{"author_link":"\/users\/balimaarthebassfish","author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":1297676,"comments":[{"id":1127228,"author_name":"LDJam user 236545","author_uid":"236545","epoch":1744082460,"text":"The artwork was nice; I enjoyed the fleshy organic look of the walls. Even the death animation had a lot of polish to it (and yeah... I saw that animation many times).\n\nI was trying to kill all of the bugs, and several times ran out of ammo during the boss fight. It seems that ammo dropping is random, and sometimes you get less ammo back than you spend. I tried conserving bullets by using the melee attack, but I don't think I understood how to do it right, because it almost always got me killed immediately. I eventually won by getting a lucky run where I avoided shooting as much as possible. And I had so much ammo that run that I took my revenge on every last bug in the room. The revenge was well earned. After many, many tries, I had finally saved reality:\n\n![Screenshot 2025-04-07 201526.png](\/\/\/raw\/10c\/93\/z\/6b320.png)\n\nGreat work! Also, hehe:\n\n> and the sheer will to bee victorious","format":"md","likes":3,"spam":"N"},{"id":1127350,"author_name":"Bizzybee","author_uid":"bizzybee","epoch":1744083951,"text":"@andrewkennedy Thank you so much!! Yeah, I too had the same issue with ammo\/melee and we did talk about it, but ended up not changing anything in the onslaught of everything we needed to get done. I'm glad you showed those bees who's boss! Or I suppose in their case, queen? :P I'm so glad you enjoyed the game and again, thank you so much for the comment, it means a lot. Let us know if you end up trying endless mode, and how far you're able to get if so! :)","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1127536,"author_name":"SiilicaC","author_uid":"siilicac","epoch":1744086164,"text":"loved the honey comb hearts i thought it was a really nice artistic touch the constant but not too loud buzzing was a nice touch on sound design, i'm not one for challenges so i called it quits when i ran out of ammo at the boss fight but overall the game was fun!","format":"md","likes":3,"spam":"N"},{"id":1127559,"author_name":"Bizzybee","author_uid":"bizzybee","epoch":1744086430,"text":"@siilicac Thank you! I was really proud of the hearts haha. I was delighted when I figured out one of the instruments I chose sounded like a bee when I oscillated between two notes on it, so I had to include that in the music. I really appreciate you taking the time to play, and your comments about the art and audio! <3","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1127601,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744087040,"text":"@andrewkennedy\n\nCheers for playing our game :) How did the randomly generated levels feel to you? Early on I coded the ammo loot drop to at least drop what it would take to kill the bees - which assumes 100% accuracy which is not easy. In the end I had it set so that 75% of the time the big bee and small bee would drop 1-5 more ammo than it took hits to kill them. Otherwise it would drop less. In hindsight I probably should have set the profit to be up to the max health value of the entity you were attacking. I spent a fair amount of time on balance and unfortunately this is something I missed.\n\n@siilicac \nMy apologies! I didnt balance the ammo drops properly. How dd the procedurally generated levels feel?","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1127669,"author_name":"LDJam user 236545","author_uid":"236545","epoch":1744088075,"text":"@balimaarthebassfish The procedural generation was good! The only time it ever stood out as odd was a time when the level was literally just 2 rooms with the goal right there. And I needed all the help that I could get, so I wasn't mad about it haha.","format":"md","likes":3,"spam":"N"},{"id":1127900,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744092189,"text":"@andrewkennedy excellent to hear! the initial implementation of that algorithm was my work and its good to see it works well :) That scenario must have been one of the earlier levels where levels are kept smaller on purpose. We dont spawn many enemies in the early levels and it just made sense to make the levels smaller otherwise youre wandering around the maze for a couple minutes doing almost nothing. The algorithm also has its occasional quirks too.\n\nTo explain it quickly, an invisible walker basically runs a quick journey and where they walk unlocks tiles for the level. Where the walker stops is the room where the exit is spawned. So you might have had an occasion where the walker looped back on itself a little.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1128152,"author_name":"oxnh","author_uid":"oxnh","epoch":1744096627,"text":"Pretty cool. The most fun I had was when I ran out of ammo and had to schmoove past all the enemies, I of course died on the boss stage on level 3 after that though. I thought the player animation was funny, reminded me of some of the goofy background animation from smiling friends. The game looks good, but all the assets including the text look pretty blurry in full screen.