Third Update

As promised in the previous update, my next update focuses on project exports. That means a playable alpha of the game is now available! To jump straight into the alpha, click on "Play Now!" at the top of this blog. You will need the password in order to access the page.

Exports

While learning the Godot export pipeline, I successfully generated builds for both Mac and Android, but I have not yet exported for iOS. Exporting for iOS still appears to be easier in Godot than it is in Unity, but there remains a lot of overhead in actually distributing any pre-release iOS app. I've decided to focus on iOS exports when the project is much further along.

In the interim, I managed to get HTML5 exports working. The HTML5 or "web" export option means I can quickly share cross-platform updates to the game. It works well so far in newer versions of Safari on both MacOS and iOS. Unfortunately, it doesn't run well on my old Fire tablet.

There were only a handful of small technical changes I had to make to get the game working on the web on iOS. The most significant was a small amount of JavaScript that displays a prompt for the user to enter the player name, since the on-screen keyboard wasn't working out of the box, and the experimental one provided by Godot was too buggy to use.

Anyway, the game is currently being hosted in a password-protected fashion through itch.io. If you've received a personal invite, you'll have the password. Otherwise, stay posted for updates on an eventual public alpha/beta.

Alternate Gamemodes

I've started laying the groundwork for alternate gamemodes, including alternate leaderboards. In the latest build, you can start both "Classic" and "Experimental" modes. "Experimental" mode is where I will be testing out new features, so it needed a separate leaderboard from the "competitive" Classic mode.

For now, Experimental mode plays almost identically to Classic, save for this week's new gameplay feature. Expect Experimental mode to be updated regularly, potentially more frequently than the blog.

Flower-Ups

This week's new feature, "flower-ups", are power-ups that are activated by interacting with flowers. Specifically, in order to activate a flower-up, you must have a bee collect pollen from one flower, and bring it to another. The idea behind the pollination mechanic is to increase the player's engagement: flower-ups require you to constantly issue orders to move bees around, rather than figuring out a "safe" formation and letting your bees do all the hard work.

Right now, certain kinds (colors) of flower produce pollen, while others "consume" it. The reddish flowers are the producers, and purple flowers are the consumers. When a purple flower is pollinated, it grows much taller for a short time. After, it shrinks and can be pollinated again. The stem of the flower blocks all shots from the cannons, so by pollinating the purple flower you can create a temporarily invincible wall.

The perks provided by flower-ups can provide much-needed relief when the player is overwhelmed, but they come at a cost. First, the player is distracted while issuing orders to bees, which introduces the risk of tunnel vision. Second, bees carrying pollen are just as vulnerable as any others. If the player is not careful while issuing orders to a pollen-carrier, they may lose both the bee and its pollen!

I am eager to see how play-testers fare with this new mechanic, and what strategies they come up with.