this isn't necessarily bad - it's OK to not exist)
Unable to open chat user whitelist file user://chat_whitelist.json for reading (this isn't necessarily bad - it's OK to not exist)
Unable to load user config. Using defaults.
Checking settings file version
Found:
Found old settings file.
Game version: v1.2-119-g6b17df04
Running on Windows
Loading fonts from L:/Hive Time Version v1.2-119-g6b17df04 Win/fonts
Loaded HUD font as [DynamicFontData:4933]
Loaded misc font as [DynamicFontData:4934]
Loaded bold misc font as [DynamicFontData:4935]
Loaded chat font as [DynamicFontData:4936]
Loaded CKJ fallback font as [DynamicFontData:4937]
Loaded emoji fallback font as [DynamicFontData:4938]
Reminder status 0
Setting up menu bees?
Resetting to defaults.
Setting action list
Unable to load user config.
No custom bindings defined.
Making custom music folder since it doesn't already exist
Making custom music folder since it doesn't already exist
Toggling debug stuff False
Updating chat bee life mode to 1
Quitting chat
Updating chat status disconnected False
Done loading settings
Setting up menu music
Done setting up menu music
[User-Agent: HiveTime/v1.2-119-g6b17df04 (Godot)]
Current version: v1.2-119-g6b17df04, Latest version: v1.2-129-g74dbb915
Currently running version is not latest patch.
0antialiasing
ERROR: MSAA not supported on this hardware.
at: render_target_set_msaa (drivers/gles2/rasterizer_storage_gles2.cpp:5700) - MSAA not supported on this hardware.
Quitting
================
END OF FILE
Thanks so much for that! I'm glad to hear that the GLES2 fallback is working for you.
Godot's GLES3 renderer requires OpenGL 3.3 apparently, and it looks like the HD 3000 chipset only supports 3.0 on Windows (it's 3.3 if you're on Linux or MacOS \o/ ). So far as I can tell at the moment, this requirement doesn't appear to have changed since the initial release of Godot 3.0.
There is a setting for enabling that fallback by default, but I've never touched it and it's currently off. Perhaps falling back to that automatically was enabled by default in older versions of the engine. I'll set that to be enabled in future builds of the game.
In regards to your comment,
"Godot's GLES3 renderer requires OpenGL 3.3 apparently, and it looks like the HD 3000 chipset only supports 3.0 on Windows (it's 3.3 if you're on Linux or MacOS \o/ )." Being that I specialize more in hardware than software; even if I was using Linux or Mac, it's unlikely that it would run with OpenGL 3.3 anyway- as in most cases the limiting factor here would probably be that the integrated chipset doesn't have the hardware to support the use of newer protocols. For instance I know of a few lighting/shader issues it has. Just like in general most pre 2016 graphics cards have no support for vulkan. Only manufacturers that attempted to future-proof them were able to give them added functionality via v-bios updates because the underlying architecture was already there. Regardless I'm grateful for the help, & wish you the best!
Just to clarify, Linux and Mac drivers for that specific chipset advertise 3.3 support, and I've previously had the game running on a HD3000 chipset on Linux with the GLES3 renderer in the past. It's possible that there are unimplemented 3.3 features, but I don't recall seeing any rendering bugs, so any would most likely be features that Hive Time isn't using, though driver developers seemed to think otherwise when 3.3 support was enabled. Apple maintain and distribute graphics drivers themselves (although don't have a history of providing particularly good or timely OpenGL support), and Intel graphics drivers for Linux are open source and community maintained. That allows driver development to continue beyond Intel's internal driver development lifecycle.
The nice thing about drivers is that although generally not as fast as what embedded firmware can do, the abstraction makes it easier to do things like this where additional APIs are exposed to ask hardware to do stuff that it's capable of but previously wasn't doing and/or to supplement behaviour in software.
It's not often I play this genre of game, but it caught my eye after appearing in my randomizer suggestions.
I loved this game through and through. The effort put into this game shows. The role changes are annoying but with the overall vibe of the game, it just feels like the developer is trolling you with a small joke before things get back in order, making things feel generally lighthearted and enjoyable.
