Bee Lives: We Will Only Know Summer
Bee Lives: We Will Only Know Summer is going to be special. It’s a resource management and worker placement game where 1-4 players will go through a year as bees. Players will have to select a style of play and survive all four seasons as well as each other as they try to get through winter.
The game was designed by Matt Shoemaker, a beekeeper, and librarian who wanted to make a game based on the Euro Games he loves. He also wanted to create a game that can educate players about the lives of bees. Estimated to be released in May 2019, the game can currently be found on Kickstarter, where it has been successfully funded and is now aiming for stretch goals. We spoke with Shoemaker about Bee Lives and the recent success that the game has found.
“I’ve been working in earnest on Bee Lives for a little over a year. The mechanics came pretty quickly, at least at the higher level,” says Shoemaker. “I started bringing the game to the Gamer Makers Guild Philadelphia meetups in fall of 2017 and first showed it at the PAX Unplugged Unpub event that same year. There was a lot of tweaking since then. Scrapping some mechanics, adding others, streamlining things. Honestly, you can never really call a game done. There is always more you can do with it. You do need to pick a time when you say “this is ready” though and that’s when you move to publish or crowdfund.”
Of course, Shoemaker couldn’t have made this game alone. A quick glance at the Bee Lives Kickstarter page will reveal that the game’s unique theme comes with a wonderful package. The game includes many “Beeples,” tokens, cards, and dice that breathe life into the Bee Lives. “Our graphic designer, Helen Shoemaker, pulled all the pieces together,” states Shoemaker. “Alina Josan created all of the illustrative work and did a great job with it, but Helen is the one that made the beeples, as well as all of the graphical instructive elements, come to life on the game components. We wanted to make sure we made simple, but attractive, game pieces that would help bring all of the art to life, immerse the player in the world of bees, and also serve a user experience function to help players along during the game.”
Bee Lives has a quite a few interesting mechanics for aspiring queen bees. In the beginning, players will pick their leader. Some queens are aggressive and specialize in fighting other hives, while others might be better at obtaining more workers. The game features a weather system that impacts all players, and the weather changes with the seasons. Players get to perform various actions to gain resources, such as scout, forage, and raid. Other actions allow the player to spend resources to enhance their hive, acquire more workers, or prevent disease.
Following the Spring season, players will be forced to combine their individual maps to simulate bees going to other territories to acquire resources during a hot and dry summer. The game will continue on through winter, and at the end of the year, players will tally up their scores. To win, you need to have the highest score, and at least one surviving bee.
“When I’m playing Bee Lives I really like to pretend I am doing the best I can for a real hive of bees. I focus on their survival, and not so much playing for points, so I tend to play a little less aggressively than some of the people I’ve playtested with,” says Shoemaker. “I like to build my hive up to a good size, swarm once or twice, and make sure I store more than enough honey in my hive to get ready for the next year. Some people really enjoy raiding other hives for honey, but personally, I get more enjoyment out of harvesting those resources for myself.”
In a four-player game, other players are sure to play differently than Shoemaker. Players can be aggressive, but they might also leave themselves open for an attack from another hive. The end result is a strategic game that emphasizes proper timing in addition to the resource and worker mechanics. The game was heavily inspired by Carcassonne, Clans of Caledonia, and A Feast for Odin. Shoemaker also recalls one more, non-tabletop influence for the game. “I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention Sim Ant. Middle School aged Matt played that game for hours and hours, and really made me fall in love with social insects in general. In some ways I wanted Bee Lives to be like Sim Ant for the tabletop, only at the hive level instead of you playing as an individual bee.” Fans of Agricola will also find themselves at home with Bee Lives. “I’ve had a lot of people make that comparison, particularly because of the food and starvation elements that take place in Bee Lives,” recalls Shoemaker.
With the project fully funded, Shoemaker looks towards the future. “I have two projects in mind for the next year. One is an expansion for bee lives that will add a cooperative element to the game between a hive player and a beekeeper player. The other is a card game based on a somewhat obscure dog sport that I will keep the lid on a bit for now.”
“Bee Lives is a great game for anyone who loves worker placement and resource management mechanics. I also designed the game so you will learn about bees as you play the game. If this interests you or someone you know please check out our campaign at the below link. If you have any gamer friends that are also beekeepers be sure to show them the game. I have yet to find a beekeeping gamer that doesn’t love Bee Lives.”
