|
The Bee Dance Game is a working prototype of a web game programmed in Flash 4 that explores bee language and communication. Honey bees are unique among animals in their ability to communicate visually. This game was developed after research into symbolic language systems, and interest in the development of a visual language based on the behavior of honey bees.
Honey bees live in highly organized colonies and feed on flower nectar. The constant retrieval of nectar is crucial to the hive's survival. To help ensure a steady supply, honey bees have developed a visual dance language that communicates information about a nectar source to the rest of the colony. Honey bees in fact relate three highly abstract pieces of information about the nectar source according to different elements of the dance: the DISTANCE of the nectar source from the hive, indicated by the tempo of the dance; the ANGLE to the sun of the nectar source, indicated by the angle at which the dance is performed, and the QUALITY of the nectar source, indicated by the vigorousness of the shaky movements of the dance. After witnessing a dance, other honey bees can then navigate to the source with extreme accuracy, sometimes even to the exact flower the previous bee had visited. (after von Frisch, 1983) The goal of the Bee Dance Game is to ensure the survival of the hive by maintaining safe honey levels for the colony. This is a two-part process. First, the user must choose a flower that has a high enough nectar quality to return enough nectar to the hive within the time limit. Once a flower has been chosen, the user must then instruct the colony where to locate that source, by correctly performing the bee dance. This is done by selecting the proper distance and angle parameters from a menu. |