The average lifespan of the Western honey bee is 1 to 10 months. Since this is quite a large range, and the type of bee varies in this game… your lifespan is approximated to be 4 months or 120 days. This means you must maximize your precious, average amount of bee time producing royal jelly in order to produce as many Queens as possible!

The Map

What you see before your 5 bee eyes is a majestic Oakland flower field. The green hexagons represent grassy patches. The yellow hexagons represent pollen coated flowers that yield 1 pollen per visit. And the purplish hexagons represent special flowers that yield 1 gamified “royal jelly pollen” per visit. This special pollen is the only pollen able to produce royal jelly.

Click a hexagonal space to fly to it! The distance from your current location will be subtracted from your energy reserves. Previously visited flowers will turn a shade of brown.

You will start and end every day at the white “home hive” position. There you will deliver pollen, replenish energy, and regenerate the flower field for a new day of feasting.

The black hexagon represents your current position!

Attributes

• Species – Not all bees are alike.
• Day – Each time you return to home hive a day has passed, and you are one day closer to bee heaven.
• Energy – Energy is expended flying from flower to flower. Each hexagonal space traversed expends precisely 1 energy. Energy is fully replenished upon return to home hive. If you completely run out of energy you perish.
• Pollen Collected – Think of this as your “pollen backback”. This statistic keeps track of how much pollen you have collected on a flight. Regular pollen translates 1 to 1 with honey produced upon return to home hive.
• Royal Pollen Collected – Your separate “royal pollen backpack” tracks how much royal pollen you have collected on a flight. Royal pollen translates 1 to 1 with royal jelly produced upon return to home hive.
• Honey Produced – Honey is created by bringing regular pollen back to home hive. Honey is your sole energy source! 5 honey is expended to replenish your energy upon return to home hive. Run out of honey and you will no longer be able to continue!
• Royal Jelly Produced – Royal Jelly is fed to all the larvae in the colony, but it is most important because the only way to make a new queen is to feed chosen larvae copious amounts of royal jelly to trigger development of “queen morphology”. Every 10 royal jelly produced results in creation of a new queen!
• Queens Produced – Your most important attribute! Collect royal jelly, produce as many queens as possible in 120 days, resist the evil Colony Collapse Disorder scourge!

Game Dialogue

The life of a bee is dangerous work. Flying to new locations presents possible dangers. All these dangers combined represent “Colony Collapse Disorder” contributors.

Whenever an encounter takes place a decision must be made before proceeding. RISK gives you a 50% chance at riches and reward, but beware of the damages defeat can inflict. RUN to buzz another day. You avoid the event and do not collect the fruits of the selected flower.