In early 2017 we reviewed a new party game from Calliope Games called Hive Mind.

It was a hit with all the groups we played with and we only had one complaint – it looked like a children’s game.

In fact, we were quite surprised with how much we enjoyed the game because of what we’d anticipated by seeing the game box.

That’s right. Our biggest issue was with who the target market was for the game because the visuals didn’t match who would actually enjoy playing the game.

Well, Calliope Games has recently released a revised version of Hive Mind and we want to give them a huge high-five for doing so!

Yes, the branding is a big improvement. But that’s not the only thing that makes this version a better party game.

We’re excited to tell you all about it.

 

How to play Hive Mind

Hive Mind is a super simple party game to play.

The goal of the game is to think like everyone else (think like the “hive”). The more your answers match other player’s answers, the more points you’ll score. Players scoring less points will find themselves falling to the bottom and eventually being kicked off the game board.

The game ends as soon as one player (or more) moves off the game board. All the players still on the game board win.

To begin, players place their pawns on the 1st space on the game board and take a pencil and piece of paper . The deck of question cards are placed within reach of all players.

Players take turns being the active player. Each round, the active player draws a question card and chooses one of the questions on it to read aloud. Then all players have 2 minutes to write down their answers.

After time is up, the active player is the first to read the answers they wrote. Upon reading each answer, all players who wrote that same thing raise their hands. Players score 1 point for each player who wrote the same answer.

For example, if I wrote “Darth Vader” as one of my answers for “What are the 4 best movie villains of all time?” and 2 other players also wrote Darth Vader as one of their answers, we each score 3 points for our Darth Vader answer. If I’m the only player that wrote Darth Vader, I only score 1 point.

After the active player is done, the next player announces their answers (that haven’t already been mentioned) and so on until all have stated their answers and written down their points. Then player total their points for the round and compare them.

At the start of the round when the active player chooses a question, they also roll the die. The result on the die indicates how many of the lowest scores will move down one space on the board. This may be 1, 2, or 3 of the lowest scores. In addition, the die has one side that shows a star. In this case, players with the lowest score move down one space and players with the highest score move up one space.

For example, if the scores are 13, 13, 12, 10, 9, 9, and 8 and the die result showed 2 dots, then the players with the lowest 2 scores (the 2 players who scored 9 and the 1 player who scored 8) will all move down one space.

As long as all pawns are still on the board, the game continues with a new round. The next person in turn order becomes the active player and draws a new question card.

If one or more player’s pawn moves off the game board, the game immediately ends.

When the game ends, all those off the board lose and everyone still on the board wins!

 

New and Improved Visuals and Game Play

As I mentioned at the outset, we’ve really enjoyed playing Hive Mind with various groups over the years. And we’re excited about this new version of the game because it’s even better in a number of ways.

The element we’ll start with is the one we’ve already mentioned – the branding and visuals.

 

BRANDING & VISUALS

Should we judge a book by its cover?

Probably not. But we regularly do.

The same goes with board games. We make all sorts of judgements based on first impressions of seeing the artwork on a game box.

As you can see in this photo with the original Hive Mind game box on the left, Calliope Games played up the “hive” aspect of the game by leaning into a bee theme. The box also presented kid-like artwork, font style, and a cute tagline of “The Game of Beeing Alike”.

Open opening the game box, that same theme shined through as well with the game board artwork looking very appealing to children.

So right at the outset when we got the original game, we assumed it was a game for little kids and it sat unplayed for a while.

However, once we played the game, we were hooked.

Yet, we still found that when introducing the game to new players, we’d tell them to look past their first impression and just enjoy the game – which they all ended up enjoying as well.

With the new box artwork, Hive Mind looks more like a game for teens and adults – those who are more likely to play a party game than children.

Big kudos for the visual change in hitting the target audience more directly!

 

COMPONENTS

While this may seem like it goes hand in hand with the visuals, we see components as a separate improvement.

By dropping the bee theme, Calliope Games was also able to improve on the components by making them more generic.

Usually saying something is “generic” is a bad thing. However, in this case it’s an improvement.

That’s because it lets players focus on the actual game play rather than being distracted by a theme when a theme isn’t needed.

In the original, the pawns were a bee shape. However, they were hard to tell what they were and they wouldn’t stand upright very well. So they were a bit fiddly.

Going with generic pawns was a good move because they only really need to indicate a color. And they don’t tip over.

The Question cards also shifted from the bee theme artwork to thought-bubble artwork. While we like the shift in style, we wish the font choice on the new cards was better. The narrow font is harder to read.

The simple game board is also an improvement.

The original game board was split into two areas. On the left was the beehive with different levels – where the bee pawns would move down until they’re kicked out of the hive. On the right were spaces where the queen bee would move. With the improvement in the game mechanics (which we’ll cover next), the right side of the board is no longer even needed. Thus, condensing the board to just be circle spaces was a good move.

The new game board is also double-sided. There are 6 spaces on one side and 8 spaces on the other. So players can choose how long of a game they want to play by which side of the board they choose. And that’s a nice addition too.

Another component Calliope Games has added to this new version is a sheet of stickers for players to use if they need to better distinguish the colors. Some of the pawn colors are similar and players with levels of color blindness may want to use these sticker for that purpose.

We also love that everything fits in a more compact game box.

 

GAME PLAY MECHANICS

While the central game play is the same – ask a question, write down answers, score points, and the lower scores drop down a level – there’s a small adjustment in the mechanics that we think is fantastic.

As mentioned above, in the original, there’s a flower track that a queen bee moves along. Players roll a standard 6-sided die to see how far the queen bee moves and which space she lands on determines how many of the lowest scores will drop a level.

Well, this mechanic was improved in the most simple manner – a single die does it all!

Now players simply roll a custom die that has the results right on it.

It sounds so simple. And it really is.

It’s another great example how simplifying to the essentials in designing a game can make a big difference. Pull away all the unnecessary parts and keep the focus on the central element of a game. And in this case it’s the questions and answers.

Bravo all around on the new version of Hive Mind, Calliope Games!

We highly recommend picking up a copy of Hive Mind for your family!