• Please note: game contains flashing lights and may not be suitable for photosensitive folk -

A bee collects pollen in sync with hip-hop music. You know how it is.

Find your way back to the queen through a grimy series of tunnels while hip hop surrounds you. Includes hot karaoke action, a buzzing soundtrack, and a Turbo mode alongside Standard for those of you that like a little more sting.

Game concept, programming, art and music by Allison James, resident honey.

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  • Tero Hannula
    Patron

    Just putting link of gameplay here :) https://youtu.be/7b8T5jlem-M?t=2550

    And yes, my life got better after playing this ^^

  • Jupiter Hadley
    Lv. 13

    Very cute game - I enjoyed the music a lot! I included it in my GM48: Collect! compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/AJIXJbuzz8E

  • BelowSeaLvL
    Lv. 7

    At first the game felt a bit simple. Then it got ok. After I finished Turbo Mode on 153% it felt really great.

    Perhaps the flashing was a bit too intense. :P

    Great music, funny extra's in the subtitles.

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you very much for playing!

      Yeah, definitely getting the impression from feedback that the flashing was "my comfort level" which isn't some other people's 😅 If I go further with the idea I will bear that in mind, and either balance it better generally or include some toggles to reduce it.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    4yrs ago

    This game did not have any element of the jam theme in it.

    I don't really understand the overwhelmingly positive feedback here, because to be honest it's lacking polish compared to many of the other entries that are much more polished with less positive feedback.

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      The amount of feedback a game receives isn't proportional to its quality, nor will it be proportional to its results at the end of the jam.

      If you're an entrant into this jam and have chosen to remain anonymous as you're a little disgruntled about the uneven reviewing - don't worry too much about it. If your game's not got a thumbnail already, go add one - it helps with visibility. And keep entering future GM48s too - this is my fourth time and the previous three were all far, far down in the Ratings list. It's always a roll of the dice how much attention you're going to get.

  • baku
    Patron

    Only thing I can really complain about is the Pac-Man-esque turning, it sometimes felt like it dropped my inputs if I pressed the arrow key right when hitting a turn, so my "optimal" strategy became holding down the key before I even hit the turn, but that becomes kinda confusing and tiring after a while, especially when there's a series of turns quickly in a row...

    But aside from the controls it was really good! Cool music, cool visuals, cool vibes all around. Very polished for a jam game, girl!

    SOMNIUM
    Submitted

    SOMNIUM

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you very much 😄 Yes, the controls definitely left a bit to be desired and if I iterate on the game they'll be the first aspect I look at xD

  • kbjwes77
    Lv. 19

    The theme category does not apply to this game. Solid rhythm-ish game with a lot of polish for such a short development period! Everything I was going to say has already been said by others, but just know I enjoyed playing it and appreciate the attention to detail like on the bee's face and the speed-up of the audio synchronized with the increasing pace of the gameplay.

    SOMNIUM
    Submitted

    SOMNIUM

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      I did implement the theme as much as I could (you're collecting points) but it wasn't my favourite of the 12 second-round theme options and I'd already thought about the rhythm game idea so much that I was fully in the mood to make it regardless of the theme I was jamming it into, so yeah, it's definitely a light-at-best implementation xD

      Thank you very much for playing!

  • Naxos
    Lv. 7

    This game is cute and it puts a smile on your face :)

    I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said. Menus, music and art are all good! Gameplay and theme integration are probably the weakest for this game. But that's been discussed plenty enough.

    I really enjoyed how the expression of the bee changed throughout the game. I especially liked the 'determined' look near the end. Get it done, little bee!

    Also, turbo mode was my favorite of the two modes, by far.

    Nicely done Allison!

    PS. I uploaded a video of my playthrough, if you're interested.

  • Seltzy
    Patron

    A neat and fun little package. Aesthetically pretty cool and the music is nice. Unfortunately, underneath all the pretty colors, the gameplay isn't all that interesting and I didn't feel compelled to play more than once in each mode. The controls, though likely functioning as intended, feel unresponsive since there's no feedback until you hit the turn. I'm not really sold on the implementation of the theme either.

