Bee management game
If you’ve ever wanted to oversee an entire hive of bees, Hive Time offers a scientific inaccurate depiction. Send workers out to gather resources, research new areas and expand your hive.
Putting a fun, colourful bee-themed spin on the management game genre, Hive Time provides a wealth of options for any aspiring apiarist. A solid aesthetic also goes a long way to papering over the game’s few flaws.
Hive simulation
Minimalist 3D graphics
Hive Time has a very clean, clear graphical style reminiscent of other simulation or management games like Kingdoms and Castles and Rymdkapsel. It’s easy to see what’s going on at any given time.
Once your hive’s population grows significantly, there’s a noticeable lag, but this can be countered by altering shader, anti-aliasing, and depth of field settings in the options menu.
Clarity of information
Any management game lives and dies by how well it communicates detailed statistics to the player. The Hive Time GUI features simple icons and numbers denoting bee population, hive cells, honey, nectar, pollen and more. It’s always apparent how much you have of any particular resource.
There’s also an in-game ‘beepedia’ that’s regularly updated with trivia and knowledge, should you find yourself confused or stuck. It’s also possible to zoom in on any given bee to see relevant statistics, including age, role and activity.
Events and replayability
Cute hand-drawn images accompany event pop-ups from time-to-time. These include wasp attacks, gangster slugs and hive-related news, such as if you’ve unlocked a new hat for your queen bee.
Bees in Hive Time never live long, making games relatively short. This encourages multiple playthroughs, although after a few games the lack of variety in events starts to become apparent.
Fun management game
Hive Time shares similar genre conventions to many simulation games, making it easy to pick up and play. It may not take bee biology entirely seriously, but that’s to the game’s benefit as it never feels overwhelming or too complicated.