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1128217,"author_name":"Bizzybee","author_uid":"bizzybee","epoch":1744097442,"text":"@oxnh My main method in many of my playthroughs was just running around the bees to the exit and seeing if I could make it so I feel you there haha. Were you playing the web build version, or the desktop itch.io window version perchance? I don't believe that issue comes up in the downloaded versions, but I'm curious to know. Thank you for your comment and I hope you had a great time playing! :) I'm so glad you liked the animations, I amused myself with the death animation in particular.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1128240,"author_name":"oxnh","author_uid":"oxnh","epoch":1744097681,"text":"@bizzybee I was playing the web build so I guess that explains the weirdness.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1128327,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744098779,"text":"@oxnh Yeah that's our bad my friend! We didnt test a web build at all I think until we created one for submission and at that point we only made sure it worked. Its definitely the web build thats messing with us here. How did you find the procedurally generated levels?","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1128427,"author_name":"oxnh","author_uid":"oxnh","epoch":1744099902,"text":"@balimaarthebassfish The procedural generation is sick. I didn't realise initially because I didn't read the description. Yeah +rep for that.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1129922,"author_name":"Kamile V.","author_uid":"kamile-v","epoch":1744114694,"text":"thanks 4 the game! :)","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1129926,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744114733,"text":"@kamile-v thank you for playing!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1130152,"author_name":"nojoule","author_uid":"nojoule","epoch":1744116531,"text":"Made it to the end after a couple of attempts. I like that you need to be careful with your ammo. Sometimes when trying to go around enemies, they can get stuck on you and i don't like that it's game over when running out of ammo, otherwise no real issues. Solid jam game!","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1130223,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744117060,"text":"@nojoule thanks for playing our game :)\n\nits not quite game over when you run out of ammo though! the character can still punch :)\n\nlet us know if you give the Endless mode a go and see how deep you can delve!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1130345,"author_name":"Alexis Brochec","author_uid":"alexis-brochec","epoch":1744118130,"text":"great entry, really cool concept.\nSadly I got stuck with an enemy that would not 'recreate bullet', letting me without any amo.\nGood job","format":"md","likes":3,"spam":"N"},{"id":1130573,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744120009,"text":"@alexis-brochec Thanks for playing! Did you know your player can punch the bees? its right click with the mouse.\n\nLet us know if you take on the Endless mode and tell us how far you manage to go!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1134454,"author_name":"BangKerpow","author_uid":"bangkerpow","epoch":1744147163,"text":"The art, music, and gameplay are all very good here but the ammo system really stands out. \n\nI couldn't get the punch to work and when I tried my controller it seemed like it didn't account for any deadzone. This could be my controller though, since I don't use it very often. (You can see me messing with the controller in the first few minutes.)\n\nThe ammo system forced me to try different ways of playing, which was awesome. I tried, and failed, just running around guys. Then I started counting my shots so I wouldn't end up with multiple bullets in the air that would disappear as they flew past a dead enemy. This worked much better.\n\nThe boss level was a nice challenge and again, the sound and art are fantastic. \n\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/Wwli2C7toz0","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1134662,"author_name":"Bizzybee","author_uid":"bizzybee","epoch":1744148585,"text":"@bangkerpow Aw, it's so awesome to get a video to watch! The punch is definitely difficult to use unfortunately, we just didn't have time to fix it up. Thank you so much for the compliments and I'm so glad you enjoyed the game!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1135718,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744161769,"text":"@bangkerpow The controller implementation was mostly me, admittedly I did not test the punch and with that comment I realise I should have noticed that potential issue. I put in controller support and tested the game and immediately expended all my ammo on the first bee encountered. My guy thought he was Rambo with a never-ending machine gun!\n\nAfter that I implemented a check to see if the player had actually released the trigger since the last shot and that returned the gameplay to \"as intended\" territory.\n\nI should have realised the same would have applied to the punch. As it stands, youre punching once every frame (Goku has nothing on you!)\n\nThank you for the video and your words about the ammo system in particular. I spent ages on that part of the balance and its good to see it works!\n\nI challenge you bangkerpow to try Endless mode and beat my record of reaching level 13!