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Of Honey & Bees is a PICO-8 project that takes inspiration from the classic Game Boy adventure games to tell a short and sweet story about harvesting honey and protecting your hive from danger.

There’s exploration, boss fights and a story about heroism and sacrifice.

https://random-state-machine.itch.io/of-honey-and-bees

I originally created the game for the Narrative Design Awards jam back in May where it was nominated as one of the best games of the jam. I never got around to posting it here, however.

It focuses much more on the story and characters than combat and bosses with the focus of the jam clearly being on narrative design.

I’ve continuously updated the game during the past two months and got to a stage where updating it further would require mayor reworks to expand the limited resources PICO-8 provides. I’m calling this version of the game finished and thought I’d show it off.

Have fun buzzing about!

I was driven so much to give poor Eibhlín closure against her instincts that I took every opportunity to seek out her love even if that last decision against life-long traditions was a painful one.

I went back to see how the other choice would have played out immediately, of course, but it took me a while to find the last ending.

A heartbreakingly romantic story!

The ambient sounds, the music and the use of Gaelic language all add to the wonderfully intimate feeling the writing so expertly conjures.

It all feels so personal that I got a little bit of whiplash when the years started to whizz by. As someone with little knowledge about Irish history, I’d have loved to learn more about the time and see the characters react and develop as it unfolds, though I suppose that suits the general theme of the game quite well.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have the urgent desire to snuggle up somewhere…

It starts weird and gets even weirder. I definitely would like to see more of this odd, odd laboratory you find yourself in.

Two minor things that frustrated me a bit: You die very suddenly here and when you do, everything resets. I really enjoyed piecing together the paper the first time, but doing so over and over again - because I couldn’t remember the code or to double check I didn’t read it wrong - was pretty frustrating. Having the pieces remember where they were in their window would be a huge help, even if you’d have to pick up the scraps again.

Secondly, interacting with most things while using the flashlight will put it away, which can result in an immediate death under certain circumstances. In these moments you can’t adjust or explore anything anymore which feels a bit restrictive. I’d suggest either disallowing the interactions outright if you want to keep the suspense and panic or having the flashlight on a toggle so it can stay on while using/carrying other things.

A feverdream of a game. So many concepts and alluded memories. I feel like it’s trying to tell me something that I can’t quite understand. There’s enough to have a few pieces of the puzzle, but too little to get a clear picture and my mind is spinning just trying to figure out what could be there.

I apologize for my confusing wording, let me please try to elaborate what I meant:

I really liked the subtle animations and did not find them repetitive at all - it’s the description of the tool usage where I soon found myself skipping text and always choosing the same options over and over again (though part of that also might be the intended and accurate pistachio experience).

I was inclined to question my brain on its decision to open ever new drawers, piling knives upon the kitchen floor instead of taking one already out in the open or even re-using the one I had gotten the first time…

Though over all I have to emphasize that this is a very minor nitpick.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

Alright! Best of luck finishing up university!

Very sweet game with a heartwarming story to match!

The super straightforward take on the “Harvest” theme also fits amazingly. The art is utterly cute and enhances the fairy tale vibes of the narrative.

Having a part of the world where all mayor cultures seem to live their own individual lives a stone’s throw of each other gives a good variety to the story while keeping the pace and also contributes directly to what I liked best about the game: Getting to visit the three very distinct festivals and enjoying each of them in their own way.

Just checking: Is this supposed to be password protected?

I’ll take a pistachio and EAT IT!

Great and accurate simulator. After playing through all four routes my brain is pleased and my fingers are upset, just like I had eaten a real bag of green nuts!

I really like the animation on the tools, though some variation would not have gone amiss, since you’re bound to use them more than once.

The concept of a stealth organ-harvesting game with different minigames for lockpicking and surgery under time pressure is amazingly funny.

I really like the inclusion of the “remorse” ending and the darkly comedic tone of all of the endings.

An straightforward but emotional resonant story.

The art style is super cute and the music enhances the vibe quite a bit!

Learning the memories just as the protagonist looses them has a certain voyeuristic vibe to me, like I’m the one they are being sold to which makes their wholesome nature a little distressing. Above and beyond the main point about memories, I feel like there is something about emotion as a commodity here that easily extends into our relationship to the production, marketing and consuming of art and narratives as a whole - though that might just be an effect of three weeks of intense narrative production on me, personally.

I really dig the contrast between the (beautiful) black/white scribbles of your daily life and the colorful plant, it evokes the feeling of “the one part of the day that keeps you going” quite well.

I love the one-sided dialogue as well. So much that is transported in the references and answers of a conversation that makes it much more natural and emotional than if everything was spelled out!

I know that “handling the plant wrong” is not an option for this type of game, but I’d have loved to interact with this centerpiece more. A more involved and haptic way of telling what the plant needs and administering the treatment would be a great addition, if you plan to keep working on this.

You take the “harvest” theme of the jam and manage to blend different variations on it together quite well.

I really enjoyed the overlapping of spiritual and mundane themes and how some aspects, like the red flowers, can have multiple important meanings at once.

The first playthrough is appropriately confusing for an amnesiac protagonist in midst of some very weird circumstances and uncovering more on subsequent runs feels very satisfying.

Some of the narrative twists are pretty big staples and quite obvious, but that only serves to make the real revelations hit harder!

On a technical note, the screen and visual effects are used very well to highlight the appropriate moments.

It’s a shame that the travel/map mechanic is pretty underutilized, mostly because I would have loved to explore the village more and soak up the atmosphere or find additional foreshadowing.

I can imagine a version of this game in an old-school Silent Hill or Pathologic style that could be a very neat horror/thriller experience!