I have not paid for the game yet, but absolutely will be doing so the moment I get the chance. Thanks for a fun two hours, I'll be back at it again tomorrow most likely.
Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad to hear you found the game interesting even though it's not your normal fare.
Since the game is primarily about finding balances, events primarily exist to throw those balances off and hopefully give players opportunities to discover value in redundant resources/infrastructure and how to recover from setbacks.
There are options to disable all events, and it's possible to have the game load modified data files with those events removed, so there are options for people who'd rather play without them. I feel like they're a part of the game's tone and a way through which it expresses the things I was trying to communicate, so it's nice to hear that they are appreciated as the friction points they're intended to be.
My queen nearly died but then the slugs repaid their debts!
Absolutely amazing. Really great design.
Somehow I was kind of stuck trying to keep a "bee" hive design like how it was at the beginning... (see picture)
Thank you so much for all your efforts.
Thanks for your kind words and for sharing your "bee" hive! My I share your screenshot?
A lot of Hive Time was informed by my experiences with the original SimCity in the 80s, where I spent my time exploring the simulation by building cities with weird and interesting constraints. It is always a joy to see players engaging with Hive Time in that way.
I hereby grant you the non-limited right to share this screenshot. ;)
Oh yes, SimCity. Also Crazy Machines and Commander Keen.
Different genres but those were the times.
I realized there are a lot of funny little moments and stories in the game when you click on of the bubbles that appear. Might be nice if there was a feature to have them clicked automatically or a mode where they do not appear (for others). But it is not necessary in any way.
Being able to name the queen and being able to chose "stay here" or "move on" is really good.
Thanks!
There's already a "find your own fun" setting for skipping vignettes when starting a new game. I'm wary about having vignettes confused with events if they appear automatically, but I'm open to the idea of allowing the management shortcut modifier key to allow showing vignettes without zooming to a cell by clicking on the icon bottom left that appears for them.
I completely forgot to make mention here, but using the shortcut for skipping straight to management screens (Ctrl by default) now allows you to activate vignettes by clicking on their notification icon in the HUD as of the game's most recent beethday.
bee-utiful game!! loved the learning curve, and once i figured everything out super enjoyed just messing around building the silliest hives. would super suggest this to anyone who wants a chill management game. thank you so much!
Yay! I really wanted to make a game that gave rooms for the kind of "explore the simulation by building stuff for fun" experiences I had with the original SimCity back in the 80s. It's always very nice to hear when players have approached it that way. Thanks for your kind words ^_^
umm, am using a Chromebook, can we get an apk build pls, it doesn't have to have aany extra control inputs just
gimmigibbus apk😭🤒
Sorry, I didn't see this comment when it was first made. Unfortunately, I am not intending to target Android with this game. Very early in development, I did an APK export, and it didn't run - there would be more work involved than just hitting the export button, and that's not something I can justify spending time on.
All that said, I have read about Google making it easier to run a proper Linux environment on Chromebooks. I have no first hand experience, but you may (or may not) have success with that approach.
Ah yess finally, lol. I'm happy you replied. Oh, I didn't realize it will be troublesome to export properly to Android.
Yah I installed the Linux environment thing and was able to install a clock application for Linux .... But the thing is I completely ran out of space. My chromebook's model is quite old so the manufacturers only gave it only 10gb of internal space. I scratched the idea of using it to install more software or games, I uninstall the Linux setup environment too.
Nothing you can do about that tho, not your problem,.. just letting ya know.
Thanks.
Just letting ya know. I just bought a laptop yesterday and just downloaded your game 😀
Aww, thanks for checking in. I hope find it interesting! Good luck with your hive 🐝
Amazing game 5/5 but the part of the tutorial where you get enough jelly to get a new queen is wayy too stressful
Thanks for your kind words. The amount of stress can vary a little depending on which random events you get, but broadly, I wanted it to feel like a challenge for inexperienced players and trivial for players who have gotten the hang of the game.
I'll be interested to hear if your next attempt feels more comfortable!
Got it here from gamingonlinux, and I like the game. It is not perfect (some stylistic choices interfere a little bit with game play), but nothing game breaking or too annoying. Reminds me a supply chain games. A good semi-break from Factorio for me to have more relaxed play.
