Hive Time
Details
| Playtime | Not Played |
| Last Activity | Never |
| Added | 2024-01-26 1:32:03 |
| Modified | 2024-01-26 2:43:45 |
| Completion Status | Not Played |
| Library | Itch.io |
| Source | itch.io |
| Platform | PC (Windows) |
| Release Date | 2019-05-31 |
| Community Score | |
| Critic Score | |
| User Score | |
| Genre | Indie Simulator |
| Developer | Two Lof Bees |
| Publisher | Two Lof Bees |
| Feature | Single Player |
| Links | Official YouTube Itch Twitch |
| Tag |
Description
Hiveversary Update now available! See the devblog for more details.
Build a hive, make some honey! Hive Time is a bee themed management/base building sim. Harvest resources, grow your hive, and produce a new Queen before the current one dies.
Manage different bee roles in a totally scientifically inaccurate depiction of hive dynamics. Send Foragers out to find pollen and nectar, have Builders research new cell types, and ensure you have enough Beesitters to raise the next generation of bees.
Make interesting choices that affect the hive. Respond to wasp attacks, deal with outlaw slugs, or help a caterpillar realise a lifelong dream!
Hive Time's original soundtrack is available on Bandcamp, and you can find Hive Time t-shirts, stickers, and prints on RedBubble.
FAQ (click to expand)
Is this game free?
I believe that the effort we have put into creating and supporting Hive Time is worth at least $10. However, I also believe that in an ideal world, financial barriers should never prevent people from participating in culture. For this project, I'm in a position to make the game available under a pay-what-you-want model so that it can be accessible to people who can't afford $10.
If you can afford $10, but would prefer to not pay, that's up to you, but I hope that if you find enjoyment in the game that you'll come back to give some support that matches that enjoyment.
Similarly, Peter has released Hive Time's original soundtrack on Bandcamp under a pay-what-you-want model.
- Cheese
Is this game finished?
We consider Hive Time to be a complete game.
In the weeks and months following release, we shipped many patches as well as two large content updates, which are included with the game for free.
Default controls
Default controls are as follows (custom bindings can be set from the Controls menu):
- Left mouse - Select/interact
- Right mouse - Close radial menu
- Middle mouse/Cursor keys - Pan view
- Scroll wheel/Page Up/Page Down - Zoom view
- Home - Reset pan and zoom
- End - Zoom out as far as possible
- Space - Toggle bee inspection mode
- F5 - Trigger autosave
- F9 - Load latest save
- Shift - Hold before performing an action in a radial menu to be able to repeat that menu option with subsequent cell clicks
- Alt+Enter - Toggle fullscreen
- Escape - Close radial menu, close/select negative option in events, pause game
- Print Screen - Save a screenshot
Chat integration
Hive Time now has optional chat integration, including voting for preferred event choices, voting on periodic "gifts," and have chat participants show up as bees in-game!
If you use Twitch, you can use the Prefill for Twitch button and then pop in your channel name preceded by a hash symbol (eg: #ValiantCheese). That's it - no passwords or tokens needed!
The Community settings menu has a Show Instructions button with more details and information on how each chat feature works.
If you want every chat user to end up with a bee the first time they speak (providing the population limit hasn't been reached - you can still manually spawn them from the throne though), make sure the Chat Bees setting is set to Always.
Cheats and debug controls
My hope is that you won't need them, but if you get stuck or want to try specific stuff, there are a few "cheats" in place. To access debug functions, you must enable "debug mode" from the System settings menu. Pressing the Backtick key (typically the key with ~ on it will display a menu, which lists available debug functions and their shortcuts.
- B - Complete all in-progress construction
- C - Clear all in-progress cooldowns
- H - Raise resource storage limits by 999
- G - Give 9999 of all resources (won't increase storage limits)
- Shift+E - Show event debug/selection dialog
- Shift+V - Show vignette debug/selection dialog
- E - Force the next queued event to trigger (events with unmet conditions will not show)
- V - Force the next vignette to trigger
- T - Give 99999 progress to current research item
- R - Reload all data files (resets research!)
- F - Mark all foraging zones as explored
Log, save, and config file locations
Logs, saves, and configuration files can be found in the following locations for each supported platform:
- Linux:
~/.local/share/hivetime/
(note that this respects XDG_DATA_HOME) - Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/hivetime/
- Windows:
%APPDATA%/hivetime/
Selecting the Open User Folder option from the settings menu will open this location in a file browser.
Technical help
If you're experiencing troubles, please send a detailed description of what is occurring along with relevant save files and logs to support [AT] jbushproductions.com
Common technical hurdles and how to cross them:
No text is visible outside of the main menu
This occurs when the game is unable to load fonts (the main menu text is actually a 3D model!).
The most common cause of this is the game being unable to find the fonts folder. Please make sure that it is extracted into the same folder as the game's executable (.x86_64, .exe) and that the working folder is set to the same location when running the game.
If you're not feeling confident extracting the game properly or are still experiencing problems, consider playing Hive Time through the Itch.io App, which handles all of that for you.
MacOS says the app is damaged!
It's lying. Thanks Apple.
You should be able to run the game without problems if you install and launch it via the Itch app.
Alternatively, you can use the xattr command line tool with -cr parameters on the game's .app folder to clear the quarantine flags that are preventing it from running. You can learn more about xattr by opening a terminal and typing man xattr
The game freezes briefly when bees commence construction on a cell
The construction progress indicators may require the shader cache to be updated for some graphics drivers, which may cause a brief pause. Turning off Construction Indicators from the Video Settings menu will prevent this.
Sound suddenly becomes garbled or stutters
When under high load, the Godot engine's sound server can become unstable and cause the rest of the game to lag.
Typically, this is caused by the Bee Sound Count setting in the Audio settings menu being too high. The default value of 25 seems to be appropriate for most systems that the game has been tested on, but lower may be more appropriate for your computer.
When this occurs, the game will typically need to be restarted in order for audio to return to normal.
As my hive gets big, the game's frame rate slowly declines
During development, I made the decision to not put a performance oriented maximum cap on hive or population size, so generally speaking, it will always be possible to make a hive that's too big for your computer to handle.
The game should still be playable at a low frame rate, and spawning a new Queen doesn't specifically require a large hive, so it's up to you to play within the constraints of what you're comfortable with.
The game's minimum requirements are based on running the game with Shadows, Anti-alising, and Depth Of Field settings all disabled, and with the Bee Sound Count audio setting set to zero. These options can have a big impact on performance.
If you find that sound is garbled or stuttering, please refer to the "Sound suddenly becomes garbled or stutters" section.
Current known issues:
- Keyboard bindings with modifiers that share primary keys with other bindings (eg: Ctrl+S and S) may behave unexpectedly
Gameplay tips
There's a lot to keep track of in Hive Time! Part of the fun is in exploring and learning how different systems work. Generally, the impact of your actions takes a little while to be apparent, so observing after experimenting can be important!
If you're feeling stuck, take a look at the Hints/tips section of the in-game "Beepedia"!