\n\nHow did the levels feel to you? They were procedurally generated and different every game :)","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1137696,"author_name":"bjornstenlund","author_uid":"bjornstenlund","epoch":1744197987,"text":"Very nice game! I never read the game page, usually I just eyeball it quickly if I see some controls I should know before starting. But I really liked that your wrote a short paragraph about you experience! It was very sweet, and relatable. \n\nOver all I think the game was great. I didn't encounter any annoying bugs, the controls and objective was really obvious to figure out while playing - which is just great for game jam games. Mostly everything had nice sound feedback, the death animation was really nice and the screen shake felt good. It felt polished which is amazing :D \n\nI think it would have been better to have the life pickups shaped as hearts, that is, in the same style as in the UI. It's nice that it feels grounded within the world, but at least for me I think it more important to make it super clear for the player what they are looking at. I also think it would be good if you couldn't pick them up if you had full health and just add some of feedback why it happened.\n\nI missed the sweet screen shake when getting hit by projectiles, and a sound when actually damaging an enemy. \n\nLastly, to me it didn't feel nice to be out of ammo. Maybe it could have a slow recharge (say a bullet every second or so) so if you hade no ammo you could continue shoot, just slower? Or maybe add some ammo pick ups that are not you're own shots. \n\nedit: reading some of the other comments now I see there was a punch! Maybe you could have added the control scheme to the left on the menu instead of inside help :P But maybe that's just my own fault\n\nAnyway, well done![image_2025-04-09_132619326.png](\/\/\/raw\/032\/63\/z\/6bb20.png)!\n","format":"md","likes":3,"spam":"N"},{"id":1137981,"author_name":"Frank Gevaerts","author_uid":"frank-gevaerts","epoch":1744201638,"text":"Thanks for playing @bjornstenlund! We're considering a followup release soon, so this sort of feedback is very useful!\n\nWe're especially not sure what to do about ammo, as (I think I speak for at least two of the team :) ) I feel the strategies forced by having to go pick up ammo under fire in the boss levels do add something to the game, but at the same time it's true that when you really run out there's not a lot you can do (and to be honest, I don't think you missed much by not knowing you could punch. It doesn't really work well at all, and in hindsight I'm not sure adding it was a good idea). Slowly auto-refilling might work (or be part of the solution), We'll need to do some testing for that.\n\nI see your point about rejecting unneeded health pickups, we'll definitely consider that.\n\nThere are indeed some places that could use sound effects (and maybe extra screen shake). I don't know if @bizzybee has time (and energy) for that, we'll see. I'll also let her respond to the health pickup suggesion. If it was up to me all those things would probably be squares of varying bright colours, so I'm not sure my input is useful :)","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1138054,"author_name":"bjornstenlund","author_uid":"bjornstenlund","epoch":1744202621,"text":"@frank-gevaerts I wouldn't expect you to update it (unless you really want to of course)! Our team mostly take the feedback to discuss it in a retrospective in a week or so. I think it's a good exercise for myself trying to find small things that can make a game better or solve some friction, so I tend to leave lengthy comments just for my own practice I guess :P So no pressure to actually implement my suggestions :D I think @bizzybee deserves a rest","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1138059,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744202663,"text":"@bjornstenlund I'm responsible for a lot of the balance stuff in this game. My idea was to encourage players to think a bit more like Agent 47 than Rambo \u2013 to approach situations with strategy, make every shot count, and adapt when things don\u2019t go to plan.\n\nI totally get that not everyone vibes with that style, and it\u2019s something I\u2019ll keep an eye on for future jams, but I wanted to share where I was coming from with the design.\n\nAlways open to hearing more thoughts, especially if there are specific moments that feel unfair or frustrating. Thanks again for playing and being honest with the feedback \u2013 it helps more than you know!","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1138402,"author_name":"Frank Gevaerts","author_uid":"frank-gevaerts","epoch":1744207473,"text":"@bjornstenlund We're very happy with the game as it is, but it also feels that we'd be much happier still with just a few hours work on the code, and that feels worth it! Whether we also work on graphics and sound is a different matter, that's not my area so I don't get to decide :)","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1140716,"author_name":"Game-mon","author_uid":"game-mon","epoch":1744236012,"text":"Very cool game, loved the color palette, procedural generation, and action! One tiny remark: I felt like audio spatialization (left ear\/right ear) was a bit weird (if you're using AudioStreamPlayer2D, make sure the 2D source is at the correct position in the game!) Overall pretty nice job!","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1141132,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744245001,"text":"@thomas-bringer I'm away from the computer for a while, can you specify in what scenarios things were weird with the audio? If I recall correctly all sounds should be coming from their source in the game world.