Playing on Linux nicely (would be nice if it was properly packaged and unpacked to new subdirectory, not current directory - common mistake for people not using Linux). Also, I do not know if Godot supports this, but a Linux build for arm64 would be also cool (i.e. to play on Raspberry Pi and similar).
Also, maybe it is not a good idea to include a Bear in the tutorial? :D Or maybe actually it is. Not sure. I bumped production of barracks immediately, but still lost, and it was sad to loss few minutes of progress.
Hi! Thanks for your kind words.
Aside from the soundtrack, Hive Time was made entirely on Linux. As noted on the article you came from, I've written for GOL from time to time.
Itch's incremental uploader tool butler handles compression. I can't remember whether it makes tarbombs by default or I left a trailing slash in when writing my build scripts, but either way, most archive utilities stick tarbomb contents in a folder automatically AFIK, so it's never been high on my priority list to investigate - you're the first person that I can recall mentioning it in the past two years.
I'll make note and if it's something I can resolve at this end, I'll look at doing it next time I have a patch big enough to remove the advantage of deltas (such as an engine update).
One of the game's testers plays the game on a raspberry pi from time to time (I assume they're running the game's data file with an arm version of the engine). I've never been able to get the game running well enough to justify officially targeting low powered devices, though.
The tutorial doesn't include any events, and it lasts the full duration of your first Queen's reign, so you're always going to end up with typical hive stuff happening along the way.
All of the event lists are shuffled when starting a new game, so whether Bear Attack ends up occurring at all during a given Queen's lifespan is down to chance. Old Bitey also won't appear until after your hive has reached a certain size, and the maximum amount of damage he does is about 20% percentage of the hive's size (usually less), so it scales to be appropriate for a given hive.
Unlike SimCity, which was Hive Time's biggest influence, all of Hive Time's disasters can be averted or avoided with a little planning and/or responsiveness. Encountering setbacks and learning how to recover from/avoid them is a big part of the experience in my mind, but there's a "skip disasters" option when starting a new game if it's not your kind of thing.
Were there any stylistic choices in particular you felt interfered with gameplay?
I appreciate you making this game. 🙂
Thank you for saying. I hope you find many happy hours in Hive Time :)
Damn. I've had this exact idea running around my head for about 10 years, and even started building it in Unity. But I'm a programmer not a game designer so I couldn't flesh out the mechanics to make it fun, or find someone with those skills to work with me. I haven't played this yet but it looks like you've achieved that, congratulations! It's cool to see pretty much exactly what I envisioned in my head come to life (he says through gritted teeth...)
I admire your 'pay-what-you-want' model, I do that for all my C64 releases. At the same time I don't think anyone would begrudge this being on Steam and reaching a much bigger audience. After all, if you haven't got $10, you probably haven't got the PC capable of playing it....
Goodness, there's a bit to unpack here. First up, thanks for your kind words! I hope that you find Hive Time interesting.
Your project sounds interesting, but from the screenshot alone, it looks like a different kind of sim with its depths along axes that Hive Time glosses over (eg: Hive Time's bees do not have health or per-role skills, and temperature is not a mechanic). In my mind, Hive Time is an allegorical game about concerns relevant to human communities rather than a game about the specifics of bees, and it looks like your concept is more focused on that - which is neat!
IMO, the most intrinsic aspect of a creative work is who it was made by. We can't make things without expressing who we are and the contexts we exist in through them, and no two people can ever really manifest the same idea in exactly the same way. The nuance that would separate them is what makes them interesting. There's no need to feel like Hive Time exiting diminishes your own ideas or your enthusiasm for them - the more bee games, the better, I say!
I released Hive Time as a pay-what-you-want game specifically so that I could have a case study of an exclusively PWYW game that I could study and write about. I could ship the game on Steam (and goodness knows I could use any additional revenue right now), but since Steam doesn't offer PWYW options and Steam's publishing agreement explicitly restricts me from talking about other platforms, I wouldn't even be able to make its primary identity as a PWYW game known to prospective players on Steam. That's not something I'm willing to embrace, since it would undermine what I set out to achieve with the game.
At this time, Hive Time's had over 60,000 downloads. No matter which way I slice it, that's a bigger audience than I had expected or wanted.
