That was really cool to read... I can definitely see how the inspirations shaped this game into the unique shape it took at the end! And I'm glad they did, because things like the playful little events happening in the hive and outside events like caterpillars needing jelly for ballet shoes and yellowjackets doing building demos really helped give it such a cute, fun personality beyond the simulation, and kept me playing long past my first hive becoming a thousand-bee-strong lag machine. :D
Yay! :D
So many management sims put effort into abstracting the people within the simulation in a way that often ends up dehumanising them. Hive Time's events, vignettes and the ability to inspect/follow any bee were ways that I tried to make the game say that even in a generational community, each individual matters ^_^