Cosmic Hive
Serve the Hive
The Great Silence is over. You are a synapse in the neural web of the Swarm, an extension of the Ancient Cosmic Entity that has awakened in the void. Your directive is absolute: feed the Hive.
Cosmic Hive is an incremental prototype developed as part of a game jam challenge among friends. This release is also the start of a personal goal to begin actively posting my archived prototypes and new game concepts right here.
Gameplay
In Cosmic Hive, you manage the expansion of a biological fleet. Your purpose is to descend upon planetary systems, harvest their biomass, and evolve the swarm until the sector is consumed.
The Loop
- Harvest: Hover your presence over planets to extract biomass.
- Multiply: Spawn Drones and massive Leviathans to expand your reach.
- Dominate: Deploy your fleet to suppress resistance and claim worlds.
- Evolve: Use captured genetic data to unlock new abilities in the Tech Tree.
- Warp: Jump to the next sector once a system is assimilated.
Key Features
- Tactical Incremental Gameplay: A unique blend of RTS-lite fleet management and deep progression.
- Deep Evolution Tree: Over 30 upgrades including stealth tech, automated collection, and devastating combat abilities.
- Planetary Colonization: Establish hives on conquered worlds to generate massive resource flows.
- Dynamic Threat System: Manage the hostility of local civilizations as they attempt to retaliate against your expansion.
Controls
• Zoom: Mouse Wheel
• Select Planet: Left Click
• Harvest Biomass: Hover mouse over planets
• Contextual Menu: Right Click (on dominated planets)
Current State: Feature-complete prototype covering 8 planetary systems.
Feedback: As a solo developer, your thoughts are vital. I'm looking for feedback on balance, UI clarity, and the swarm feel.
Development log
Comments
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Fl
Flawed system or implementation.
Impossible to dominate planet: deploy to planet => domination raise to 100% => domination drop down to 0%.
Units auto returns before a planet is actually dominated.
Hi, myocytebd! thanks for playing my game and for the feedback! Did you have difficulty dominating the planet in the first system, or in the next ones? If the planet defense increases and reaches 100%, it assimilates your fleet. You must keep collecting the biomass resources to buy more drones and then overcome the planet’s defense
Not the 1st sector. It was dead loop, no fleet loss, domination raise to 100% after deploy then drop back to 0%.
Hmm, this looks more like a bug, but I haven’t been able to reproduce it in my tests yet.
If there are other hostile planets in the system, they may help the dominated planet to be reconquered. I don’t know if that was the case.
I’m finalizing some adjustments here. I’ll upload a new version with better balancing at the start of the game later today.