The Hive: A Little War, A Deep Strategy, A Strange GameDev

In one of the schools in the Moscow region, the psychologist was faced with the fact that children have very poor concentration. According to the tests of the 90s, developed for normal students of the USSR, our modern children did a little better than nothing. The teachers also complained about it, blaming computer, console and tablet games. It is obviously more pleasant to throw a pig into a bird than to prove the equality of triangles.

The psychologist asked us for logic games so that children could play and think while doing so. We poured a little bit different. The story of the Hive is especially indicative - in half a year a group of students playing it showed the largest gap from the control in terms of attentiveness and concentration.
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I told this to John Yanni, who developed the Beehive. And thus introduced him to an attack of tenderness and nostalgia. And he shared the story of the development of the game from the first board steps in 1982 to an unexpected spurt on Steam, Android and iOS in modern times. Below is a cozy fairy tale about a geek who suddenly met with reality, and some of my notes on this story.

The first steps and the game without bugs

In 1982, John Yanni was as much as 18 years old. He sold clothes at the family store and was a little fond of chess. One day he saw a film where two friends played chess every day in a park, each bringing half a field and half a piece. This strongly hooked the young mind, and he decided that we needed a game without a field. And so that all the figures could be carried in your pocket.

The first version was about castles, dragons and knights. Some monsters survived: for example, giant rats walked like ants in the base Hive. There were also stones just blocking the road and boars pushing other pieces. Instead of the queens of the hive were kings. The field was rectangular, not hexagonal. Unlike the modern game, starting with two chips at the beginning of the field, in the old version there was a full starting position (in the modern Hive every turn is a choice: move one of the existing insects or introduce a new one into the game).


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After about 18 years (when John turned 36, and he worked as a webmaster-on-all-hands), he suddenly remembered the game from childhood. And he began to slowly cut out figures of plywood during lunch breaks. The theme of fantasy was no longer so popular, and he switched to biology. After the tests with friends and family, square pieces were replaced with hexagonal ones. After a heap-heap of alterations and improvements, it was possible to get a more or less stable release with a converging balance. Since John was not a professional, he needed feedback from real table geeks. And he decided to contact the Finchley Games Club for tests - this is a club in his city that he found on the net - and he didn’t even know what was there and how.

He explained about his game, and he was very warmly received. But they stopped right away: no need to explain the rules. Sit and be quiet, they say, we will read and try to understand how the players will understand without you. A few hours later they said, “John, we hate you. Because of you, we will play it instead of work tomorrow. ” And they were upset because testing the game and not finding bugs in it is somehow unusual.

Garage production

In 2001, John decided to cut out the first 1000 games with his hands. Together with his wife Maria, they made wooden hexagons, printed stickers and began to glue. 22 thousand stickers - it's not as easy as it may seem. The latter finished off the crowd of friends and acquaintances in the local KFC with friends, John was affixed.

Then they started sending games to stores. The first 6 things were taken by a man who heard about this game from friends from the club. Later his shop became one of the largest buyers of the Hive - but for 2001 sales were measured in units, not thousands of games per month.

John drove to his first Dragonmeet gaming convention - this is something like TechCranch, only for table players and rolevikov. There was little sales, but there were still a couple of stores ready to put the games on the shelves. Next is a collection of comic lovers, a science fiction fair in London, and so on. Everyone who tried it liked the game, but there was still little sales.

Success, failure, failure, success

In 2002, Essen happened. Essen is a city in Germany where one of the world's healthiest exhibitions of board games is held. Mike, the owner of the store where the Beehive was for sale, advised him to take as many boxes as he could fit into the car. John and Maria were able to pack about 500 pieces in the trunk and salon, plus they took posters. The exhibition revealed that most independent publishers sell 20-30 games each, which was frustrating.

On the first day, a huge crowd of geeks burst into the exhibition with lists of games that need to be bought. Already well-known nastolshchikam began to sell well, but the Beehive did not go something: it simply was not on the lists. Towards evening, when the mood fell below the baseboard, the first sales began. Geeks calmed down, grabbing the deficient games, and began to quietly walk around the exhibition. We stopped by, looked at the game, read the rules, tried at the tables nearby ... By the end of the day, almost all the tables were playing in the Hive. And suddenly, somehow, the circulation began to be snapped up like hot cakes. Already the first hundred seemed a real magic - and there were still the main days of the exhibition. I must say, they sold 400 boxes in total.

On the second day, Klaus from the German Publishers Zoch approached them. He offered a contract for publication, but John did not understand anything of the conditions and decided to wait out, gaining experience. Year after year, Klaus later approached his stand on Essen, until he signed an exclusive in Germany.

John left home with a proposal from Cosmos, a major international publisher. And the audience award Essen.

I must say that despite the sales of about 1000 units in two years, some shops of desktop and hobby goods in the UK already knew about the game and placed pre-orders. A little later began to receive applications from Europe.

The problem was that John, like many novice manufacturers, the cost of the box went off scale: it was necessary to urgently work on cheaper circulation. With difficulty through acquaintances, we managed to find a manufacturer of wooden toys, who was able to organize everything serially. So, it was decided that the minimum circulation is 5,000 pieces. A lot, but less was just unprofitable. Our heroes received a print run and began to slowly sell it to stores - but all the new contacts took 5-10 pieces, not counting on special sales. The circulation threatened to rest at home for another 5-8 years at such a pace. The mood "what for we took this" began to soar in the air. In 2004, the last step was the Nuremberg exhibition of toys, where major contracts were signed. It all happened so that either the game would shoot there, or you would have to throw it all and return to the boring office.