    Regardless, good work!

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you! For sure the gameplay is the weak point in it; I realised pretty quickly it was going to be an experience first and foremost so I cut back on any gameplay nuance/complexity and went full throttle with making it an easy-to-pick-up lightshow. (Also the reason the theme is only light - I wanted to include story/context where the bee you controlled was lost and surviving only on flowers between bars of music but I felt anything like that would just have detracted from the experience.)

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    4yrs ago

    Major epilepsy warning. My eyes still hurt just from seeing flashing colors for a few seconds and had to close the game. Please include this in your description. Ease up on the flashing lights and effects. Gameplay leaves much to be desired when it comes to matching the beat and traversing the maze path.

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      I'm really sorry you had that experience - I've added a disclaimer in the description. The game is definitely more on the side of lightshow/experience though, hence their intensity and also hence the simplicity of the gameplay otherwise.

      The gameplay should match the beat well, though - it took me several hours to get that aspect of the game spot on to the millisecond.

  • Kyon
    Lv. 25

    My. God. This was great. Good song, good art, fun entry. But MY GOD. Turbo mode. I played with a gamepad and it was SO intense.

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you very much! And I'm glad you liked Turbo mode; I deliberately designed the whole of Standard in a way that made Turbo possible because I had my heart set on including it xD

  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    Can confirm the title is accurate.

    I has some issue with keyboard controls, sometimes the game forced me to use my controller, which isn't great for quick change of direction, and controls felt somehow unresponsive. I had problems with the ferrari level too.

    But yeah overall it's geat, I with there was some kind of effect for the pollen collection, maybe showing it getting collected from the progress bar at the bottom, would have felt more in tune with the theme :)

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you very much for playing! As noted below, the controls are a definite possible area for improvement; they respond better if you press early than on time/late as the game only lets you move a cell once every crotchet of the song. And as for the theme, also agreed; I had a lot of bigger ideas regarding the story and theme ties but ended up cutting them for the sake of the game just being a bit of a fun experience 😄

  • BitRapture
    Lv. 6

    Such a cool game, I got 398 Pollen and 199% tempo, extremely fun to play!

  • GuineaPigCuber
    Lv. 3

    Lots of fun, but the verse about the Ferraris on turbo was super hard.

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you for playing! It is - it was actually nearly harder until I nerfed it late into the weekend! The whole chorus followed the lyrics 1:1 originally but if you lost sync once it just became a chore to play, and the game's definitely designed more as a bit of fun than a hardcore game 😅

  • Hannah Farrugia
    Lv. 3

    My life IS better after playing this game. Thank you.

    NOM
    Submitted

    NOM

  • Merlo Fairhearth Greatest Adventurer
    Lv. 2

    First impression - super cool menu, especially the effect when you select something. The music is jamming and I love the subtitles. It took me a while to understand what the heck was going on though. I can't tell what the gray lines are, or if they're related to pollen collection. Is pollen even visible, or does it just happen at the end of a level? Also, the controls feel delayed. I got stuck on the level with the verse about Ferraris because I just couldn't make it in time in Normal. However, Turbo was great. Excellent example of difficulty adjustment on the fly, though I still couldn't make it to the end. I like the bee's art, along with the flashing tiles. Gives the game a unique ascetic.

    TLDR; Good music, good art, confusing gameplay, one really hard level. Turbo is amazing.

    PS: I would critique the title, but the entire game feels like a meme anyway, so it totally fits.

    The Horde
    Submitted

    The Horde

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you for the in depth feedback! To respond to specific queries:

      • It's not communicated well but the grey lines are the lines in standard musical notation. I didn't execute much on this but I had a secondary plan of possibly including all the melody's notes along it as you went along; that would have taken way too long so I scrapped it sadly!
      • You supposedly collect pollen while in the little holes between levels. I had a concept in my head that you were stuck in the areas surrounding a place where the song was being performed, and every bass note forced you back out of those holes, but I felt any proper story cues probably weren't worth it in a game of this style.
      • The controls feel delayed as you are locked to moving one cell per crochet of music, but as is tradition, I couldn't get this feeling as great as I'd have liked to in the jam time. Fwiw, pressing directions early instead of late garners better/quicker movement, It's definitely an improvable area of the game though.
      • The title is absolutely stupid, but it made me smile and I didn't have the heart to change it. Nearly changed it to Bee Sharp right at the end of the jam but since the song isn't in B# that would have just annoyed me xD
  • ArmyArmbuster
    Lv. 6

    You were right, my life certainly was much much better after playing this game!

