Hive Mind (2024)
An RTS-lite where you play as a colony of ants, rapidly switching between searching for food and fighting off hungry beetles.
Project Info
Team Size: 1
Project Length: 48 hours
(Post-Jam Version: 2 weeks)
Theme: Tiny Creatures
Just 48 hours
I created Hive Mind for Ludum Dare 56, a game jam that challenged me to create a complete project from scratch in just 2 days. A strong focus on organization and planning ahead allowed me to stay relatively stress-free and complete all the features I had planned. I drafted a detailed schedule to help me keep moving, and prioritized breaks, meals, and sleep as necessary opportunities to step away from the project and see it from a different perspective. I also created a Trello board with every feature I might want to implement, sorted by priority.
After the 48 hours ended, I played and reviewed dozens of other games to boost Hive Mind's visibility, had conversations with many other designers who left comments on my game, and proactively solicited feedback on the most desired features I had missed. In response to this feedback, I spent the next 2 weeks teaching myself A* pathfinding, implementing a much more dynamic drag-to-select system, drastically improving game balance and pacing, and making it much easier to tell which ants you were controlling.
My previously-established Trello board proved crucial for sorting through the feedback and aligning it with my own goals, allowing me to effectively work with a large group of playtesters and rapidly iterate on a single idea.