Hexu - hexagon color puzzle game

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Hexu - color match puzzle game on hexagonal grid. I’ve started developing this game on live streams in the middle of 2020, as experiment.

And now I wanna share this experience. At start I decided just to make clone of another puzzle game, but something go wrong, as usual. :wink:

More dev. diary soon

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1546446267
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=free.insality.hexpuzzle
Play HTML version here: https://d.insality.com/hexu

And leave feedback!

15 Likes


I’ve the Zoom parties too!

Live streaming of the game development sounds very hard and interesting, so why don’t try it? :muscle:

After some preparing of the game (some making art and initial game design) I started. Streams was on russian language, but anyway you can check the result here:

Youtube playlist

Besides I started development from scratch, i’ve used a lot of tools to make the game faster. I can’t recommend this as pure Defold tutorials for russian community


First emotions: it’s very confusing. You should create the game, keep you movements and talk with the computer! (actually with spectators, but you don’t see them). I am very thankful for everyone is was on my streams online and chat with me, it helps to keep on.

Keeping the thoughts and still make the progress was the hardest part, but it was going much better with practice.

I’ve recorded 10 streams, where game was created on the first one and every next live make the huge progress in the game. Besides, the result of every stream are available online to see my progress in more fun way:

hex-puzzle-0
hex-puzzle-1
hex-puzzle-2
hex-puzzle-3
hex-puzzle-4
hex-puzzle-5
hex-puzzle-6
hex-puzzle-7
hex-puzzle-7.5 (this is probably bug fixes?)
hex-puzzle-8
hex-puzzle-9

As always, before you started something, you have the great ideas to make. This game and live-streams is not exception. I have changed a lot of stuff to have a chance just finish it.
There should have been some interview, game development talks and much more game features. The development and polishing outside of the streams appears too. Glad I was able to simplify things to finish.

Shortly: live-coding is interesting, help you keep progressing in making the game and good activity during the lockdown. But it’s consume a lot of your time and power!

And again, thanks for all who was with me on this streams, it was interesting experiment! :clap:

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Next I wanna write short review about: making art, game design, used tools and what was after live streams. If you get interested in something, you can write about it :wink:

9 Likes

interested!

3 Likes

Hey this is fun!

1 Like

Very neat and smooth. I like it!

I’d love to have an undo button, though. In games like this, you’re bound to misclick sooner or later. It would be nice to have a mearuse of protection from that.

2 Likes

The game looks smooth, but it would be nice to have some kind of tutorial in the beginning to understand the rules of the game :slight_smile:

5 Likes

Development progress after live streams

Due to some world events and my personal fatigue (a lot of projects in one time), the development was stopped for some time. There was the danger, project could to go into “frozen” status and development will be go for a long time (I’m sure you know this).

But anyway, there was interest and little power to bring project closer to some final product.

Generally, time was spent on game polishing, which can be hard to notice. But in fact, a lot of changes was done.


Just another gif

The problem #1: game was boring to play, rly. The game was on my phone from the beginning and I not remember any time I launch it. For me my game was not interesting. Yea, it’s usual felling on you own projects, but here it was really hard to continue the development.

The interest to the game can be added by more correct game balance. I mean the some kind of depth and turn planning for successful play session.

I added several new mechanics. Implemented hex layers (hex with several health) and several ways how they appear. Implemented the trash can to drop unwanted figures. Implemented inner game suggestion system. I mean the game knows which figures you need right now and game can now tweak this for make game harder or easier. A lot of time gone on this features.

The other part of my time was gone on icons, banners and other marketing stuff. Also was implemented a little amount of levels for game start and polishing again. I made 30 levels on start and they are repeated every month. It’s enough to see some game analytics.

Also, as game knows to field with best figure positions, the game now can play to itself. I used this to test the game balance. I can start it several times for collect game statistics. So I adjust game balance parameters and test it with autoplay feature.


The autoplay feature

Finally, the game became a little bit more interesting to start share it with public (especially if compare it with end-of-live-stream version).

Glad to share it with you :slight_smile:

The game now is live on the Android/iOS store, so download-rate-comment! :heart:

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1546446267
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=free.insality.hexpuzzle

10 Likes

It looks great! I look forward to playing the new version!

1 Like

Just downloaded for Android and played a bit. Really great job! The graphics are really nice, and I like the gameplay.

It’s really neat how you included daily challenges. Are those downloaded daily, or baked into the bundle? Just curious.

A few technical notes:

  1. When I drag a piece, it becomes offset from my finger (in Y direction). Guessing this is due to camera coordinates or something? Not a big deal, it’s still very playable.
  2. The ratings button only works once. If you read Google’s documentation on the In App Review API, they tell you not to trigger it from a button press. Google decides whether or not to show the dialog based on many factors, so it is unpredictable. From what I understand, they do not expose any way for devs to know if the dialog was shown or not. They suggest triggering it automatically at a good point in the game. In my game, I try showing it at Game Over when a player has played several times (hopefully they like the game by then and leave 5 stars!). I still have a rating button, but it links to the Play Store.
2 Likes

I thought so too at first, but I think it is intentional since it’s hard to place the piece accurately if it is directly below your finger.

3 Likes

Good point!

One more piece of feedback: When I click on the “Social” button nothing happens?

@SkaterDad thanks for the feedback!

  1. Yea, on drag figures has some Y offset for comfort playing. Also it’s enabled only on mobile platforms.

  2. Thanks! Good information. I’ll check and update rate logic. It should be as you say, but time :slight_smile:

  3. Social button now is empty, yes. I’ll update it in the next releases

2 Likes

This game is fun! I played on an iPhone and it works great. Congrats on your launch! :partying_face:

I love the polished visual effects and sounds – they make the game feel really responsive and engaging. How did you go about implementing the tutorial explainer for the first session?

A couple non-gameplay things I noticed –

  1. Searching ‘hexu’ on the App Store brought up many puzzle games, but I couldn’t find yours through the search! Have you considered a name that would be easier to find via App Store search? Interestingly, searching ‘hexxu’ has your game higher in the results!
  2. The App Store page has the screenshots shown twice. Not a big deal obviously, just pointing it out!

Also – thanks for making and sharing Druid :smiley:

4 Likes