The sound design in this game is really good - I really felt in the beginning like I was IN the hive. I love what you've done here with the Pico-8 engine. The game is super vibrant-looking.
Such a cutie of a game! Sound design was great, really added to the nostalgic browser game vibe this was giving. Like a few others I also got stuck in the webwood area, otherwise the controls felt fairly intuitive and not too guided! Good job on this! :)
I liked all the sound effects and the bzzy soundtrack
I enjoyed that there wasn’t too much direction, although only having 2 buttons for controls was limiting since they ended up needing to have multiple functions (talk and attack) or require multiple inputs (dodge+attack).
I really like the concept and gameplay of this game. The simple and slightly retro artstyle complements the bee concept very well. I like how the story is progressing however I did get stuck at the webwood area, unable to pass the cobweb. An improvement would be to separate the attack and rotation locking key to make fighting easier. I had lots of fun exploring this game and look forward to any improvements if you continue working on this.
Retro simplicity is definitely the name of the game for the PICO-8 engine. Being limited to two action buttons was probably the most challenging design-wise.
Being able to lock one‘s direction was an improvement over the Zelda 1 combat this game takes so much inspiration from, but I decided on a dodge on the other button early on and it felt „more wrong“ to place the lock there.
Though I understand your point very much and would take some time to design the controls for another game of this style or a major update to this one.
On a semi-related note: When you get to the webwood part in the story you unlock a new move - the bee in the starting room will tell you how to use it.
(If you have enough pollen/energy, you can now attack while dodging to perform a charge attack that deals a lot of damage and will cut right through the web blocking your way.)
This game is so lovely. Previously I made my games with GB Studio. and I was interested in trying PICO-8 because it's cute and you could do visual, audio, and everything in one place. However, I wasn't very good at coding, so I couldn't make the game the way I wanted it to be. This game has inspired me to pick up PICO-8 again.
I had a ton of fun using PICO-8 for this. Having to not worry so much about the style of art and music in particular is really beneficial to avoid decision paralysis.
I should warn you though that the heavy restrictions on memory were quite a pain in the last stages of the project, especially combined with the time pressure of the jam.
There is an online/education version of PICO-8 where you can try it out before buing the software, which is definitely the best place to start to play around with it. I also highly recommend the „Lazy Dev´s Academy“ youtube tutorials on youtube for a heap of good advice on coding with this system!
I think that with more guidance for the player the game is going to offer a much smoother experience. Right now there's a lot of trial and error. Some players might not be patient enough to discover the whole game.
It was not clear which flowers can be harvested or how to harvest them. I'm surprised that before your instructions below I didn't just wait for 2 seconds on top of a flower. I guess I expected that it would be an action. The only time I noticed the wings as you mentioned is on top of the big flowers. For the smaller flowers the animation happens too fast.
Another source of confusion for me is that the same button which is used to hit is also used to talk... To me at least that does not make sense. Yes, to advance through the announcement by the queen at the beginning the player needs to press the hit button. But the announcement is triggered automatically upon entering the room. There is no tutorial that in order to start a conversation the player needs to press that button. I didn't even think of "hitting" the other bees in the hive. I found out much later (before the queen suggested speaking to all the bees) only because there are two buttons and only one of them is active in the hive.
For example - SPOILER when the warrior bee instructs how to do a dashing attack it would be better to lock the room and only unlock it after the player makes such a move.
The word style of the queen is a bit too poetic maybe? It makes her sound more human than insect. Well, that is my personal opinion.
I really appreciate you sticking with the game and not giving up after having so much trouble in the early game!
I‘m honestly a little baffled that you didn‘t think to try to interact with the NPCs at all before leaving the hive, which reveals a blindspot of mine and I‘ll have to think about how I will approach this.
I‘m personally not a big fan of over-tutorialization and think that — especially in a game centered so much on exploration and freedom — overwhelming new players with too much detailed information runs the risk of annoying them so much and keeping them from the core loop so long that they‘ll lose interest. There‘s definitely a careful balance to be struck there.
Concerning the verisimilitude of speaking insects: I found it only fitting to give the „queen“ stereotypical fantasy royalty speeches . It’s quite funny to me to have her be the only one speaking in this manner, though I appreciate that it is personal taste.
Stay still on the flower for a bit to collect the nectar - you’ll know it’s working when the bee folds her wings to land on the flower -, bring it to the big, empty combs in the hive and put it in with [x].
Return at any time to drink the honey from there (x, if you don’t have nectar) to heal.
I am circling around the only flower that I could find and nothing happens....
(the attached image is of a pink/red flower. If I press X a notification pops up: "We tolare your presence in our domain. Do not dare to touch the sacred bloom.")
Comments
The sound design in this game is really good - I really felt in the beginning like I was IN the hive. I love what you've done here with the Pico-8 engine. The game is super vibrant-looking.
Such a cutie of a game! Sound design was great, really added to the nostalgic browser game vibe this was giving.