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1141145,"author_name":"Bizzybee","author_uid":"bizzybee","epoch":1744245218,"text":"@balimaarthebassfish I think there's an issue with the health pickup only being in the right ear which I think was a mistake on my end, and the going down the hole sound only being in the left, which I'm less sure about without checking.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1141229,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744246826,"text":"@bizzybee huh. I did NOT notice that before. id check it myself but since we uploaded the builds at the deadline Godot crashes whenever I try to load the project up.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1142311,"author_name":"Frank Gevaerts","author_uid":"frank-gevaerts","epoch":1744275838,"text":"I also didn't notice... I think I tested sound effects without headphones which was probably a mistake. They're just AudioStreamPlayer, no spatial handling about them (although maybe next time!)","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1146984,"author_name":"takhomasac","author_uid":"takhomasac","epoch":1744429626,"text":"fun game! i enjoyed the art style and music. nicely done :)","format":"md","likes":3,"spam":"N"},{"id":1147670,"author_name":"Jiri Hysek","author_uid":"jiri-hysek","epoch":1744462937,"text":"Hey, I saved the reality for you! It took a couple of tries until I started to be careful where am I shooting :) This was nice twist, you usually shoot as much as you can in this kind of game. The game has pleasant difficulty and length for the jam, thank you! I'm always happy, when I'm able to finish the game :) I also like the boss fight. Great job guys!","format":"md","likes":3,"spam":"N"},{"id":1148028,"author_name":"Frank Gevaerts","author_uid":"frank-gevaerts","epoch":1744476811,"text":"Thanks for playing, @takhomasac and @jiri-hysek !\n\nI like the \"don't waste bullets!\" thing which I feel adds some strategy to it, but it definitely seems to make it harder to get into.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1148631,"author_name":"BalimaarTheBassFish","author_uid":"balimaarthebassfish","epoch":1744495739,"text":"@jiri-hysek How were the procedurally generated levels? Spent a lot of time there :D","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1151443,"author_name":"LDJam user 234597","author_uid":"234597","epoch":1744657688,"text":"The art style is beautiful. Procedural generation -- cherry on top. Challenging enough, but not frustrating.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1151634,"author_name":"Frank Gevaerts","author_uid":"frank-gevaerts","epoch":1744669372,"text":"Thanks for playing, @heviosso! We're very happy with how the procedural generation worked out.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1154732,"author_name":"commanderstitch","author_uid":"commanderstitch","epoch":1745077287,"text":"nice moody depths generated levels that were different every time. neat stuff I tried many a times before i could beat it. The worst was when i finally defeated the last level and the timer ran out before I could make it to the exit portal thingy. xd haha Kinda reminded me of dungeon of the endless.![beatIt.png](\/\/\/raw\/b24\/z\/6c549.png)","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1154959,"author_name":"Frank Gevaerts","author_uid":"frank-gevaerts","epoch":1745099977,"text":"Thanks for playing, @commanderstitch ! With this one the old thing about devs finding their own game easy really shines :)","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1156290,"author_name":"Jiri Hysek","author_uid":"jiri-hysek","epoch":1745353880,"text":"@balimaarthebassfish Yeah, the dungeon generator is nice! My attention was overwhelmed by low ammo so I thought I just didn't remember the layout :) ","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1156346,"author_name":"Helen","author_uid":"helen","epoch":1745359997,"text":"Well done! It's fun to play - even when I ran out of ammo like all the others. Sadly I didn't manage to save reality.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1156547,"author_name":"Frank Gevaerts","author_uid":"frank-gevaerts","epoch":1745397817,"text":"Thanks for playing, @helen. The ammo constraint does make the game different from many similar looking games and takes some getting used to, and maybe things that take time to get used to are not a good idea in a jam. We still think it adds something to the game, but then that's us devs speaking, so we are biased...