A Ukrainian indie developer under the nickname dyskom is single-handedly creating a cozy puzzle game WaxWire: Program the Hive on the Unity engine, in which players are asked to algorithmize the work of a beehive. The project page has already appeared on the Steam digital store.
A Ukrainian indie developer under the nickname dyskom is single-handedly creating a cozy puzzle game WaxWire: Program the Hive on the Unity engine, in which players are asked to algorithmize the work of a beehive. The project page has already appeared on the Steam digital store.
The developer spoke about the development on the Reddit platform.
In WaxWire: Program the Hive, players don’t control the insects directly. Instead, they have to create a simple program for each bee using visual nodes—such as “find a flower,” “collect nectar,” and “return home.” Over time, new nodes become available to players, the meadow around the hive grows, the seasons change, and the process of gathering resources and expanding the colony can be fully automated.
According to the author, his project was most influenced by the game The Farmer Was Replaced, as well as titles from the Zachtronics studio. An interesting technological feature of WaxWire is its visual part: all graphics are vector and built by code in real time without the use of hand-drawn art.
"Vector graphics in Unity is really not an easy task. I had to write the system of combining objects into packages and the entire user interface in general myself. Of course, this had a very positive effect on optimization and flexibility. But I wouldn't want to do it again," the developer shared.
WaxWire: Program the Hive is planned for release on PC running Windows, Mac, Linux and SteamOS. The game will have Ukrainian text localization, as well as translations into English, Polish and Simplified Chinese. The author is currently collecting community feedback on the trailer and Steam page, and is also calling for adding the project to the wishlist.
