#39 - Connie Vogelmann—Bee, Beeing, Beeen: A Cleansing Space Flight

Intertextual Experience: A Board Game Podcast

What does it mean to exist? In a world where humans are essentially replaced by bees that have evolved in their sentience and capabilities (primarily in space travel, as they already were super capable), that’s a question for them to deal with.

Anyway/fortunately, designer Connie Vogelmann is the captain of the cosmic journey that is this show’s 39th episode. Through Connie’s beekeeping knowledge and design acumen, the flight is much more smooth than if I were to navigate the design spaces of her fantastic game Apiary.

Each action is paired with hopefully not too tenuously connected questions, and Connie additionally details the actions as well as some strategies behind those actions. For the sake of not spoiling those choices too much (Connie picks each action after initially being assigned Explore), each chapter/section that matches the action will be vaguely described.

Check out Connie’s designs on BoardGameGeek

Social media on Bluesky

and the upcoming expansion to Wyrmspan, the Dragon Academy expansion.

Intro (0:00)

Explore (8:48)

I did say this was the first action, and Connie discusses what caused the bees to rise in power.

The Titular Cleansing Flight (15:24)

Some fun facts linked to specific tiles in the game (hopefully vague enough).

Before the Bees Went to Space (23:44)

Apiary didn’t initially take place in space. How did that alter/potentially open up the design?

Queen Competition? (31:35)

There is no queen competition in the game. Connie explains how that doesn’t really fit into the game’s general feeling and mechanisms.

Wyrmspan! (44:52)

Birds to dragons. Dragons to the comments. Lore and more.

How Much Favor is Too Much Favor? (49:06)

The sheer amount of content and variety in Apiary is staggering. It allows for you to play radically different from game to game, and adapting my plays in different tactical ways is one of my favorite parts about the game. Connie talks about balancing all of that here.

“Hibenation” (55:03)

AKA the typical wrap up questions: a text on Connie’s mind and what to look out for from her as she transitions to board game design full time!

Games mentioned in the episode document.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

If you like this show, liking it on whatever platform you listen to and writing a review would mean so much! Furthermore, it's as independent as it gets, so any financial support would help with the subscriptions that make this project go smoothly.

That can be done by "buying me a coffee" and/or buying a copy of my board game (I like it).

All of my socials and support information can be found here: Intertextual Experience Linktree