\n\n","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1158593,"author_name":"PhilStrahl","author_uid":"philstrahl","epoch":1746011513,"text":"It took me a bit to adjust to the scarcity of the ammo but after a few failed attempts I adjusted. Congrats on such a successful collaboration! Here's again my playthrough: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L29Qnx4_oTc","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"}],"format":"md","images":["ld57\/wayback-placeholder.png"],"links":[{"url":"https:\/\/fgeva.itch.io\/dive-into-the-hive-mind","text":"Itch.io Web Build"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"97024","g_author":"1297676","g_event":"LD57","g_eventkey":"111","g_subevent":"JAM","g_urlkey":"448535","g_title":"Dive into the Hive Mind","g_status":"WAYBACK","g_place":"414","g_commentcount":"43","g_site2_node_id":"408994","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":{"n_key":"408994","n_urlkey":"448535","n_parent":"406845","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/dive-into-the-hive-mind","n_slug":"dive-into-the-hive-mind","n_type":"item","n_subtype":"game","n_subsubtype":"jam","n_author":"297676","n_created":"1743564454","n_modified":"1779361456","n_version":"1310119","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD57","removed_author":false},"_superparent":9,"_trust":1,"author":297676,"body":"# Welcome to Dive into the Hive Mind!\n\n![cover.png](\/\/\/raw\/cca\/84\/z\/6acf3.png)\n\nThey came from space, and they brought the buzzness.\n\nA swarm of alien bees has descended on Earth, short-circuiting cities, clogging satellites with wax, and causing mass pani-combs. But now, the source has been uncovered\u2014an enormous, writhing brain drifting in low orbit, pulsing with psychic energy and radiating pure bee-vil.\n\nIts name? The Hivemind.\n\nPart neural network, part insectoid nest, all bad news. Every drone, every sting, every hex-tile of chaos\u2014it all leads back to that big floating brain. And now, you\u2019re going up there to end this buzzness once and for all.\n\nArmed with industrial-grade bug spray, a reinforced beekeeper suit, and the sheer will to bee victorious, you\u2019ve launched into orbit to face the swarm head-on. Dodge twitching tendrils, torch hive-laced lobes, and un-bee-lievably aggressive aliens as you push deeper into the squishy stronghold.\n\nYour target? The legendary Boss Bee\u2014queen of the swarm, mistress of mind control, and crowned neuro-nuisance of the galaxy.\n\nThink fast. Spray faster.\nIt\u2019s time to sting before you get stung.\n\nThis isn\u2019t just pest control\u2026 it\u2019s space-brain bee-siege.\n\nAnd the fate of Earth?\nThat\u2019s on your shoulders, honey.\n\n## About the game\n\nAt the heart of this game is a procedural generation algorithm that will generates the levels. No two play throughs will be the same!\n\nWe also have 2 different game modes. The story mode which you can access via the Start button and the Endless mode which you can access via the Endless button. The story mode game ends once you complete level 4, Endless mode is... well... Endless you keep on going as levels get harder and harder until finally you lose your final heart of health.\n\nHow deep into the depths can you go?\n\nWhile we do have a web build available, we recommend for best experience to download the version for your OS.\n\n## Controls\n\n### Keyboard and Mouse\n\n* WSAD for movement\n* Mouse to aim\n* Left mouse button to shoot the spray\n* Right mouse button\/ F Key to punch\n\n### Controller Support!\n\nYes, we have controller support!\nTested on Windows 11 with both a PS4 controller and a wired Xbox controller.\n\nHeads up: If your operating system detects another device (like a joystick, steering wheel, or even certain USB devices) as a controller before your actual gamepad, it can cause some in-game controls to stop working properly.\n\nThe fix:\nUnplug any other device your OS might be misidentifying as a controller, then plug in your game controller. This should restore full functionality.\n\n* Left stick - Character movement\n* Right stick - Aiming\n* RT\/RB - Shoot\n* LT\/LB - Punch\n\n![game.png](\/\/\/raw\/cca\/84\/z\/6acfb.png)\n\n## Words from the Dev Team\n\n### Bizzybee - Art, Music and SFX\n\nThe past few days have been one long manic episode for me, doodling like a madwoman and slapping down musical lines without (mostly) bothering to worry about their simplicity. I think my art even got a little better by the end of the jam. I'm more proud of this LD game than every other one we've done- though admittedly, that could be recency bias. I believe this is the most art I've made for one LD game.\n\nHonestly, I think finishing this LD has been a much needed mental boost for me- it's an accomplishment that couldn't have come at a better time, after a recent chronic fatigue diagnosis. As I said in our \"We're in!\" post, constraint is such a wonderful tool to help creativity flourish. It's so special to be able to make something in such a short time, with the help of talented and hardworking friends.\n\n\n### Fgeva - Programmer\n\nThis time we tried to do more up-front design, and it worked. No last minute panic because we didn't know what the game mechanics were! Pure bliss! (Also I might be Halucinating, I lack sleep)\nSeriously though, this went well. We had goals and stretch goals, and I think we actually hit all the goals, and maybe even some of the stretch goals!\n\n\n### Balimaar - Programmer\n\nThis jam went way smoother than LD56. Back then, we made Paper Cat Farms, which\u2014don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014was probably our best team effort at the time. But we basically went in with the plan: \u201cLet\u2019s make a farming game!\u201d \u2026and that was it. Zero roadmap, full chaos. The final push to the deadline? Manic. Utterly bee-serk.