    Thank you! I needed it!

  • nyx
    Lv. 4

    I had a lot of fun with this game, especially turbo mode which was pretty challenging! And that Keanu Reeves line was breathtaking

    Yadokari
    Submitted

    Yadokari

  • The Great Gatsby
    Lv. 9

    pretty good! the controls were weird, but it had the feel of a real game. The random flashing lights were kind of disorienting though

    HOARDERS
    Submitted

    HOARDERS

  • Nyveon
    Patron

    Can confirm this game made my life better!

    I really loved this game, the music was a banger, the visual effects were really cool. The little details in the subtitles were cool as well, but I feel even in normal mode I didn't have time to appreciate them (all focus was on the bee :p).

    The weakest point for me was the central gameplay, but even that was fun and engaging, so take that as a compliment :)

    Well done!

    Yadokari
    Submitted

    Yadokari

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you very much 😄 I opted to keep it simple to avoid overcomplicating it in the limited jam time and also avoid having to tutorialise the game - if I come back to the idea for something bigger, it'll definitely be an area I improve on.

  • Renusek
    Lv. 3

    This was WILD!!! The song alone was really good, the graphical effects (menu, the blinking squares and all) are amazing. Turbo mode at first was funny, but also got harder with time. I have beaten both modes and I'm impressed, good job.

    Swimmer
    Submitted

    Swimmer

  • g0ldent0y
    Lv. 5

    Love this game esp the music. Great work there. Controls felt a bit wonky, got stuck in one level because of it, but i eventually managed to play through.

    Neumae
    Submitted

    Neumae

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you very much! In typical jam rush fashion I had to make a few split second decisions on controls - you can only move one "cell" every crotchet of music so I added a "hold last input" system in, meaning it's more reliable to press early than late. But it's certainly got room for improvement 😅

  • JCx64
    Lv. 3

    The game is hilarious, great work! I reached the queen bee and now the music is in my head.

  • LadyLeia
    Patron

    such a cute little game, definitely brought a smile to my face, its easy to pick up and just joyful to play. though i do have quite a few problems with it, a few times the game-play just got be a bit bored maybe try adding in more game-play elements maybe having things like ice tiles that make you go faster but stops your ability to stop could bring a bit more gameplay as well as adding a much needed thinky element, what i think I'm trying to say is that its all reaction based game-play that isn't on its own bad it just makes it hard to keep the players engaged.

    over all good game just felt like i was slowly getting board as i was playing.

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thanks! The creation of the music and the overall game style led me to figure it was probably better, in a jam setting with minimal testing/experimenting time, to keep the gameplay anchored as simple as possible. I would love to go furhter with it in the future though and the idea of ice patches etc. is a great one worth investigating, so thank you 😄

  • Chris
    Patron

    Really fun, I made it to the Queen Bee on normal. The graphics were great and it was very immersive and fun. Great game

  • Tydecon Games
    Patron

    I feel like you've made this game to show off your mix tape and I'm not even mad about it! I think the gameplay could have done with a little variety, maybe some things to avoid and a few more tunes, then again, given the time limit, what you have here is amazing! I love the visual effects and, while I'm not usually a fan of the genre music-wise, I was all over it! Great job! As you'd advertised, my life is now a little better!

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    4yrs ago

    Really liked it, my only problem though; the flashing lights and stuff should have a warning before hand, I'm not epileptic, but that made my head hurt a wee bit.

    • Allison James
      Patron
      Allison James Designer of If you play this game then your life will be better

      4yrs ago

      Thank you for playing! Apologies for the head fuzziness, the game is definitely style-first so I had to prioritise flair and never had the time to get the best balance between that and being too over the top with it xD