Grandpa’s Bee Haven Opens Public Playtesting!

Posted on August 24, 2026 by Aywren

Earlier this year, I did an early demo review of the cozy, idle bee keeping game that sits at the bottom of the PC screen – Grandpa’s Bee Haven! Since then, the game has had a lot of excellent updates and additions, including some of the very things I sent in as my own feedback.

I tried out an updated demo not long ago during a Steam Nextfest, and was pleasantly surprised at how the team went above and beyond on adding things like settings for switching monitors if you have more than one. I also liked the additional types of bees you can select and how they changed the way production works. There were small quality of life things such as hovertext and an easier introduction to the game for new players, too.

The devs have kindly kept in touch with me over the months, so I just got word that the game is entering a public playtest. Folks can request to join, will be provided with test copy to try out, and can offer testing feedback to help improve the game. Looks like the official launch is September 10^th!

Grandpa’s Bee Haven is currently a tiny game, clocking in at only 85 MB, so it’s quick to download and won’t take up much space as you test. Plus, you’ll be helping out an indie dev team test a game that’s had a lot of love put into it as it moves towards release.

So, if cozy idle games are something you enjoy in, or maybe you like the idea of bee keeping on your desktop while you do other things, just hop over the to store page and click the Request Access button to become part of the public playtest.

You never know – you might just discover your next favorite idle indie title!

Comments