Given the number of people who have contacted me to tell me that they found Hive Time during a time when they were not able to afford to buy games, I can say with certainty that there are people out there who don't have $10 but do have access to a computer that can run the game. For whatever it's worth, I have one player who has the game running on their Raspberry Pi 3.
Really valuable comment and reply.
"We can't make things without expressing who we are and the contexts we exist in through them, and no two people can ever really manifest the same idea in exactly the same way."
I can only agree to this.
This looks like an interesting project and the only thing I would think about are the bee's heads but it could be a style decision. If the programming is solid and the gameplay is fun, following e.g. "Velma" could be a lot of fun. Hive Time focused on handling everything at once. While it is entirely valid to follow a similiar approach you could also let the player accompany a single bee and her daily struggle (maybe even switch bees early/later). What happens outside the hive? How does the bee regulate her body temperature or how is the food aquired?
10 years is a long time. You could probably find someone by creating a short yt vid about it or get help on discord (there are several focused on unity).
Having the game running on a Raspberry is cool. I think there is something special when you begin to understand that certain software can basically be run on any device today. Like the moments when you download Godot or Terraria and you look at the MB.
I started playing and it seems like its got a robust and well thought out system, but I wish there was a way to make the text bigger. The menus, the HUD, even the tutorial pop ups are all super small, and playing is straining my eyes. Going into full screen mode doesn't make a difference, either. Is there a menu option somewhere I'm missing to alter text size? I'll be excited to return to the game if there's a solution to this issue.
Hi! Sorry to hear that you're having trouble with the game's text.
If you're playing the game on a "high DPI" display, you can try launching the game with the following command line argument, which should render the entire game at a lower resolution, but stretched out to be the same size.
You can replace the game's fonts with fonts that have larger native sizes, but unfortunately, the game's UI isn't set up to scale. There are a bunch of cases where text extends beyond where it should or ends up with undesirable scrollbars, so it's not something that I want to advertise as a supported feature.
I got this in the racial justice bundle (and im finally going through and checking all that out xD) anyway, i havent had time to do sit down and long play of this but its very fun and well made and im excited to play more! I love building and resource management games ^^
Thanks for your kind words! I hope you continue to find enjoyment in it :)
So to my knowledge, I've never really played a resource management game, but now I'm really I to the genre!
This is a great casual game that I ended up playing quite a bit before bed to decompress after work.
I like the idea of turning a hive into a buzzing little factory, and every bee has its purpose. Skimping on any of them can lead to great consequences down the road, like a lack of needed resources, extensions not being built, or even just no bees at all (tip, keep your baby sitter numbers high)
My only thing is I wish that moving things I had built were possible. Like at the start you just build around you because that's what you've got, but eventually I broke up my hive into areas so all of my map rooms and exits are in one space, also next to the pollen storage for easy drop offs, and the factories are on the other side. But to do that it meant demolishing and rebuilding things, which isn't bad, but I wish it were easier. I think I loose resources by doing it as I'm now loosing a storage unit full of pollen so I can move it across the hive.
It's very relaxing, but I probably won't change hives in the future as I now know what all I need and want to build a little bee society 😁🐝
Thanks for your kind words and for sharing! It's really nice to hear that Hive Time has whet your appetite for management sims :)
You will lose some of the resources spent on constructing the cells you're destroying (by default, destruction gives back half of the current construction cost). If you have enough redundant storage cells to hold your entire current stock of a resource, you won't lose any of that stored resource when destroying its storage cells.
My intention is that this promotes hive expansion, leading players to build bigger on their early hives rather than reconfiguring a limited space while they're still learning. Ideally, this pushes the challenge of chasing highly optimised spaces for players' subsequent hives, where the fiddliness of destruction and potential loss of resources help provide some constraints that make that kind of gameplay a tiny bit more technical.
If you do decide you want to start a new hive, the game will automatically make a save of your previous hive just before you left so that you can go back and load it up if you change your mind. There are a couple of things that won't happen on your first hive, but playing a single hive forever is a valid way to play ^_^
This Game is amazing, a inspiration for make games on Godot.
Thanks for your kind words!