\n\nThis time? We actually used our brains before using our keyboards. We took a solid 30\u201360 minutes up front to figure out what we really wanted, what would be cool, and what would be straight-up dream material. And you know what? We hit all the must-haves, knocked out a bunch of the cool stuff, and even managed to sneak into dream territory here and there. Not too shabby.\n\nAs the programmer on the first shift (thanks to time zones, I could code for 12 hours and then hand off to Fgeva for the next 12\u2014smooth baton pass!), I was very nervous about implementing procedural generation. I had a rough understanding, but you know how these things go. The moment it actually worked? Oh. My. God. That wave of relief was divine. I ran into a few bugs by Day 2 or 3, but I even managed to fix most of them without introducing more. Miracles happen, apparently!\n\nHonestly, this was hands-down the best Ludum Dare I\u2019ve had. All it took was that little chunk of planning at the start to keep us from descending into last-minute panic mode. We spent less time screaming at our screens and more time actually enjoying the process.\n\n10\/10. Would jam again.\n\n## A Peek Behind the Curtain\n### Biz Tells Us About Her Creative Process\n\nMusic: I decide to go for something electric sounding for the image of firing neurons and electrical synapses and whatnot. I started by searching \"electric\" in my instrument library and chose around 8 from the ones I found based off of pure vibes, noodling around and listening to a few seconds of each. I chose 3\/4 for the bouncy bee rhythm, though you might not be able to tell with the syncopation. I decided my scale would center around the note B, of course. Then, I just messed around on my digital keyboard until I found a few notes in a sequence that sounded good. After that, I noodled around on my other instruments to see what I could add on top, and used the tried-and-true add an instrument or two every few bars.\n\nSFX: I used the instruments I had chosen for the game and searched for appropriate noise within them. I focused on the shortest sounds, though for the firing noise I shortened an 8-bit high-hat from my drumkit instrument. Downward or dissonant sounds for negative things, something airy and crunchy for shooting like a spray, satisfying crunch for picking up ammo, happy trill for health, and such.\n\nArt: I googled reference images of other games and of course, brains to get an idea of what I needed to do for the map. I used basic shapes to build the hero and bees to keep things easy on myself. I utilized mesh transform like all hell for many of the animations, that was really the MVP of my process to limit redrawing. Beyond that I made sure to keep the hero body parts on separate layers for easy rearranging and movement. I tried to keep the line thickness consistent where it made sense- making one mistake on the line thickness of the baby bees. I reused as much as possible in every way I could. Oh, when deciding the hero color, I went for the opposite on the color wheel from the dark purple ground- which ended up being green, to make sure the hero stood out. A lot of stuff I just glanced and winged it, though the main menu splash art I spent a bit more time with the brain lines and hand, closely following realistic googled references!\n\n## Changes\n* 2025-04-09: The godot window stretch mode was set to \"viewport\" instead of \"canvas_items\", causing the game to not look as good as it could in fullscreen. No art was actually changed, it's now just displayed as intended. This is a one-line change.\n* 2025-04-14: Some audio levels were fixed. ","comments":43,"comments-timestamp":"2025-04-30T11:11:53Z","created":"2025-04-02T03:27:34Z","files":[{"author":103884,"id":40109,"name":"ld57_linux.zip","node":408994,"size":32417158,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-08T00:37:28Z"},{"author":103884,"id":40111,"name":"ld57_mac.zip","node":408994,"size":66206657,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-08T00:37:47Z"},{"author":103884,"id":40124,"name":"ld57_windows.zip","node":408994,"size":39908620,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-08T00:39:16Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41678,"name":"ld57_linux.zip","node":408994,"size":32417137,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-09T19:11:36Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41679,"name":"ld57_mac.zip","node":408994,"size":66206636,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-09T19:12:48Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41681,"name":"ld57_windows.zip","node":408994,"size":39908595,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-09T19:14:06Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41682,"name":"ld57_linux.zip","node":408994,"size":32417137,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-09T19:25:20Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41683,"name":"ld57_mac.zip","node":408994,"size":66206636,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-09T19:25:42Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41684,"name":"ld57_windows.zip","node":408994,"size":39908595,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-09T19:26:15Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41900,"name":"ld57_linux.zip","node":408994,"size":32421298,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:25:33Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41901,"name":"ld57_mac.zip","node":408994,"size":66210837,