peer2peergames

Beehive

Two honeycombs, the same bubbles dealt to both of you, and a new row pushed into each ceiling on a clock that keeps getting faster. Fire a bubble into two more of its kind and all three pop. Anything that was only hanging from them falls, and everything that falls lands in your rival's comb. Clear yours and you win outright; let yours reach the launcher line and you are out. The one that is usually missed: a bubble that FALLS is worth far more than one that pops.

Play Beehive Leaderboard

The comb and the clock

  1. Eight cells to a row, and every other row is set half a cell across, so each bubble touches six others.
  2. Both players start with the same five rows, dealt from the seed before anybody presses Ready, and both are handed the same bubbles in the same order all game.
  3. A new row is pushed into the ceiling on a clock, and the gap between pushes gets shorter as the game goes on. Every push shoves the whole comb one row nearer the launcher.
  4. The line across the comb is the launcher line. When your comb reaches it you are out, and the other player wins.

Popping

  1. Aim with a drag, or with the left and right keys, and fire. The bubble flies in a straight line and bounces off the side walls.
  2. Three or more of one kind touching each other pop and are gone. Two is not enough, and a bubble that lands beside nothing of its own kind simply stays there.
  3. A bubble squeezes through a gap a little narrower than itself, so a channel one cell wide is threadable if you can find the angle.
  4. Popping does not set off another pop. Taking bubbles away only ever makes the groups around them smaller.

What falls is worth more than what pops

  1. Every bubble hangs from the ceiling through its neighbours. Pop the ones holding a clump up and the whole clump falls.
  2. THE ATTACK IS THE FALL AND NOT THE POP. One bubble arrives in your rival's comb for every bubble that FELL out of yours. The ones that burst send nothing at all.
  3. So the shot to look for is not the biggest group: it is the small group that is holding a large one up. Clearing the bottom of a hanging clump brings all of it down.
  4. An emptied top row drops the entire comb, which is spectacular and is a perfectly legal way to win.

The attack, and cancelling it

  1. Bubbles you send land at the deepest free edge of your rival's comb. They do not pop on arrival, even if they complete a group of three.
  2. They arrive as the kinds that fell, in the order they fell, so nothing is drawn at random and the log can be checked afterwards.
  3. What you are owed waits until after your next shot has been worked out. If that shot sends bubbles of its own, they cancel what you owe first and only the rest crosses over.
  4. So a comb filling up is answered by popping, not by waiting: a big fall can cancel everything you owe and still reach the other side.

How a game ends

  1. Clear your comb completely and you win at that instant, however the other comb is doing.
  2. Let your comb reach the launcher line and you are out, and the other player wins.
  3. If both combs reach the line on the same push, it is a draw.
  4. At six kinds a clear is rare and most games are decided by survival. That is measured rather than assumed, and it is why the pushes accelerate.
  5. The seed is published when the game is over, so anybody can replay the log and check that no bubble moved.

The six kinds

  1. Worker, drone and queen are bees and differ in shape: the worker is slim, the drone is round with large eyes, the queen is long.
  2. Larva, pollen and nectar are not bees at all, and that is deliberate: a curled grub, a lumpy cluster and a single drop.
  3. The kinds are told apart by their OUTLINE and never by their colour, so the game is playable without seeing colour at all. A screen reader names each cell by its kind.

THE CLOCK IS THE SERVER'S. A push falls due at a moment worked out from when the combs went live, not from when your page loaded, and a shot is timed when the server receives it. A fast connection buys nothing. The bubble you see fly is the path the server walked and sent back, not one your browser worked out: the browser draws a guide while you aim, but what happens is always the server's answer.

Beehive terms

A pop
Three or more bubbles of one kind, touching, cleared by a shot that completes the group. The pop itself sends nothing to your rival.
A fall
A bubble cut loose from the ceiling when the bubbles holding it up are popped. Every bubble that falls sends one to the other comb, which is the whole of the attack.
A push
A new row forced into the ceiling by the clock, moving the whole comb one row nearer the launcher line. The gap between pushes shortens all game.
The launcher line
The line across the comb where the launcher sits. A comb that reaches it is buried and that player is out.
Cancelling
Bubbles you owe are taken off before any of your own are sent, so a big fall can clear your debt and still cross over.
The seed
The number both combs and every bubble either player will ever be handed are dealt from. Published when the game ends, so the log can be checked.

Playing it here

  • Against a person or the bot. The bot needs no account and starts at once. To play a person, be rated and keep your games, you need an account: an email address and a password.
  • At your own pace. Every move has a deadline you both see, from one minute to a week. A game can take an evening or it can take a fortnight.
  • Nothing to buy and nothing to win. No stakes, no prizes, no boosts, no undo. The only thing on offer is a place on a leaderboard, and only if you want one.
  • Every game can be checked. Anything decided by chance comes from the game's seed, and the seed is published the moment the game ends, so any finished game can be replayed and verified by anyone. See fair play.