Plan Bee by JHax

[raw]

made by JHax for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

Game for Ludum Dare 56 with the theme Tiny Creatures.

Lead your bee colony to a fresh new hive!

Fight off predators and guide a swarm of tiny creatures to pastures new.

Play it on itch.io

Made using PixelBox by cstoquer and P2.js by schteppe

EDIT - I've added some more details about how to play the game to the itch.io page - and below!

Connect hives by flying to them - the highlighted hive will connect to the next one you fly to.

The red bugs surrounding the bee are scout bugs - these will fight off the blue hunter bugs that are preying on your colony. Fly near the blue bugs and any scout bugs in your swarm will attack them.

Get 100 bugs from your colony to the Safe Hive - once a bug reaches this special hive it is safe from hunter bugs. Once you've got 100 bugs there, you've won the game (there's something of a new game+ where the Safe Hive is further from the starting point)

End Hive.PNG

Link	https://jhax.itch.io/plan-bee
Link	https://github.com/JHax-94/JHax-GameJams/tree/LD56/release_1_0_0
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/plan-bee

Ratings

Overall	625^th	3.473⭐	39🧑‍⚖️
Fun	554^th	3.392⭐	39🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	280^th	3.622⭐	39🧑‍⚖️
Theme	336^th	3.919⭐	39🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	652^th	3.5⭐	39🧑‍⚖️
Audio	493^th	3.214⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Humor	848^th	2.382⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Mood	784^th	3.243⭐	39🧑‍⚖️
Given		42🗳️	54🗨️

Feedback

Dywanix

08. Oct 2024 · 09:51 UTC

fun and simple game!

Kilig

08. Oct 2024 · 12:11 UTC

I love the concept! It feels pretty fresh since I haven't played anything like it. The game is easy to pick up, but I was a bit unsure about how to defend my hive. Overall, the art and music are great. Nice work!

Dfyzet

08. Oct 2024 · 15:00 UTC

A very unusual concept - it's cool! I like the depth of gameplay in this game. It takes a little bit of figuring out, but then it becomes very interesting

magopian

08. Oct 2024 · 15:03 UTC

I had a hard time understand the goal, or the way to get there? Not sure if I should "attack" (follow?) the bugs, or avoid them? What's the use of the various options, and what are those spots on the ground that light up when I get on them?
I liked the minimalistic graphics and sound, and the concept seems very innovative and original, congratulations!

MrJimbles

08. Oct 2024 · 15:04 UTC

Very cool idea, I had a similar problem to @kilig where I couldnt really work out how to defend myself/the hive well- Maybe if the enemies were a little bigger on the screen it'd be clearer?
All in all though its a very solid entry

barryrichter

08. Oct 2024 · 15:10 UTC

I love the idea of protecting the hive! Fun to fly around and grow the colony

🎤 JHax

08. Oct 2024 · 15:11 UTC

Thanks for all the feedback so far! I was a bit worried I was leaning a bit too into "Tiny Creatures" and away from "visible on the screen" a bit with a few things - @kilig @magopian @mrjimbles I'll have a think about whether I can add some more info here / on the itch page to clear a few things up. Thank you for playing!

rmgraham

08. Oct 2024 · 15:11 UTC

Took me a few tries to really understand how to play but it was fun once I did. I found it very hard to see the little blue enemies

Sharky3188

09. Oct 2024 · 05:29 UTC

I struggled a bit with understanding how i was meant to be playing the game. Overall though i liked the premise and i found myself quiet engaged regardless of how well i understood it.

Skvader_418

09. Oct 2024 · 14:11 UTC

![Screenshot_2025.png](///raw/cc7/b2/z/6848e.png)

Excellent game! The game is easy to understand and challenging to some degree. Failed the first 2 times. I didn't realize that you can get killed aswell. Only thing I had a gripe with is that while flying I would accidentally activate one of those checkpoint things.

WhaleJam

09. Oct 2024 · 21:46 UTC

So cute! Totally understood what was going on and love trailing out the line of tiny bees. I wasnt sure how the pilot bee died though, couldnt see a health bar? so wasnt sure what to do about fighting the evil bees, but I kind of figured it out enough to get by and grow the bee army ^^

Miku

10. Oct 2024 · 03:36 UTC

I really like the art and style of this game! It was actually pretty fun to fly around and connect the dots so to speak as well, although I wish I was a lot faster to get to the threats! I found myself going for another run as soon as I was killed.

LDJam user 296412

10. Oct 2024 · 12:39 UTC

Music and art are really great!
Game was pretty fun

Good job!

DeerCat

10. Oct 2024 · 13:13 UTC

Simple but nice art style, the sfx were a bit annoying, and constant popups were disrupting the game flow, I think you probably should have made them more impactfull and more spread in time. Game was a bit laggy for me from time to time. But as a jam entry nice job on finishing your project

spacecadet

10. Oct 2024 · 19:57 UTC

Really cool and polished entry. I liked the simplistic art style but realizing where the enemies where took a few rounds. It took a few rounds also to understand what I was supposed to do I ended up dying not really knowing what happened. Maybe the simplistic art style worked a bit against that. Anyways with a few quality of life improvements this would be even more enjoyable strategy game.

Jarrrkob

10. Oct 2024 · 21:22 UTC

Very innovative game concept/idea!

Nikolas van Rus

11. Oct 2024 · 00:10 UTC

Great game! It was really interesting to play. The graphics, despite their simplicity, are incredibly cute and immersive in the atmosphere of the game, good job!

Chuckiee

11. Oct 2024 · 14:47 UTC

As always I've jumped in without reading anything and actually got pretty far, until my main bee was destroyed because I was out of scouts. Then I understood what the orange things for :smile: It's been a while since I played this kind of game where you send "troops". Feels like a complete game tbh, my only feedback is orange guys attacking blue isn't that visible (I know I should've read :D) Very good entry!

Lunaria Rava

13. Oct 2024 · 12:54 UTC

I misread the instructions and constantly tried to escape the red bugs on my first run :confounded:

The idea is definitely great, but the game is quite unclear at times, I found it hard to follow what is happening. The upgrades pop up a bit too often in my opinion, disrupting gameplay quite a bit.
But with some polishing this could turn into an awesome game!

Exa

15. Oct 2024 · 07:14 UTC

Nice game,very interesting plot!!!!Nice job!!!!

byshla

17. Oct 2024 · 18:19 UTC

The game is nice! I was especially impressed by the idea, and the visuals and atmosphere is amazing. Keep making games, you're a true master at it, don’t give up!

Flightless

21. Oct 2024 · 13:10 UTC

Nice one, I liked the bee migration mechanic. But I was not sure on how to deal with the enemies.

🎤 JHax

21. Oct 2024 · 15:53 UTC

Been meaning to get back to people for ages - but I've had a busy couple of weeks! Thanks so much for all the feedback, lovely to hear that it's clicking with people. There's a lot of valid criticisms out there about things being a bit too small. I'm planning on having a go at adjusting the size of things (along with some of the balance) once the jam's over. Really appreciate folks for taking the time to get past it not being super clear what's going on to begin with!

Brainloaf Studio

22. Oct 2024 · 20:47 UTC

There's something so charming about building a web of connections and watching all your little dudes head out and get to work. I like the upgrade system and how things slowly spiral over time (at least for me they did lol). It was a bit tricky to get a handle on things at first, as I wasn't sure exactly how to progress the tutorial, but I really appreciate the complexity here. Good stuff!

moi93101

25. Oct 2024 · 00:03 UTC

I think one part is too long (maybe I didn't see a way to speed it up) but I like the style and I still got hooked until I finished!