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In early 2017 we reviewed a brand new celebration recreation from Calliope Video games known as Hive Thoughts.
It was a success with all of the teams we performed with and we solely had one criticism – it seemed like a youngsters’s recreation.
The truth is, we had been fairly shocked with how a lot we loved the sport due to what we’d anticipated by seeing the sport field.
That’s proper. Our greatest subject was with who the goal market was for the sport as a result of the visuals didn’t match who would really get pleasure from enjoying the sport.
Effectively, Calliope Video games has lately launched a revised model of Hive Thoughts and we wish to give them an enormous high-five for doing so!
Sure, the branding is a giant enchancment. However that’s not the one factor that makes this model a greater celebration recreation.
We’re excited to inform you all about it.
Hive Thoughts is an excellent easy celebration recreation to play.
The purpose of the sport is to suppose like everybody else (suppose just like the “hive”). The extra your solutions match different participant’s solutions, the extra factors you’ll rating. Gamers scoring much less factors will discover themselves falling to the underside and ultimately being kicked off the sport board.
The sport ends as quickly as one participant (or extra) strikes off the sport board. All of the gamers nonetheless on the sport board win.
To start, gamers place their pawns on the first house on the sport board and take a pencil and piece of paper . The deck of query playing cards are positioned inside attain of all gamers.
Gamers take turns being the lively participant. Every spherical, the lively participant attracts a query card and chooses one of many questions on it to learn aloud. Then all gamers have 2 minutes to put in writing down their solutions.
After time is up, the lively participant is the primary to learn the solutions they wrote. Upon studying every reply, all gamers who wrote that very same factor increase their palms. Gamers rating 1 level for every participant who wrote the identical reply.
For instance, if I wrote “Darth Vader” as certainly one of my solutions for “What are the 4 greatest film villains of all time?” and a couple of different gamers additionally wrote Darth Vader as certainly one of their solutions, we every rating 3 factors for our Darth Vader reply. If I’m the one participant that wrote Darth Vader, I solely rating 1 level.
After the lively participant is completed, the following participant pronounces their solutions (that haven’t already been talked about) and so forth till all have acknowledged their solutions and written down their factors. Then participant whole their factors for the spherical and examine them.
Initially of the spherical when the lively participant chooses a query, in addition they roll the die. The end result on the die signifies how lots of the lowest scores will transfer down one house on the board. This can be 1, 2, or 3 of the bottom scores. As well as, the die has one aspect that exhibits a star. On this case, gamers with the bottom rating transfer down one house and gamers with the best rating transfer up one house.
For instance, if the scores are 13, 13, 12, 10, 9, 9, and eight and the die end result confirmed 2 dots, then the gamers with the bottom 2 scores (the two gamers who scored 9 and the 1 participant who scored 8) will all transfer down one house.
So long as all pawns are nonetheless on the board, the sport continues with a brand new spherical. The following particular person in flip order turns into the lively participant and attracts a brand new query card.
If a number of participant’s pawn strikes off the sport board, the sport instantly ends.
When the sport ends, all these off the board lose and everybody nonetheless on the board wins!
New and Improved Visuals and Recreation Play
As I discussed on the outset, we’ve actually loved enjoying Hive Thoughts with varied teams through the years. And we’re enthusiastic about this new model of the sport as a result of it’s even higher in a lot of methods.
The aspect we’ll begin with is the one we’ve already talked about – the branding and visuals.
BRANDING & VISUALS
Ought to we decide a e-book by its cowl?
Most likely not. However we recurrently do.
The identical goes with board video games. We make all types of judgements primarily based on first impressions of seeing the paintings on a recreation field.
As you possibly can see on this photograph with the unique Hive Thoughts recreation field on the left, Calliope Video games performed up the “hive” side of the sport by leaning right into a bee theme. The field additionally introduced kid-like paintings, font type, and a cute tagline of “The Recreation of Beeing Alike”.
Open opening the sport field, that very same theme shined by as properly with the sport board paintings trying very interesting to youngsters.
So proper on the outset after we obtained the unique recreation, we assumed it was a recreation for little children and it sat unplayed for some time.
Nonetheless, as soon as we performed the sport, we had been hooked.
But, we nonetheless discovered that when introducing the sport to new gamers, we’d inform them to look previous their first impression and simply benefit from the recreation – which all of them ended up having fun with as properly.
With the brand new field paintings, Hive Thoughts appears extra like a recreation for teenagers and adults – those that usually tend to play a celebration recreation than youngsters.
Massive kudos for the visible change in hitting the target market extra straight!
COMPONENTS
Whereas this may increasingly appear to be it goes hand in hand with the visuals, we see parts as a separate enchancment.
By dropping the bee theme, Calliope Video games was additionally capable of enhance on the parts by making them extra generic.
Normally saying one thing is “generic” is a foul factor. Nonetheless, on this case it’s an enchancment.
That’s as a result of it lets gamers concentrate on the precise recreation play fairly than being distracted by a theme when a theme isn’t wanted.
Within the unique, the pawns had been a bee form. Nonetheless, they had been exhausting to inform what they had been they usually wouldn’t stand upright very properly. So that they had been a bit fiddly.
Going with generic pawns was a superb transfer as a result of they solely really want to point a shade. They usually don’t tip over.
The Query playing cards additionally shifted from the bee theme paintings to thought-bubble paintings. Whereas we just like the shift in type, we want the font selection on the brand new playing cards was higher. The slim font is tougher to learn.
The straightforward recreation board can also be an enchancment.
The unique recreation board was cut up into two areas. On the left was the beehive with completely different ranges – the place the bee pawns would transfer down till they’re kicked out of the hive. On the proper had been areas the place the queen bee would transfer. With the advance within the recreation mechanics (which we’ll cowl subsequent), the proper aspect of the board is now not even wanted. Thus, condensing the board to simply be circle areas was a superb transfer.
The brand new recreation board can also be double-sided. There are 6 areas on one aspect and eight areas on the opposite. So gamers can select how lengthy of a recreation they wish to play by which aspect of the board they select. And that’s a pleasant addition too.
One other element Calliope Video games has added to this new model is a sheet of stickers for gamers to make use of if they should higher distinguish the colours. A few of the pawn colours are comparable and gamers with ranges of shade blindness might wish to use these sticker for that objective.
We additionally love that every thing matches in a extra compact recreation field.
GAME PLAY MECHANICS
Whereas the central recreation play is identical – ask a query, write down solutions, rating factors, and the decrease scores drop down a stage – there’s a small adjustment within the mechanics that we predict is implausible.
As talked about above, within the unique, there’s a flower observe {that a} queen bee strikes alongside. Gamers roll a regular 6-sided die to see how far the queen bee strikes and which house she lands on determines how lots of the lowest scores will drop a stage.
Effectively, this mechanic was improved in the simplest method – a single die does all of it!
Now gamers merely roll a customized die that has the outcomes proper on it.
It sounds so easy. And it truly is.
It’s one other nice instance how simplifying to the necessities in designing a recreation could make a giant distinction. Draw back all of the pointless elements and maintain the concentrate on the central aspect of a recreation. And on this case it’s the questions and solutions.
Bravo throughout on the brand new model of Hive Thoughts, Calliope Video games!
We extremely suggest choosing up a duplicate of Hive Thoughts for your loved ones!
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