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:26:00Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41902,"name":"$$embed-41902.zip","node":408994,"size":39912827,"status":64,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:26:34Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41903,"name":"ld57_windows.zip","node":408994,"size":39912827,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:27:04Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41905,"name":"ld57_windows.zip","node":408994,"size":39912827,"status":0,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:49:50Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41906,"name":"ld57_windows_fixed.zip","node":408994,"size":39912827,"status":9,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:54:35Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41907,"name":"ld57_linux_fixed.zip","node":408994,"size":32421298,"status":9,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:54:56Z"},{"author":103884,"id":41908,"name":"ld57_mac_fixed.zip","node":408994,"size":66210837,"status":9,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:55:15Z"}],"files-timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:55:15Z","grade":{"grade-01":31,"grade-02":32,"grade-03":31,"grade-04":32,"grade-05":32,"grade-06":31,"grade-07":29,"grade-08":32},"id":408994,"love":0,"magic":{"cool":88.840092207691,"feedback":41,"given":23.875,"grade":31.25,"grade-01-average":3.586,"grade-01-result":414,"grade-02-average":3.45,"grade-02-result":384,"grade-03-average":3.19,"grade-03-result":474,"grade-04-average":3.383,"grade-04-result":605,"grade-05-average":3.417,"grade-05-result":554,"grade-06-average":3.431,"grade-06-result":345,"grade-07-average":2.926,"grade-07-result":391,"grade-08-average":3.267,"grade-08-result":620,"smart":6.5833007557938},"meta":{"author":[297676,372844,103884],"cover":"\/\/\/content\/cca\/84\/z\/6a988.png","link-01":"https:\/\/fgeva.itch.io\/dive-into-the-hive-mind","link-01-name":"Itch.io Web Build","link-01-tag":[42336],"link-02":"","link-02-name":"","link-02-tag":null,"link-03":"","link-03-name":"","link-03-tag":null,"link-04":"","link-04-name":"","link-04-tag":null},"meta-timestamp":"2026-05-21T11:04:16Z","modified":"2026-05-21T11:04:16Z","name":"Dive into the Hive Mind","node-timestamp":"2025-04-13T19:28:01Z","parent":406845,"parents":[1,5,9,406845],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/dive-into-the-hive-mind","published":"2025-04-08T00:17:00Z","scope":"public","slug":"dive-into-the-hive-mind","subsubtype":"jam","subtype":"game","type":"item","version":1310119},"text":"# Welcome to Dive into the Hive Mind!\n\n![cover.png](\/\/\/raw\/cca\/84\/z\/6acf3.png)\n\nThey came from space, and they brought the buzzness.\n\nA swarm of alien bees has descended on Earth, short-circuiting cities, clogging satellites with wax, and causing mass pani-combs. But now, the source has been uncovered\u2014an enormous, writhing brain drifting in low orbit, pulsing with psychic energy and radiating pure bee-vil.\n\nIts name? The Hivemind.\n\nPart neural network, part insectoid nest, all bad news. Every drone, every sting, every hex-tile of chaos\u2014it all leads back to that big floating brain. And now, you\u2019re going up there to end this buzzness once and for all.\n\nArmed with industrial-grade bug spray, a reinforced beekeeper suit, and the sheer will to bee victorious, you\u2019ve launched into orbit to face the swarm head-on. Dodge twitching tendrils, torch hive-laced lobes, and un-bee-lievably aggressive aliens as you push deeper into the squishy stronghold.\n\nYour target? The legendary Boss Bee\u2014queen of the swarm, mistress of mind control, and crowned neuro-nuisance of the galaxy.\n\nThink fast. Spray faster.\nIt\u2019s time to sting before you get stung.\n\nThis isn\u2019t just pest control\u2026 it\u2019s space-brain bee-siege.\n\nAnd the fate of Earth?\nThat\u2019s on your shoulders, honey.\n\n## About the game\n\nAt the heart of this game is a procedural generation algorithm that will generates the levels. No two play throughs will be the same!\n\nWe also have 2 different game modes. The story mode which you can access via the Start button and the Endless mode which you can access via the Endless button. The story mode game ends once you complete level 4, Endless mode is... well... Endless you keep on going as levels get harder and harder until finally you lose your final heart of health.\n\nHow deep into the depths can you go?\n\nWhile we do have a web build available, we recommend for best experience to download the version for your OS.\n\n## Controls\n\n### Keyboard and Mouse\n\n* WSAD for movement\n* Mouse to aim\n* Left mouse button to shoot the spray\n* Right mouse button\/ F Key to punch\n\n### Controller Support!\n\nYes, we have controller support!\nTested on Windows 11 with both a PS4 controller and a wired Xbox controller.\n\nHeads up: If your operating system detects another device (like a joystick, steering wheel, or even certain USB devices) as a controller before your actual gamepad, it can cause some in-game controls to stop working properly.\n\nThe fix:\nUnplug any other device your OS might be misidentifying as a controller, then plug in your game controller. This should restore full functionality.