LudumData

Honey Empire by chriiis88

[raw]
made by chriiis88 for LD 40 (JAM)

Manage your bee colony. Sell honey to get money. Buy upgrades and further bees to improve your honey production. Reach 10000 honey to win. Bees have a happiness value that is displayed below their name. If you sell their honey, they will become unhappy (there is an upgrade for that!). If it reaches 0 they will go on strike. Fall and winter seasons also make them unhappy while spring an summer makes them happy. Hover over the upgrades to see their effect.

Screen Shot 2017-12-04 at 22.39.21.png

Screen Shot 2017-12-04 at 22.39.09.png

Ideas for post jam version: - More events (maybe different texts for the same event) - ingame "how to play" - some nice music - some more upgrades to improve late game - upgrade for the "sell honey" button instead of two buttons - display hover descriptions immediately - better display for happiness - improve bee flying behavior

HTML5 (web) https://cwiep.itch.io/honey-empire
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/honey-empire

Ratings

Overall 862th 3.12⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 688th 3.18⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 544th 3.188⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1140th 2.023⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 965th 2.674⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 454th 3.167⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

Octopal
05. Dec 2017 · 09:09 UTC
I enjoyed it so much that I just spent $5000 on beekeeper equipment.
gaschrom music person
05. Dec 2017 · 09:22 UTC
It took me a few tries to figure out how the game works, hovering over the options didn't always work. But once I got it I loved it and I got 10000 honey, which I first thought was a bit too much but now I think it's just right. Good job :)
Dioinecail
05. Dec 2017 · 21:00 UTC
Hello, the game was interesting at first, but then i found myself mashing touchpad to sell honey in winter and buy bees in spring..

I would suggest putting jokes about bees' deaths in the chatlog, that would make it more fun to play, and not just mash touchpad. i suppose you've spent a lot of time on designing the bees system.

I find it interesting that management games can be quite interesting here on the LD.

Keep making games tho! :)
picapica
17. Dec 2017 · 15:11 UTC
I love the "ugly" artstyle, especially the bees themselves. I guess I was lucky (or is it perhaps my experience as an actual beekeeper that helps?), because I never had any problems, and after buying everything I let it run while having dinner so that I got to "win". Not the most satisfying victory perhaps, but I had to try since you set the goal at 10000. But now that I think about it, did it actually get worse the more there was? Anyway, I liked the little stories about my individual bees, and there were lots of funny little details!
FrozenFractal
17. Dec 2017 · 16:09 UTC
Nice one! Cute graphics overall, especially with the season progressing, and the winter hats are really adorable.

It doesn't really fit in with the theme though: it gets better (easier) the more you have. A winning strategy is to keep selling all your honey in winter, strikes be damned, buying all the upgrades in order, and then buy as many bees as you can in spring.

On the subject of keeping animals, you might find some interesting parallels between your game and ours :)
UmSingeloPugManco
18. Dec 2017 · 13:12 UTC
Hey, can you explain to me what was the your on the theme?

Congrats on your first LD and thanks for a web version! =)
🎤 chriiis88
18. Dec 2017 · 13:19 UTC
@umsingelopugmanco What do you mean by "the your"? It was, in fact, my 4th LD (6 if you count unfinished ones), but the other ones were before the new website.
UmSingeloPugManco
18. Dec 2017 · 13:27 UTC
@chriiis88
Can you explain to me what was your take on the theme?*
Sorry for the lack of coffee.

Oh, didn't know they "wiped" the other LDs. Congratulations on the game anyways!
boorik
18. Dec 2017 · 14:55 UTC
Honeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Good game. IMHO the blind upgrade is a bit too powerful.

I beat it fast with it.

Good job. I really enjoy playing.
🎤 chriiis88
18. Dec 2017 · 15:01 UTC
@umsingelopugmanco The idea was that hundreds of bees should be harder to handle than a small swarm. I guess, I got too caught up in making the simulation that there wasn't much time left for the late game balancing and making it actually difficult ;)
shemoKam
18. Dec 2017 · 15:12 UTC
I like the idea but I think you made it "the more you have the better it gets"

I like how the bees gets angry at me when they have a bad day and see me selling their honey XD

keep it up !
Pete
18. Dec 2017 · 16:14 UTC
A cute little game, I like the upgrades you have made and the art somehow fits very well together. The base game play however doesn't feature that much to do. The changing price concept is interesting, maybe it could had involved more than selling honey when it's snowy and buying bees then it's sunny. Maybe some more random events, I think you already have some where a bee can die early.
Tinis Games
18. Dec 2017 · 19:09 UTC
As already said, I like the idea but I don't think it is really related to the theme. Right now, the more bees, the better. I'll be curious to see your game with the evolutions you wanted to add :)
phi
18. Dec 2017 · 21:00 UTC
Love the programmer art. :thumbsup:

The game actually seems to be quite well balanced -- until all the upgrades have been acquired, then it's just spam clicking the two remaining buttons. I decided to stop when I was at about 200 bees and I couldn't keep up with selling the honey they produced:
![Unbenannt.png](///raw/182/z/ea9d.png)
Maybe it would be interesting if you had to look after the flowers/plants where they collect the nectar as well. Also, you could introduce natural phenomena such as bad weather or drought. In turn, you could slow down the whole gameplay a lot and make all the information a bit easier to keep track of. There may bee a lot of potential in this...
🎤 chriiis88
19. Dec 2017 · 00:02 UTC
> There may bee a lot of potential in this

@phi I see what you did there :D

Thanks for the comment. The late game was actually meant to be rather chaotic. That being said, it was not meant to be a spam-two-buttons game, so I agree that there is definitely some improvement that can be made.

About your 217 bees: I think it would have been enough to just let them produce the 10000 honey necessary to win without all of them dying on the way.
Rialgar
20. Dec 2017 · 22:20 UTC
I have not much to add, I liked the hats and the protesting signs.
Fork0
20. Dec 2017 · 23:41 UTC
Loved the game. I violated my mouse ;(