Hive® has a rich history. The original game was handcrafted. It consisted of 22 thick wooden hex shaped pieces with stickers representing various insects. The stickers were painstakingly applied by John Yianni with the help of family and friends.
Flushed with the success of the first two editions, John Yianni had the game pieces manufactured in hard plastic resin, a high quality material used to manufacture domino and mahjong pieces, amongst other things.
Timeline
2001
Hive®, first edition: 22 wooden hexagon pieces with metallic blue and silver stickers.
2005
Hive®, second edition: 22 wooden hexagon pieces with blue and white stickers.
2005
Hive®, third edition: 22 hexagonal hard plastic resin pieces in ivory and black with insects engraved and painted in color on their upper face.
2007
Hive®, The Mosquito expansion. Two hexagonal hard plastic resin pieces (one in ivory, one in black), with a grey mosquito engraved and painted on their upper face.
The Mosquito was initially meant to be a free gift for buyers of the game Army of Frogs® at the Essen Spiel fair in 2007. A large crowd of fans gathered in front of the Gen42 Games booth, but the Mosquitoes were still stuck in customs. John Yianni decided to increase the run of the piece and simply put it up for sale after the fair.
2010
Hive®, The Ladybug expansion. Two hexagonal hard plastic resin pieces (one in ivory, one in black), with a red ladybug engraved and painted on their upper face.
When the Ladybug was announced, it spurred hefty debates about the movement of the upcoming piece on the Boardgamegeek forum. Gen42 Games took notice and ran a competition allowing the first participant who could guess the Ladybug’s movement correctly to win the expansion, along with a box of the new upcoming Hive® Carbon set.
2010
Hive®, Carbon (fourth edition): 26 hexagonal hard plastic resin pieces in white and black with contrasting insects engraved and painted on their upper face.
This edition was inspired by the developers of the iPhone game who, for contrast purposes, had designed a black and white version of the game pieces.
It includes both expansions: Mosquito and Ladybug.
2012
Hive®, Pocket (fifth edition): 26 hexagonal hard plastic resin pieces in ivory and black with insects engraved and painted in color on their upper face. The pieces are 35 percent smaller than the original (3rd edition) ones.
It includes both expansions: Mosquito and Ladybug.
2013
Hive®, The Pillbug expansion. Two hexagonal hard plastic resin pieces (one in ivory, one in black), with a teal blue (or black and white) pillbug engraved and painted on their upper face.
The Pillbug is available for the 3rd edition, the Carbon edition and the Pocket edition.
Before its release, the Pillbug underwent heavy playtesting on boardspace.net. Its final ruleset is the result if the playtester’s feedback.
2024
Hive®, Ultimate (sixth edition): 28 hexagonal hard plastic resin pieces in ivory and black with insects engraved and painted in color on their upper face.
This edition includes all three expansions: Mosquito, Ladybug and Pillbug.
It is available in standard size, Pocket and Magnetic (fridge magnets).
All pictures are the copyright of Gen42 Games Ltd. and are used with permission.