Adding The Lab

Today I'm adding a feature called The Lab! In The Lab you can create custom fights between bees. The "Total Power" stat is an estimate of the combined value of all of the bees' stats, so if you're looking for a challenge you can try to beat the preset bees with the lowest total power possible. Here's my record vs The Champ:

See if you can beat it!

This update also features improved AI. I'm fairly happy with my AI training pipeline now, so the next thing I'll be working on is improving the fighting mechanics. This is the rationale behind adding the lab - it's a good way to playtest new battle mechanics, and also to see how the game is balanced. E.g. right now I think size is a bit too good because grab's damage depends on the relative sizes of the bees.

On the fighting mechanics, right now I think there's not enough variety in fights. The biggest reason for this is that there aren't that many skills - a bee may only have one skill, in which case its fighting style is necessarily going to be repetitive. In addition to needing to add more combat skills I think there should be more diverse ways to move. Most fighting games will have multiple different states, e.g. being in the air vs. being on the ground, or dashing vs. walking, while in Bee Coach there is only one state. Anyway I'll try out some different ideas and see how it goes. That's all for now!