BEES

(another PICO-8 game from me)

Controls

Menu: Z to start game.

Game: UP/DOWN to adjust nectar quota (how much nectar a bee will collect before returning to the hive)
Z (when the 'add bee' icon is visible) to add a bee at a cost of 10 nectar

Game over: Z to restart.

Mechanics

Bees visit flowers for nectar (but they can only find flowers within a certain radius, so they explore if they don't find one right away). Bees collect nectar until they have enough for the quota, then they bring it back to the hive. As the hive accumulates nectar it can produce more bees. Bees have limited lives, but every time a bee dies, a new flower is born somewhere in the garden. Every visit of a bee to a flower adds pollen to the flower, which helps the flower produce more nectar. You can adjust how much the nectar quota is, balancing between bees being away longer (more likely to die without returning their nectar) and bees spending too much time on journeys to the hive (not using time efficiently). You can also add new bees once there is ten or more nectar in the hive.

The game is over when the last bee has died and there is not enough nectar left to add a new one.

(I am not trying for realism in any way with this game!!!)

Commentary

I started with just bees, and they would look around for flowers. Writing rules for entities and seeing how they work is great fun. This game was a slow burn but a great experience. I was flexing my systems design brain gently throughout the month, trying to ride the line between 'there's nothing to do here' and 'this game is asking too much of me'. I think it came out pretty well in that sense. The only interaction from the player (if they even want to interact) is to adjust the nectar quota and get the bees coming back more/less often, or add new bees.

Lexaloffle BBS thread: here.

#onegameamonth March 2019