\n\n* Left stick - Character movement\n* Right stick - Aiming\n* RT\/RB - Shoot\n* LT\/LB - Punch\n\n![game.png](\/\/\/raw\/cca\/84\/z\/6acfb.png)\n\n## Words from the Dev Team\n\n### Bizzybee - Art, Music and SFX\n\nThe past few days have been one long manic episode for me, doodling like a madwoman and slapping down musical lines without (mostly) bothering to worry about their simplicity. I think my art even got a little better by the end of the jam. I'm more proud of this LD game than every other one we've done- though admittedly, that could be recency bias. I believe this is the most art I've made for one LD game.\n\nHonestly, I think finishing this LD has been a much needed mental boost for me- it's an accomplishment that couldn't have come at a better time, after a recent chronic fatigue diagnosis. As I said in our \"We're in!\" post, constraint is such a wonderful tool to help creativity flourish. It's so special to be able to make something in such a short time, with the help of talented and hardworking friends.\n\n\n### Fgeva - Programmer\n\nThis time we tried to do more up-front design, and it worked. No last minute panic because we didn't know what the game mechanics were! Pure bliss! (Also I might be Halucinating, I lack sleep)\nSeriously though, this went well. We had goals and stretch goals, and I think we actually hit all the goals, and maybe even some of the stretch goals!\n\n\n### Balimaar - Programmer\n\nThis jam went way smoother than LD56. Back then, we made Paper Cat Farms, which\u2014don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014was probably our best team effort at the time. But we basically went in with the plan: \u201cLet\u2019s make a farming game!\u201d \u2026and that was it. Zero roadmap, full chaos. The final push to the deadline? Manic. Utterly bee-serk.\n\nThis time? We actually used our brains before using our keyboards. We took a solid 30\u201360 minutes up front to figure out what we really wanted, what would be cool, and what would be straight-up dream material. And you know what? We hit all the must-haves, knocked out a bunch of the cool stuff, and even managed to sneak into dream territory here and there. Not too shabby.\n\nAs the programmer on the first shift (thanks to time zones, I could code for 12 hours and then hand off to Fgeva for the next 12\u2014smooth baton pass!), I was very nervous about implementing procedural generation. I had a rough understanding, but you know how these things go. The moment it actually worked? Oh. My. God. That wave of relief was divine. I ran into a few bugs by Day 2 or 3, but I even managed to fix most of them without introducing more. Miracles happen, apparently!\n\nHonestly, this was hands-down the best Ludum Dare I\u2019ve had. All it took was that little chunk of planning at the start to keep us from descending into last-minute panic mode. We spent less time screaming at our screens and more time actually enjoying the process.\n\n10\/10. Would jam again.\n\n## A Peek Behind the Curtain\n### Biz Tells Us About Her Creative Process\n\nMusic: I decide to go for something electric sounding for the image of firing neurons and electrical synapses and whatnot. I started by searching \"electric\" in my instrument library and chose around 8 from the ones I found based off of pure vibes, noodling around and listening to a few seconds of each. I chose 3\/4 for the bouncy bee rhythm, though you might not be able to tell with the syncopation. I decided my scale would center around the note B, of course. Then, I just messed around on my digital keyboard until I found a few notes in a sequence that sounded good. After that, I noodled around on my other instruments to see what I could add on top, and used the tried-and-true add an instrument or two every few bars.\n\nSFX: I used the instruments I had chosen for the game and searched for appropriate noise within them. I focused on the shortest sounds, though for the firing noise I shortened an 8-bit high-hat from my drumkit instrument. Downward or dissonant sounds for negative things, something airy and crunchy for shooting like a spray, satisfying crunch for picking up ammo, happy trill for health, and such.\n\nArt: I googled reference images of other games and of course, brains to get an idea of what I needed to do for the map. I used basic shapes to build the hero and bees to keep things easy on myself. I utilized mesh transform like all hell for many of the animations, that was really the MVP of my process to limit redrawing. Beyond that I made sure to keep the hero body parts on separate layers for easy rearranging and movement. I tried to keep the line thickness consistent where it made sense- making one mistake on the line thickness of the baby bees. I reused as much as possible in every way I could. Oh, when deciding the hero color, I went for the opposite on the color wheel from the dark purple ground- which ended up being green, to make sure the hero stood out. A lot of stuff I just glanced and winged it, though the main menu splash art I spent a bit more time with the brain lines and hand, closely following realistic googled references!\n\n## Changes\n* 2025-04-09: The godot window stretch mode was set to \"viewport\" instead of \"canvas_items\", causing the game to not look as good as it could in fullscreen. No art was actually changed, it's now just displayed as intended. This is a one-line change.\n* 2025-04-14: Some audio levels were fixed. 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