I’m really not sure what all to include but I want to make a fairly in-depth simulator. As a mother, I found I couldn’t responsibly keep my girls so I have given it up for now. I miss doing it and don’t currently see anything like what I want… so here we are! I’m hoping I can make something fun for me and possibly educational for people interested in beekeeping.
Step 1?
Well… I want to try and make a single Deep hive frame and play with having it auto generate the cells in different states. I’m hoping that will be a good place to start?
I would like to add the link to the help thread that started this topic.
As I have stated there, I would distinct the data for the hive from the visuals. That way you can draw it in 2D or in 3D independent from the simulation. Or draw only parts of it.
I would store the data from the beginning in a Resource. It will help later to save and load the state of the hive.
Will post parts of my test for the MultiMesh later.
I prefer to build all my scenes in meter. The size of bees is on the lower scale what is recommended in Godot. The defaults for eg. the camera is setup for larger scales. It depends a little bit on your concept what you want to show in the end. How close you want to zoom in or how many hives you want to show in a global scene. If you only want to stay on bee size, it could be better to chose a different dimension of the scene. But if you want to show the environment, like the 2D bee simulation by @wchc I would stay at one unit equals 1m. I have adjusted the camera planes for my tests, to be able to stay in meters.
I prefer to build my scenes as generic as possible. The frame could be easily placed in a hive box with the correct size. The interface for the frame has exports like these:
@export var frame_width: float = 0.3 # meter
@export var frame_height: float = 0.2 # meter
@export var frame_depth: float = 0.02 # meter
@export var frame_thickness: float = 0.005 # meter
@export var frame_data: FrameData
@export var cell_size: float = 0.0054 # meter
And than I generate the array for the cells based on these parameters. And instantiate the frame sides with Boxes.
In FrameData I store the state of every cell in a PackedInt32Array. I uses this enum:
Than I loop over the array and generate five different MultiMeshInstance3D.
I don’t want to post code, since I have used an LLM (autocomplete) to generate parts of it.
Seems like a good plan.
And in 3D MultiMesh looks like to be the way to go. Have placed some better meshes into them.
With eggs, larvae, pupa and honey. Only 22 draw calls, no problem on older hardware.
I think my knowledgebase is approximately level 0 comparatively x.x I figured out adding the multimesh and setting the shape to a hexagon…. but that’s about it I’ll fiddle with it!
If you have one multimesh with an empty hexagon, that’s half of the way.
I have a cell mesh for every state, the hexagon with the content. In the godot screenshot I use five different multimeshes. Here my meshes in Blender:
Exciting! I’m always eager to see more bee games, and more games from bee enthusiasts!
I’m not sure what type of gameplay you’ve got in mind or how confident you are with building a hex grid, but if you haven’t come across it before, this article by Red Blob Games is in-depth and (IMO) pretty accessible:
Also some years ago, I made a bee-themed management sim in Godot called Hive Time (which, as was mentioned in the other thread is not realistic and is more using stylised bees as a metaphor for generational communities of humans). Happy to share any perspectives or insights I have that might be of value.
I like hexagonal tiles and I’ve been playing with them for a few projects. Once you get the grid done with some cell behavior, what are your plans beyond that? Also, things can get pretty complicated but I think an educational game around bees would be really cool and I would be open to helping if you want.
Let me point to a few experiments I did and if there is anything interesting to you in them feel free to ping me on Discord @josepvalls
Sampling from noise textures to get properties for hexagonal tiles (to have organic patterns in the hive maybe?): One seed by Josep Valls
So after playing around with things in blender and another engine, I think I know what I want to create. I want to make it as realistic as possible from a methodical perspective even if the visuals are not.
I think having the game be primarily 3D(not sure about First person or Top-down yet?) for the typical actions with essentially 2D mini games for the actual individual hive management.
Long Term Gameplay plans:
Place and add to hives(adding boxes for expansion or honey).
View individual hives, frame by frame to determine their status and needs.
Minigames like capturing the queen to mark or split the hive.
Dividing the frames between two hives during a split.
Testing for varroa counts.
Honey collection mechanics like centrifugal honey extractors.
Seasonal events that can impact health and production.
Buttoning up for overwintering with survival rates percentages.
Thinking of a “peaceful mode” with higher survival rates and a “survival mode“ with statistically accurate rates.
Eventually I want to implement things like genetics and queen production but I think the list is pretty extensive already.
I was always impressed, that there are special rules and laws for owners of a bee colony. At least in Germany it’s one of the rare cases where it is allowed to enter third party properties without permission, when your swarm is moving there. I have the feeling that there is some hidden game idea in this.
Local groups have Swarm lists here in the US. When Honeybee Swarms are identified, they the local group calls down the list for people to come get them.
