

Hextris - kome
http://hextris.github.io/hextris/

======
zwegner
Cool game! A few notes:

I think your choice of license may be incompatible with the GitHub terms of
service--there's an implied right to fork by using GitHub, but your license
states no derivatives are allowed. IANAL, but something to look into:
[https://help.github.com/articles/open-source-
licensing](https://help.github.com/articles/open-source-licensing)

As I mentioned in another comment, it's pretty slow under Firefox.

Lastly, the game is quite pretty, but I feel that since the gameplay involved
is so precise, the imprecise visuals can be confusing. It's hard to tell
exactly when a piece is going to set in place, when a group is eliminated,
what would happen if you rotate and a piece is blocked by a stack already in
place, etc. I went by pure geometry at first, but I definitely got bitten a
few times where a piece moved after I thought it was in place, or a piece
didn't get eliminated with the rest of a group since it hadn't fully landed in
its column. The collision animations don't quite help there either.

~~~
robert_tweed
You raise an interesting point about licence compatibility with Github's T&Cs,
although it's no longer relevant to this project because the licence has been
changed to the GPL v3. To quote the relevant part:

" _By setting your repositories to be viewed publicly, you agree to allow
others to view and fork your repositories._ "

However, there's no further mention of the word "fork" in the T&Cs. Simply
forking a repository does not imply that a derivative work has been created. A
fork is simply a verbatim copy.

To create a derivative work, someone would need to both fork and then _commit
a change back to that fork_. Of course, it's sort of implied through common
(imprecise) use of the word that this is what it's intended to mean, but it's
not actually what it says.

While I'm not a lawyer, I believe that a more precisely-worded licence in the
repository would take precedence over the ambiguously worded T&Cs. However,
Github could at any time clarify the T&Cs to more clearly state that forking
does imply creation of derivatives. And as with most online services, if the
terms do get changed, " _Continued use of the Service after any such changes
shall constitute your consent to such changes._ "

~~~
hayksaakian
Some people fork repos to have a reliable reference to a specific git repo.

I've been bitten in the past when a user deleted their account or changed
their name and my references broke.

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abritishguy
It gets too fast - if it had a limit to how fast it got then it could go on
forever but with it as it currently is there are limits to how high your score
can get before it is too fast for you to be able to react and once you reach
that score you aren't very motivated to keep playing.

I'm struggling to beat 5863

~~~
stinos
this. After a while it goes so fast I have no clue what I'm doing anymore and
it's not that much fun anymore :P Maybe make the overal acceleration a bit
slower?

Btw the speed seems to depend on the machine you play it on. On my wife's
close to 10 year old laptop it's way slower than on mine. But the rotation is
still fast enough, so scores are higher. She's at 20000 now and the speed is
roughly similar to what I get at 1000 points. Old hardware FTW.

~~~
ryandrake
Maybe depends on the hardware. On a new-ish MacBook pro, it gets too fast to
play after 2 minutes or so. A game programming best practice is to hang your
game logic and drawing off a timer that runs the same speed regardless of
hardware, so it's not too fast on new computers and too slow on old ones.

------
minimaxir
This is more Hex Puyo Puyo than Hex Tetris.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyo_Puyo_(series)#Gameplay](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyo_Puyo_\(series\)#Gameplay)

~~~
bluedino
HexKlax

~~~
bitwize
It is the 2010s and there's always time for it!

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chasing
Interesting idea.

One quick criticism:

I played a couple times and maxed out around 700pts. Then played a game where
I didn't touch a single key -- no rotation whatsoever -- and managed to score
3292pts.

I'm not sure what this indicates, but it feels off.

~~~
loganengstrom
That's a valid criticism - I don't know how it could be fixed.

Maybe more colors could be added? Game balance has been really tricky with
this game, as changes play out very differently on mobile devices and "real
computers."

~~~
rodw
More colors seems like the obvious way to increase the difficulty as the user
levels-up. With only four colors, random play is quite likely to get a match--
the odds of a randomly selected tile matching a given tile is going to be 1 in
4.

From a cursory look (my math may be a little off) it seems like the odds of a
tile matching at least one of its 4 cardinal-direction neighbors is ~57% (20
of 35 order-independent variations), and the odds of a tile matching 2 or more
of its randomly selected neighbors is ~28%. In other words, with just random
play you're going to get a match out of every `+` shaped collection of 5 tiles
nearly 1/3rd of the time. Factoring the three-in-a row possibility the odds of
a match will go up from there. (And since a match will eliminate several tiles
of given color, the odds of getting a match on the "chain reaction" must also
be quite high.)

------
Cyranix
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Welltris[0]. I was pretty hooked on it
at one point in my childhood. Fun implementation!

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welltris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welltris)

~~~
lotharbot
My favorite variant was Frac.

3d version:
[http://theodor.lauppert.ws/games/frac.htm](http://theodor.lauppert.ws/games/frac.htm)

4d version:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzyws5ZkSYg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzyws5ZkSYg)

------
ryangittins
Hey, excellent game! I'm sure I'll waste a lot of time on this, haha.

One feature that might be cool to have would be to make the gray background
hexagon one block larger if you get four or five blocks in a row. That way,
you'll be able to keep your ahead above water a little better when things
really start to speed up. It would add another level of strategy and planning
to the game.

Keep up the great work!

------
rythie
Looks a lot like rotational... [https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rotational-
unique-block-puzz...](https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rotational-unique-block-
puzzle/id686485239)

~~~
jspr
Which in term looks a lot like QbQbQb
[http://qbqbqb.rezoner.net/](http://qbqbqb.rezoner.net/)

------
kazinator
"I wrote Hextris way back in 1990." \-- David Markley

[http://www.hextris.com/](http://www.hextris.com/)

Kind of misleading to use the name "Hextris" for what looks like a very
different game. The original Hextris is 2D falling blocks exactly like Tetris,
except that the world consists of hexagons, and so the pieces have six
rotations. I played this like crazy for a brief time in the mid 1990's.

~~~
prawn
Same. I used to procrastinate and play Hextris for so long I'd enter a trance
and zone out.

Remembered it recently and based my own game on hexagons!

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snarfy
It needs a 'drop brick' button.

