43of the pieces moved in di erent ways. I had the
pig, which pushed other pieces out of the way,
and the stone, which was more of a defensive
blocking piece. e object of the game was to
surround an opposing piece, the king, and all
the pieces were connected to one another.
“It played okay, but it wasn’t amazing, so I
decided that it was not worth pursuing and I
put it away, never to be played or seen again.”
LARVA PHASE
Hive’s story very nearly ended there. But
almost two decades on, Yianni had a ash of
inspiration that prompted him to return to his
forgotten project.
“Some 18 years later, whilst working on
something else on my computer, I drew a hex
shape and for some strange reason the chess
game came ooding back to my mind. I kind of
knew instinctively that I was on to something
with the di erent shape of the pieces.
“At this time I was working as a carpenter.
I would spend my lunch times drawing hex
shapes onto pieces of plasterboard and making
plywood prototypes of the pieces to test.
e insect theme kicked in at this stage as I
developed the game further. Something about
the hex shape just made me think of insects,
and I started working again on the design.”
Yianni introduced a host of creatures into
the game, each capable of moving in di erent
ways. Queen bees moved slowly, a single
space at a time, much like a king in chess,
relying on other creatures to keep them out
of harm’s way. Grasshoppers leapt from one
side of the playing area to the other, making
straight, linear moves like a rook or bishop.
Beetles added a three-dimensional aspect to
the game’s strategy, clambering over other
pieces and pinning opposing bugs underneath
their bodies to prevent them moving.
“ e movements were there before I
matched them to speci c types of creatures,”
he says. “But I did try and add in creatures
that had some similarity to
the various moves, so
as to make the piece
movements easy toremember. Grasshoppers jump, ants scurry
around and spiders don’t really move very
far from their web.
“I started playtesting the design,
and again that consisted of trying
it out with my family and
friends – but this time I was
much more excited about
the possibilities.”
With the core of the
design in place, Yianni
began searching for a
wider group of
playtesters.
He looked
around for
other people
interested in
board games
in his area,Hive Pocket is a more portable version
of the original game that includes its
Mosquito and Ladybug expansions