Maaaan the game's good.
I don't have a penny, but I'm gonna make the most advertisement I can around it!
Thank you so much! I'm really glad that the game is accessible to people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it, especially in these difficult times.
Hello, will the game be released on Steam?
Hi! I currently have no plans to ship Hive Time on Steam.
As mentioned in the FAQ, I am committed to only releasing Hive Time on platforms that allow pay-what-you-want pricing with a $0 minimum, do not require an account to purchase or play, and do not require a download/launcher client in order to play (the Itch app is cool, though!). If/when Steam gets those features, I'll be happy to consider it.
just recently found this game and I am a huge fan already! As a lover of Base Building and Base Management games this one is super fun and super cute! I’ll definitely be doing a deep dive in Hive Time eventually and I can easily say it’s worth the $10. Nice one devs thank you!
Edit: I also love bees so this game was just a win win for me
A little bit about myself! I’m Yung MuShu! I’m a content creator on YouTube and Twitch! On YouTube I have a primary focus on anything Indie and Itch.io and on Twitch I’m a variety streamer with a great community! If you like what you see please drop a like or sub or even check out the Twitch! Thank you!
Thanks for playing and for sharing! I love seeing people take those first steps with their first hive :)
Hi! Thanks for your kind words.
For Hive Time, I am specifically committed to (among other things) only distributing the game via storefronts that offer a pay-what-you-want model.
For my free/Free projects, I think I'd rather work with downstream package maintainers within the distro communities that my players are a part of so that experiences can be tailored to those suit those users' distros. Flathub is not for me.
I think it's important to recognise here that the Itch app is a package management platform itself, and nesting package managers within package managers seems both disruptive and counterproductive (see the hurdles and conflicts that can come from language-specific package managers).
Note that historically, Itch have historically been open to distributing their app through other game distribution platforms, so maybe that's something that might happen.
I don't do mobile stuff either, sorry.
Good job I can tell you put a lot of thought into the way everything works, I'm looking forward to playing it more tonight.
Cheers, I hope you continue to find it interesting!
fantastic game. Reminds me of how much I loved clash of clans. Very polished, fun and addictive. I'm absolutely recommending this to people.
Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad to hear it's resonated with you :)
So this game is super fun so far. My only complaint is as far as i can tell there is no fast forward button and that kinda sucks. but it is cute and relaxing and all the fun facts is so cool!
Thanks for your kind words! :)
If it's helpful, here are some thoughts on why Hive Time doesn't have time controls.
I experimented with time controls very early in development and found that it made it more difficult for players to observe the hive's details, which in turn affected how much room there was for being thoughtful about the impact of management decisions as well as how responsive players could be to unfolding situations (all of which are key to the game's intended experience in my eyes).
In most situations, there are ways that the game's management systems expose ways of speeding things up (eg: rebalancing population diversity to help research finish sooner or using pollination to increase pollen/nectar throughput). Time controls also seemed like they would take away any time that players could use to experiment and discover these sorts of things. In the end, leaving room for players to engage with gameplay to optimise their experience felt like the right thing to do.
Time controls are common in management sims, so I definitely understand that many players will expect them and be disappointed when they're not available. Hive Time intentionally bucks or subverts a number of genre conventions, and it's my hope that I've found ways to make it approachable and enjoyable for players regardless.
Hope that sheds some light!
I have the opposite @BloodAngelBa. I feel the game can be a bit too fast sometime and for me it lessens the feeling of serenity when playing. But it's still a wonderful game. Thank you!
/Bo
Thanks for your kind words also!
If it's helpful to know, the default Queen lifespan gives a lot of room for going slow, and the game won't punish you if you don't meet the 600 Jelly goal in time (unless you ticked the "Unforgiving game over" FYOF option when starting a new game). There are also FYOF options for disabling events and disasters, which can reduce the number of things competing for your attention.
Sorry I think my comment was a bit unclear. It is during the mid game segment I feel it can be a bit too fast. It's not that the goal of 600 jelly that is "the problem" (calling it a problem is a huge understatement), It's keeping track of everything for example balancing population and managing production. But it's probably just me getting overwhelmed a bit too easily and it's only for a short time. All this is extreme nitpicking. Your suggestion to disable events/disasters is great but it's also a great tools to learn the mechanics of the game and really satisfying to overcome.
