Hexed

september-xyzx 2023-10-02 06:08

This was pretty fun. The visibility of it is pretty good and the controls are surprisingly easy to get used to, which were my first two concerns after stopping. The game has a very classic feel, but it works better as a computer game than any theoretical physical version would work. The connection to the theme is very obvious.

My biggest issue with it is just that I couldn't figure out what "premove" meant, and I could never get backspace or esc to do anything. Honestly, this wouldn't have been an issue if it didn't say that on there, since it doesn't seem to be an essential function, but it did bug me a little.

powerofsin 2023-10-02 06:27

Feels like playing a tight Tron race, but turn based.

It's pretty fun, I assume especially so with another human, but I can see there being some dominant tactics. I mostly won by blocking off the bigger chunk of the map and then flood filling it until the opponent runs out of moves first. Having some dynamic obstacles on the map may help keep it fresh.

I worried controls will be a bit weird at a glance, but it's pretty comfy to play.

tal28 2023-10-02 07:48

10/10. Very fun and interesting game! Love the option to play vs the computer.

tesseract 2023-10-02 12:57

Thanks for the feedback.

@september-xyzx Premoves are moves you play moves when it's your opponent's turn (you don't commit to them until the opponent plays) - this speeds up the game in multiplayer or against the slower AI, particularly when you're cut off from the opponent and just filling in space.

kinami 2023-10-02 17:46

Simple and elegant!

The graphics are simple, but that feels in place with the abstract board-game like game! I feel like it could be clearer which side you are playing (maybe your side could be green, the opponent could be red?)

In any case, great game! 😄

lcstark 2023-10-02 17:54

An interesting take on a classic game! Nice idea with the time-based AI versions, it took me a moment to get used to how that works, but it's pretty fun to try and beat them all. The controls are pretty good - I was wondering if it wouldn't be better to have the keys make more of a hexagon on the keyboard (e.g. using WE, AD, ZX for controls), but the controls you have don't cause any issue for me. Bonus points for having both keyboard and mouse controls!

tesseract 2023-10-02 20:52

@LCStark Thanks for playing. I would have used that layout if the hexagons were rotated 30 degrees (so corners pointed sideways and not vertically). I could have used something like `2`, `WE`, `AS`, `Z` ; but I think those are more awkward to reach. You can change the keybindings while playing a game by clicking on the one of the keys shown in the bottom right and then pressing the key you want to use for that direction.

goddzeproject 2023-10-03 06:23

The gameplay is reminiscent of the old checkered paper game, where each player takes turns drawing a piece of the checkerboard. A good continuation of this idea. I would also like to add the ability to choose the size of the field to control the playing time;)

haydads 2023-10-03 08:19

This is cool. It looks it could be/was adapted from a board game. Nice one getting multiplayer working in a short period of time. Interesting stratergies could be used here. Nice one

tesseract 2023-10-03 08:50

@goddzeproject I don't know the pencil & paper game you're talking about, could you tell me more about it. I have played a similar one on a 16x16 grid where each move is at right angles to your previous one, but I thought I invented it.

There's an option in the menu to change the board size.

mahalis 2023-10-03 15:48

This is cool! Minimal and challenging—embarrassingly I have still yet to beat the Medium computer player. I’m impressed you got multiplayer working too; I’ve never attempted that for a compo game, I end up with enough things to debug just on **one** machine :sweat_smile:

googlypoo 2023-10-04 06:56

I thought this was simple, but a lot of fun to play. Impressive that it seems to have online play, AI, and matchmaking? In a compo game?

cheesepencil 2023-10-06 03:00

Great execution, it looks nice. Found a multiplayer opponent immediately, too. That's pretty rad if you got multiplayer working that well in a compo game XD

compasslg 2023-10-06 03:06

Really fun game, best suited for playing in class :)

tesseract 2023-10-06 03:09

Thanks @cheesepencil, your multiplayer opponent was me - I made a version post-compo which I could leave open and would notifies me when someone joins. It does work without me being there, and you can test it using 2 (or more) browser windows, but it doesn't send notifications when someone joins and disconnects people after around 5 minutes of nothing happening.

cheesepencil 2023-10-06 03:15

lol absolute legend