Unlike Essen, absolutely strange things were happening on Nuremberg. People approached the neighboring stands, and signed pre-orders for ten thousand, twenty thousand and (oh, horror!) Fifty thousand copies of games whose boxes weren’t even seen. By the end of the exhibition, John realized how little he knew about this business - and almost miraculously got a contract from an American store for 5,000 units of the game. Phew!

Board games - serious business

In 2005, John revised his strategy and started doing the following smart things:

• From direct orders for small stores, he went to work with distributors and agents. They immediately gave him good sales both in England and in Europe.
• It turned out that England is one of the most difficult markets. The same Germany was much more profitable. The rest of the European countries and the United States also gave a big return.
• The production was transferred to polymers (we have this material called “bakelite” - an artificial stone, a cross between ceramics and plastic, you can know it from the dominoes, the buildings of the old city telephones and the escalator steps). According to John, this immediately gave a very significant increase in sales. The chips were extremely pleasant to hold in their hands, and they knocked loudly on the table. Plus they have become much harder and more solid.
• Began to be nominated for awards. The American prize in one of the categories of toys immediately allowed to sign new contracts with resellers in the USA.

In 2007, one of the agents offered to release a promotional chip specifically for fans of the game. John took and invented a mosquito that knows how to “steal” the abilities of other insects. When the print run was over, at all the exhibitions they began to ask for a supplement with a mosquito, and John decided to release two mosquito chips in a separate package. This was quite important, because at about this point, Hive had an optimal winning strategy, giving strong players an unambiguous advantage. Mosquito increased the variability of strategies and introduced the necessary depth. Much later, there will be more additions "Ladybug" and "Mokritsa". By the way, “Mokritsa” was needed for players who prefer a psychologically comfortable strategy of deep defense.

Switch to the online version

In the same year, John hires one of the trainees in the specialty "Development of computer games", and together they make the first implementation for the PC. The requirement to be able to play online is basic. There are plugs with AI, but in the end it turns out a kind of “average robo player” who learns well before entering tournaments. Until now, John believes that making a good AI for the game is an unrealistic task.

In 2009 it became clear that geeks play well in the Hive, but it is rather difficult to tell about it to those who have never played something complex logical. The marketing company was reoriented from "Little war, deep strategy" to "take with you on the road." The game was transferred to iOS.

In 2010, iOS users offered many new ideas, additions to the rules (for online) and, in general, formed the tournament principles for the game. The important point was that one of the users asked for a black and white version for a child with poor eyesight. Having understood how it is needed, Gen42 (John’s company was so called) not only added such a mode to the application, but also released Beehive Carbon - a black and white version of the board game, which suddenly began to be sold more than the basic version.

A compact version of the game with a bag and reduced chips has been released. She added some sales.

In 2012-2013, there were versions of the game on Android and Xbox. Beehive hit the Steam.

New additions in real began to sell both with the basic set, and separately.

Summary

In general, the story is very revealing. Look: at first, John doesn’t understand anything about the market at all, but leaves for wild enthusiasm. Then he formed the first network of commercial contacts - club friends and 3-4 stores. He goes to the exhibition, gaining experience and begins to understand how everything works. Then he follows the path of the geek, thinking that his goods are needed by a narrow audience. The transition from the need of "logical game" to "cool game on the road" dramatically changes the situation. Then John understands another simple thing: not only the game itself is important as a mechanic and setting, but also what sensations the box leaves. He goes to bakelite from a tree, makes the box bigger, adds a convenient bag inside and generally takes care of all this to look like a good gift, not a geek hand-made one. And it works. The next step - he learns the principles of the distribution system and instead of "I do everything myself" begins to work with agents. Of course, this creates additional margins, but just in time, John compensates them with cheaper boxes due to mass production at the factory.

For obvious reasons, with the development of the mobile market, it goes there with a good desktop, already known to the country. The hive is very good for the phone both in the game with AI, and in the game with a live opponent on the network. Formed tournament resource where you can play through the browser and applications on different platforms. In parallel, it increases the range, segmenting the market (color version, black and white version, compact version, add-ons, a large set with everything at once). He does not forget about new and new exhibitions, press and competitions (awards in Europe, unlike domestic ones, mean much more).

Let's go over the story again. What was the main success factor? In my opinion, there are three important points:

1. The fact that John was able to make a game with incredible replayability and just wildly tested it with a perfectionist mania. Initially cool product is very powerful. Later he supported the main quality - a variety of strategies - both advertising and the release of add-ons.
2. That the correct setting was chosen. Abstract tactics became “a game with grasshoppers and spiders,” which certainly pleased a wide audience. The game has some kind of a plot. In our market, by the way, this determined the love of girls (not very much on average strategies, and even complex ones) to Hive. Although I did not expect this at all - after all the spiders are there, the ants ...
3. And the third is that he received an order for 5000 pieces from the USA. This made it possible to immediately transfer the hobby to the business area and taught him to think not by sales units, but by processes.

Please note that in 2007 he no longer organizes a tournament online himself, but does so through boardspace.net, a major player able to gather an audience. Since then, they are inseparable as Boyle and Marriott. Coverage iOS, XBOX, Android and Steam gives new players in tournaments. The simultaneous development of the online version and the desktop supports both directions. Players buy a physical game online when they want to make a gift. Players nastolki go online to participate in tournaments.

As a result, John is now happy and sends his regards to all Russian players. And we just got Beehive Carbon and have already delivered it to the shops. Well, they gave more hives to a number of schools - to those who wanted to check and continue the tests. You had the opportunity to slightly see the world through the eyes of a regular non-geek user. I hope.