Two other things:
1. I know you consider the game as finished, but are you considering more additions to the gameplay. For example goals/win conditions or more modifiers (like limiting upgrades).
2. I've run in to some problems that might be bugs (at least one of them). When reaching a population limit of about 1500 I can't seem to reach it regardless if I turn bee-sitters to 100%. It hovers around 800 bees. The problem might be that my computer is too slow.
I also found that when accessing Bee-pedia from the upgraded wax assembler you get the message "Something went wrong. It turns out that the 'wax_assembler' topic doesn't exist or isn't unlocked".
Regardless of all this the game is great and I've played it at least a hundred times. When I get a job again I will give a generous donation as a thanks for all your great work.
Thanks for the clarification and apologies or the assumption - I didn't realise you were talking about the mid-game!
Do you feel like resource needs/shortages drive a log of the instability/need for population and production management? I wanted the resource reserve system to give players some non-disruptive controls for managing/mitigating the impact of resource shortfalls, but I also wanted to structure the game so that players would likely experience friction first so that they would appreciate and understand how to use the reserve sliders when they got them.
Regarding point 1, I always wanted Hive Time to be a space where once a player had demonstrated that they understood the game's broad strokes, they could explore the extents of the simulation by setting their own goals. I've since discovered that many players aren't primed for that kind of experience, and I popped some suggestions in the "What now?" topic of the Beepedia's Help/Tips category. That said, "scenarios" were something that I had on my roadmap for what would have been the game's last major content update if things had've turned out differently.
To give some clarity to point 2, the under-the-hood mechanic for processing Beesitter labour allows up to three bees' worth of "birth debt" to be accumulated if the population is at its limit. This allows up to three bees to be spawned immediately at once as the population fluctuates so that there's no waiting period before the next bee appears. Because of this, your population will never be able to go above three bees per "tick" (a unit of game time that is not directly frame rate dependent, but will get longer if the game is running slowly) from Beesitter labour alone.
Whenever a new bee spawns at an upgraded nursery, there's a random chance for twins, which happens regardless of Beesitters or birth debt, so not having regular nurseries can push you a tiny bit higher, but there's still a theoretical limit that's affected by performance. It's also worth noting that Upgraded Beesitters' labour is worth more, so they'll reach that limit with fewer bees, making the maximum number of bees smaller (but the size of the non-Beesitter population would still be as large).
The most I've heard of someone having in the wild is 1800 bees, but I've tweaked how Beesitter labour is processed since then and haven't done a lot of thorough testing of where the fuzzy boundaries lie since. I might poke around with that next time I stream.
The Beepedia error is definitely a bug. I launched a new game today and need to give that most of my attention for a little while, but I'll get a patch with a fix for that out soon. Thanks!
Thanks again for your kind words. It's always nice to hear when Hive Time has resonated with someone. I'm very glad that Hive Time's pay-what-you-want model has prevented Hive Time from being a burden during a difficult time, and I hope your situation improves soon.
v1.2 for mac is quote
“Hive Time” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash.
which is why I played v1.1
v1.1's bees kept glitching when my resources are at max so now im waiting for v1.3
It's a good game from what I can tell from v1.1
Hi! Sorry to hear that you're experiencing troubles.
v1.2-77 works on my Macs. As part of ongoing initiatives under the guise of "security," Apple have been making it progressively harder for developers to distribute games without engaging in Apple's distribution mechanisms, which is part of why I do not officially support anything newer than 10.14.
My best guess is that MacOS has "quarantined" Hive Time, and is displaying the "Hive Time is damaged" error when it would historically have shown a warning about the application being from an "unidentified developer." I'm uncertain why this is affecting the v1.2 build for you and not the v1.1 build, but you may be able to use the xattr command line tool with the -cr options to remove the quarantine flag from Hive Time.app.
Alternatively, you can install and run Hive Time through the Itch App, which will bypass that nonsense.
I would be interested to hear more about the glitching you were experiencing. If you have a save or a log file you're willing to share, please send that along with a description of the behaviour you were seeing to the support address listed in the "Technical help" section here on the store page.
