Steam Gaming: Grandpa’s Bee Haven

Posted on February 5, 2026 by Aywren

Disclaimer: I was approached by a member of the dev team to try out the free demo version of this game, which is available to everyone on Steam. This is not a sponsored post as I wasn’t paid to review this, nor did I receive the game itself for this review.

Grandpa’s Bee Haven is a cozy, idle game currently in development for an upcoming release in April. You can try out the demo for free on Steam if it’s of interest to you!

We’ve been seeing a number of idle games go the route of sitting at the bottom of your computer monitor, playing out while you do other things. Last year, I wrote about one such idle fishing game, Cornerpond, which I really enjoyed. I’m a fan of this type of game, and always happy to see more!

I know that one of the popular games in this genre is Rusty’s Retirement, which currently has overwhelmingly positive ratings on Steam. In fact, Grandpa’s Bee Haven was directly inspired by Rusty’s Retirement, as the devs of both games “spent time hanging out” based on info the team provided.  

The inspiration for the theme of this game came when the creator and developer, Mihkel, saw their father get into beekeeping in real life! While this has been gamified into an idle experience with simple mechanics, it’s neat to know that the basis came from a hobby within the family!

Playing Grandpa’s Bee Haven

I put about four and half hours into running Grandpa’s Bee Haven, keeping in mind this is the demo version. I can see from the Steam page that the demo has had several updates along the development cycle. It’s pared back from what will release, obviously, and is also a work in progress.

I had a few questions about the demo version of the game – including the fact that when launching the game, it stuck to my second monitor with no way to move it. I directed these questions via email, and Mihkel themself responded to me quite quickly! I am reassured to know that my feedback and questions were addressed – it sounds like being able to switch monitors is a forthcoming feature, for example.

So, props to Mihkel who was very responsive and patient with my thoughts and observations!

The demo didn’t provide any hand holding or tutorial – I’m not sure if that’s forthcoming. But the menu did offer a small blurb in the Getting Started section about how to begin. Once you’ve figured it out, it’s pretty straightforward.

For me, it took a little trial and error as I didn’t realize that machines and hives could be upgraded at first (click on the hive or machine to see upgrade opportunities). Hence, once you start expanding to more than one hive, you don’t have to buy more extracting machines, you can just upgrade what you have.

As this is an idle game, and it did take some time to ramp up productivity from scratch. From time to time, and based on the type of hive you have, the bees need your attention. When you have unhappy bees, all productivity stops until you click the hives to alleviate this. So, while it is an idle game, in the early stages, you do have to keep an eye on it.

As I said, I spent over 4 hours running it, where I finally had unlocked other characters who act as helpers. I found the Scientist especially useful as he will address the needs of the hive, rendering the game a true idle experience since you no longer need to worry about unhappy bees stopping productivity. Well, as long as you don't have a HUGE industry going.

The one design choice I found a little vexing is that there is both an unlock price and a purchase price for each NPC you place. This means that I’d work so hard to scrape together all the resources required to unlock the NPC only to find out I wasn’t immediately rewarded with the NPC. Instead, I then had to scrape together money to buy and actually place them.

I also didn’t find the cat and dog all that helpful as they didn’t seem to do anything but cutely exist. With the fact that there are rats in the game (which were the most lucrative method of obtaining resources), I’d hoped that at least the cat would assist in catching the rats. I do know there are rat traps you can unlock, but logic tells me the cat should help, and I didn’t see any sign of that. I felt it was a bit of wasted resources to have unlocked them in the earlier game, but this might change with the final release (?)

Aside from those few nit-picks, the game appeared to run well and optimization wasn’t an issue. In fact, I was playing FFXIV in the main monitor while it was idling on the second monitor, and my machine was just fine with it.

The cozy vibes are certainly there with a nice RPG Maker-ish pixel game feel. You can not only place new machines, hives, and NPCs, but also decorate the areas as you wish with flowers, trees, and whatnot. You can also remove what was originally there to redecorate, and move hives and machines around without penalty.

Aside from upgrading hive production, you can purchase extensions of the land, giving you more scrolling real estate in either direction. The demo provides two upgrades – one to the left and one to the right – but I’m unsure if the full game will offer more.

Overall, if you’re into the idea of having your own beekeeping development idling at the bottom of your computer screen, keep an eye on this one! It’s certainly a cozy vibe!

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