Bee Simulator is More Educational Than You'd Expect

By Jon Ryan

With a name like Bee Simulator, you might expect to see a tiny, airborne version of something like Goat Simulator – a wacky, physics-based comedy game that, while entertaining, does very little to actually simulate the day-to-day reality of Bovidae Capra. However, you would be very much mistaken.

Bee Simulator, from development team Varsav Games, focuses on what the real lives and struggles of the American wild bee. Or, at least, as close as they can get while still making an entertaining game – and one that’s far more educational than you might expect.

“Goats are, like, doing nothing interesting. They eat grass,” laughs Lukasz Rosiński, Varsav’s founder and CEO. “And bees are doing many, many interesting things. There’s a whole part [of the game that] is very educational about it, where you learn about the importance of bees and their contribution to the ecosystem and the environment.”

While part of me had hoped to spend my demo buzzing around Varsav’s roughly 1.5-mile wide open world (styled after iconic areas in Central Park) and ruining wealthy Manhattanites’ fancy picnics, I was glad to see that the activities – collecting pollen, locating lost members of my colony, etc – tread the fine line between arcade game and educational aid well. It took me a bit to get the hang of its direction-based dueling system, though. When facing off against a wasp – the unabashed jerkwad of bee society, existing solely to bite and sting and generally be miserable – you have the ability to block, attack, and charge specials. It’s sort of like For Honor, except you’re, y’know… a bee. You try to predict which direction your opponent will attack from, block in that direction and counterattack from another.

By and large, the most enjoyable aspect of my time as a bee was simply flying around its colorful world. Collecting pollen is the name of the game, since that’s almost all bees do in their day-to-day. It was a simple task of essentially flying through rings of the right color, but the flight mechanics – complete with “Bee Vision” to detect pollen types and a “Bee-tro” turbo mode – were intuitive and fun to use.  “We saw all the real things from the hive, from the life of a bee,” says Rosiński, “And wanted to show it in an interesting way so that the gameplay isn’t boring.”

Managing to balance the educational and the entertaining is no small feat on its own, but Rosiński also has a broader message he wants Bee Simulator to convey as well. “One of the educational aspects of the game is showing the player the problem of bees; that they are dying.  Not with the honeybees cause honeybees are, sorry to say, our business. They are giving us honey. So, if they are dying, we [will] buy new ones. So the biggest problem is with the wild bees.”

Throughout our demo, we’d earn “Knowledge Points” for completing tasks or finding new areas, which can be used to unlock new cosmetics. These knowledge points also point out ways we can actively aid the ailing bee population in the US, and Rosiński made no effort to shy away from its agenda – even taking the time to explain it in person during our chat. “It’s very easy, what you might do to help bees,” he says. “When you cut your grass in your backyard every week, there is no possibility for small flowers to grow between the [blades of grass]. When you cut it once per two weeks, it may not look as good, but still, there are some small flowers that need to be from pollinated so bees have food. With not doing anything by you. You actually have to do less now,” he adds with a laugh.

The brief demo I had with Bee Simulator did a fine job of balancing the arcadey fun and informational tidbits. I’m curious to see how the team at Varsav mixes their solid flight mechanics with the story they want to tell, and I appreciate that they’re attempting to preach a positive message while they do it. I just hope I don’t have to fight too many wasps when it releases later this year. Those guys are jerks.

JR is IGN’s Senior Editor of Features, and is really glad Varsav didn’t go full-bore and show the truly horrific side of bee combat. You can follow him on Twitter @USofJR.