Hope that helps!
That helped a lot. Thanks
although the it's still glitchy it's playable and fun
I would like to hear more about the glitches you are experiencing. I haven't had any reports or seen anything during testing/development that matches that description.
If you have a save or a log file you're willing to share, please send that along with a description of the behaviour you 're seeing and some screenshots (if it's visible in screenshots) to the support address listed in the "Technical help" section here on the store page.
the glitch makes the game "shake" varying in severity, it's usually the bees flashing out of existence and then coming back but some times the map would also "shake" and "flash"
Hmm, definitely haven't heard of anything like that before. You're saying it only happens when storage is full, and stops once you use some resources or construct more storage? If the game is running slowly, does this still happen if you disable shadows and particles, and turn antialiasing off in the Video Settings menu?
I'd definitely be keen to see a log file and some system specs (in particular CPU, RAM, graphics chipset, and VRAM, but a model number should be enough for me to look that up if you're on Apple hardware). If you're able to get a short video, that would be helpful too. Best to send those through via email, since the log contains your home folder path when outputting where it saves games to.
Hi! I haven't seen any of the files/information I requested come through. If you've send them and they didn't make it to me, let me know!
I have the same problem with 1.2 on Catalina. The "unidentified developer" message is something different. I get that too with other apps and know how to fix it. It's not that.
Without more information, there's not much I can do. If you could answer the questions and provide the information requested in this post, that will help me look into the problem.
Hi! I haven't seen any of the files/information I requested come through. If you've send them and they didn't make it to me, let me know!
There is no video I can send you. The app doesn't start. I get an error message, which is in German and says exactly what UnoTheCard already posted. It includes a button with a question mark. If I click that button, I get to the explanation telling me "The app has been modified and its code differs from the original signed code." My machine is a mid-2012 MacBook Pro Retina running Catalina. Hope that helps.
Oh, I see! Since I'd given UniTheCard a solution, I had misread and assumed that you were talking about the visual glitching they also reported.
Launching the game through the Itch app should get you up and running. Alternatively, using the xattr command line tool with -cr flags on Hive Time.app should make it behave, but if you're not familiar with working in a terminal, that's likely to be fiddly.
Sorry for the mixup!
try this:
1) download the game, extract the zip and move the game into your Applications folder.
2) in a terminal type "xattr -cr /Applications/Hive\ Time.app"
3) open/ run the game as normal
If you enable Debug Mode, there's are shortcuts available to increase resource caps and give resources. You can find more information under the "Cheats and debug controls" section in the FAQ here on the store page.
Hope that helps!
Enjoy!
doesnt save progress
Hi! The game autosaves every 10 minutes (unless you turn that off), and you can do manual saves either by going to the main menu and selecting save, or by pressing the quick save button. What exactly is the problem that you're experiencing?
Hi, thanks for replying. & Oh, ok. I didn't know it automatically saved. I also didn't know about the quick save button, which mainly solves the problem. The main menu save still is broken I'm pretty sure because it closes the game and when it reopens, it didn't save.
Going to the save menu shouldn't be closing the game.
Can you send me a copy of the game log from a play session where you've tried to save from the main menu to the address listed under the "Technical help" section here on the store page (instructions on where to find logs are in the "Log, save, and config file locations" section)?
Yes, I just sent an email to that address with the log attached.
Thanks! I sent through a test build with extra logging. If you haven't received that, let me know.
Nice 5 Stars.
Thanks for your kind words ^_^
Super excited about playing this game! :). I'm getting the sound garbled/stuttering issue upon opening the game. I hear it through the main games audio and when mousing over UI elements. I tried lowering the Bee Sound Count but nothing happened (probably cuse I'm only on the menu). Any ideas on how to solve this? Running a gaming computer, I'm 95% sure the problem isn't on my end.
It seems its only happening with my headphones(bluetooth) and not my speakers. But my headphones work fine for everything else. (Arctic 7 headphones)
Hi! Sorry to hear you're experiencing problems.
Without knowing more about your system, I can't offer much insight. Since it's working happily with one soundcard and not another, I'd be looking at differences in sample rate, etc. between their configurations.