Like a few others I also got stuck in the webwood area, otherwise the controls felt fairly intuitive and not too guided! Good job on this! :)
bzz
this was a cool game
I liked all the sound effects and the bzzy soundtrack
I enjoyed that there wasn’t too much direction, although only having 2 buttons for controls was limiting since they ended up needing to have multiple functions (talk and attack) or require multiple inputs (dodge+attack).
I really like the concept and gameplay of this game. The simple and slightly retro artstyle complements the bee concept very well. I like how the story is progressing however I did get stuck at the webwood area, unable to pass the cobweb. An improvement would be to separate the attack and rotation locking key to make fighting easier. I had lots of fun exploring this game and look forward to any improvements if you continue working on this.
Thank you for your kind words!
Retro simplicity is definitely the name of the game for the PICO-8 engine. Being limited to two action buttons was probably the most challenging design-wise.
Being able to lock one‘s direction was an improvement over the Zelda 1 combat this game takes so much inspiration from, but I decided on a dodge on the other button early on and it felt „more wrong“ to place the lock there.
Though I understand your point very much and would take some time to design the controls for another game of this style or a major update to this one.
On a semi-related note: When you get to the webwood part in the story you unlock a new move - the bee in the starting room will tell you how to use it.
(If you have enough pollen/energy, you can now attack while dodging to perform a charge attack that deals a lot of damage and will cut right through the web blocking your way.)
This game is so lovely. Previously I made my games with GB Studio. and I was interested in trying PICO-8 because it's cute and you could do visual, audio, and everything in one place. However, I wasn't very good at coding, so I couldn't make the game the way I wanted it to be. This game has inspired me to pick up PICO-8 again.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment!
I had a ton of fun using PICO-8 for this. Having to not worry so much about the style of art and music in particular is really beneficial to avoid decision paralysis.
I should warn you though that the heavy restrictions on memory were quite a pain in the last stages of the project, especially combined with the time pressure of the jam.
There is an online/education version of PICO-8 where you can try it out before buing the software, which is definitely the best place to start to play around with it. I also highly recommend the „Lazy Dev´s Academy“ youtube tutorials on youtube for a heap of good advice on coding with this system!
Thank you for your recommendation. I'll check it out :)
Hey, I managed to play through it! Great work!
I think that with more guidance for the player the game is going to offer a much smoother experience. Right now there's a lot of trial and error. Some players might not be patient enough to discover the whole game.
It was not clear which flowers can be harvested or how to harvest them. I'm surprised that before your instructions below I didn't just wait for 2 seconds on top of a flower. I guess I expected that it would be an action. The only time I noticed the wings as you mentioned is on top of the big flowers. For the smaller flowers the animation happens too fast.
Another source of confusion for me is that the same button which is used to hit is also used to talk... To me at least that does not make sense. Yes, to advance through the announcement by the queen at the beginning the player needs to press the hit button. But the announcement is triggered automatically upon entering the room. There is no tutorial that in order to start a conversation the player needs to press that button. I didn't even think of "hitting" the other bees in the hive. I found out much later (before the queen suggested speaking to all the bees) only because there are two buttons and only one of them is active in the hive.
For example - SPOILER when the warrior bee instructs how to do a dashing attack it would be better to lock the room and only unlock it after the player makes such a move.
The word style of the queen is a bit too poetic maybe? It makes her sound more human than insect. Well, that is my personal opinion.
ambassador of the water tribe <== that was funny.
Thank you and good luck!
I really appreciate you sticking with the game and not giving up after having so much trouble in the early game!
I‘m honestly a little baffled that you didn‘t think to try to interact with the NPCs at all before leaving the hive, which reveals a blindspot of mine and I‘ll have to think about how I will approach this.
I‘m personally not a big fan of over-tutorialization and think that — especially in a game centered so much on exploration and freedom — overwhelming new players with too much detailed information runs the risk of annoying them so much and keeping them from the core loop so long that they‘ll lose interest. There‘s definitely a careful balance to be struck there.
Concerning the verisimilitude of speaking insects: I found it only fitting to give the „queen“ stereotypical fantasy royalty speeches . It’s quite funny to me to have her be the only one speaking in this manner, though I appreciate that it is personal taste.
I would like to check out the whole game but I can't figure out how to drink/collect nectar. Please advise.
Stay still on the flower for a bit to collect the nectar - you’ll know it’s working when the bee folds her wings to land on the flower -, bring it to the big, empty combs in the hive and put it in with [x]. Return at any time to drink the honey from there (x, if you don’t have nectar) to heal.
I am circling around the only flower that I could find and nothing happens....
(the attached image is of a pink/red flower. If I press X a notification pops up: "We tolare your presence in our domain. Do not dare to touch the sacred bloom.")
there are small pink ones around. One is directly in front of the hive. They are resembling foxglove.
Move on top it and stay still.
The bee should stop flapping her wings.
Wait and don’t press any buttons until the bee starts flying again.
The counter in the lower righthand corner will increase.
I'm actually pleased to threatening the survival of fly kind.