Hi! Sorry to hear you're experiencing problems. If you could please email details of your system specs along with a copy of the game log if one exists to the address listed under Technical Help here on the store page, I'll take a look.
Hi again! I haven't spotted an email come through. Are you still experiencing problems?
So,i got this weird thing on the right middle of my screen,it has a timer and a white bar shortening istelf,theres text that says 0% Give honey and 0% Kill builders,what is this?
This is a periodic gift vote that's enabled by default when chat integration is enabled. You can turn it of in the Community Settings menu. You can also press the Show Instructions button in there to get more information on each of the chat integration features.
ok thanks!
Hello! Apologies for the off-topic comment, but I noticed that your recent review of Hive Time mentioned that you'd struggled with the Wax Audit event. In the v1.2-41 patch, the Wax requirement for that event has been reduced, and the effect notification (bottom right) more clearly states what the requirement is as the deadline ticks down.
The gift voting UI now also has "Gift vote" written on it to reduce possible confusion there ^_^
Hope that helps!
thank you or else my hive would be wax only lol
Ha ha, it only would have been 30% Wax storage at most (you needed 3 Wax per cell, and each non-upgraded Wax storage cell holds 10).
Hi! I'm curious, what is your way to store and access hexs in your map grid? Abd why did you choose this approach?
I know that there are a few different approaches to storing hexs. And I want to research this theme a little deeper.
Hi! I used what this site calls "offset coordinates." I didn't have any references, and started by trying to work out the problem myself. Squishing a cartesian coordinate grid with every second row making up the next offset column, felt like the most workable solution, and after my initial implementation, I went hunting for alternatives to see if there were ways that might be a better fit for me/Hive Time. In the end, I was happy with what I had and stuck with it.
I had a delightful time with this! It reminds me of playing Sim Ant but in an even more fun, adorable way. <3
Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed the game :)
I hadn't played SimAnt until after Hive Time was released, but the original 1989 SimCity provided a lot of inspiration. I wrote a little about that here if you're interested.
That was really cool to read... I can definitely see how the inspirations shaped this game into the unique shape it took at the end! And I'm glad they did, because things like the playful little events happening in the hive and outside events like caterpillars needing jelly for ballet shoes and yellowjackets doing building demos really helped give it such a cute, fun personality beyond the simulation, and kept me playing long past my first hive becoming a thousand-bee-strong lag machine. :D
Yay! :D
So many management sims put effort into abstracting the people within the simulation in a way that often ends up dehumanising them. Hive Time's events, vignettes and the ability to inspect/follow any bee were ways that I tried to make the game say that even in a generational community, each individual matters ^_^
Sorry to hear you're experiencing troubles. I don't think I've had this sort of problem reported before. Would you mind emailing me a copy of your game log from a play session where this has happened to the address listed under the "Technical help" section here on the store page?
Edit: Just to follow up in case anybody else is experiencing graphical glitches with Intel graphics chipsets on Windows, driver 26.20.100.7262 was causing issues that were resolved by 27.20.100.9168.
It's hip to hug bees.
Very much so <3
Hey, I've made a video about the game and wanted to share some feedback with you :D
-The main idea of the game and all the mechanics work very well together and make the game feel pretty solid.-The visual style fits totally the game and makes the gameplay feel very organic.
-The game is pretty well polished and I haven't noticed any strange bug during the time I was playing.
In conclusion, the game is great and I hope you keep working on it or making new games. Hopefully this is useful for you :D, also if you could subscribe that would help me a lot :)
Regards
Thanks for your kind words ^_^
You are welcome :D
Had an amazing time streaming this game (Miss_Ikari here!) , thinks Cheese for dropping by and having fun with the chat integration features :)
Yay! Glad that you had a good time. It was a pleasure to bee there :)
I've not heard of this before. That file is definitely not in the files I've uploaded, and I don't see it in the downloadable versions either.
Without knowing more information, I'd guess that the file is being created by some anti-malware software, possible triggered by the new version check if that has been enabled (there's a prompt on first run that asks whether or not the game should notify when a new version is available, and the setting can also be changed in the System Settings menu).
It would probably be best to follow up with your anti-malware vendor about the specifics of this.