~~~
loganengstrom
We thought about adding that, but we weren't sure where we'd put it - any
ideas?

~~~
Gracana
Spacebar or tap the center?

~~~
snarfy
Spacebar is a natural fit.

~~~
rodw
Or down arrow.

------
suchabag
It's great. I wish there was a color blind friendly version though!

~~~
hoov
This is exactly what I wanted to say. The colors chosen are _very_ difficult
for me.

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remon
I quite like the idea but it's a little too buggy at the moment : \- Wildly
varying performance (and thus difficulty) depending on which system/GPU combo
is being used \- Key input stops responding on slow machines sometimes.

Having constant interval timing in your game engine is an absolute must have.

------
moultano
I'd remove the reload button. I've hit it three times by accident already.

~~~
loganengstrom
Hi, I'm one of the main developers of the game - I just made an issue for that
on GitHub. I'll try to address it later this weekend - thanks!

------
Rampoina
Cool game, I got to 11079 points.

A few comments:

I think a key to drop faster would be a nice addition. The speed progression
could be tweaked a bit. It's a bit boring until it gets faster, and it takes a
while.

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nacs
Reminds me of the game "QbQbQb":
[http://qbqbqb.rezoner.net/](http://qbqbqb.rezoner.net/)

I believe that game was made for a Ludum Dare originally.

------
codystebbins
Fantastic idea. Beyond the feedback already given I wanted to commend you on
the valid use of permissions on Android (just Wi-Fi). Very specific and
reasonable for the game.

------
adnam
Oh God, I'd only just got over my 2048 addiction...

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zem
neat - this is a genuinely new twist on the colour-matching mechanic. sadly, i
didn't find it as much fun as some of the others; i got no sense that i could
build up a neat structure and then clear it in chunks (a la tetris), or set up
and trigger cascades (a la columns). it was always just a matter of reacting
to the current piece and putting it somewhere it would go away as soon as
possible.

------
jnishiyama
Landscape mode would open up the screen quite a bit. Also, a high score board
would be awesome.

Can't stop playing regardless.

------
garrettdreyfus
Hey guys, one of the developers here. We've heard many people talking about
the differences in speed. Previously we had based speed on the framerate
driven by request animframe. We realised this was a mistake so we've switched
to time based now. It just got merged and should be updated in the apps pretty
soon.

------
ahultgren
Just one suggestion, get rid of the shaking. Completely disorienting. Imagine
tetris with shake.

------
emilsedgh
Here we go. A new addiction. I was just free'd from 2048. Kudos. This is real
fun.

------
AustinW
You might want to get some feedback on this Tetris chat site:
[http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/index.html](http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/index.html)

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kevinmchugh
It's Tempest-ified Klax. Tempest saw Space Invaders as happening on a piece of
paper. Tempest took that paper and turned it into a tube. That's very similar
to what's happening here vs. the Klax gameplay.

------
stevep98
We did a game very similar to this for iOS called 'Cirqulous'. Check it out!
(Nobody else did!)

[http://www.cirqulous.com/](http://www.cirqulous.com/)

~~~
mind_heist
Wow ! Thats a pretty cool game. I haven't gotten a chance to actually download
and play this game yet, but a quick question : How do you actually decide what
tile to spawn next ? Is that a chance that you spawn tiles so randomly that
the player looses the game with no theoretical way of killing a circle ? How
do you algorithmically ensure you simply 'up' the difficulty and not hit the
above condition.

On the side note : The background music in the trailer seems heavily inspired
from the mission impossible theme :)

------
ollysb
Nice game! On an iphone I had my thumbs on either side of the hex, I find that
I often hit the reset button with my left thumb, maybe move the controls to
the top?

------
codezero
This is pretty great. Playing it for 30 seconds stressed me out as much as
Tetris does, so I immediately closed it. Definitely caught the heady essence
of the original.

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diminish
Every time I get a glimpse of other people's phones I endeed up seeing crush
candy saga and then 2048. let's see if hextris re-loaded will get a dent.

------
cbhl
When you click on the tweet button after you've finished a game, it might be
worthwhile for the tweet text to contain the score a player just received.

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RoryGlyphic
EXCELLENT.

Maybe a little walk through/instructions displayed for longer. Had to start
over to quickly read again (was zoning out first time)

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morgante
Awesome (and addicting) games.

Also particularly impressive as the creator(s) seem to be high school
students.

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pacomerh
I love this. I'm so glad there's still inspiration for simple refreshing games

------
tatterdemalion
Fun! It's similar to the navigation puzzle in the online game Puzzle Pirates.

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dls215
Ha, my all time high was ~800,000. That is.. until someone changed the speed.

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Pistos2
FYI: Nothing is displayed if you don't accept the site's cookies.

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wavesum
how about doing collapse check only after all of blocks that appeared at the
same time have landed?

This would allow combos even if the pile heights are different.

------
highace
Coming up next: a bot that plays this automatically.

~~~
loganengstrom
That'd be great! We were thinking of doing that for the homepage, but didn't
find the time. I'd happily merge it in if someone were to make an AI for
Hextris.

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asronline
WHY HN?! Just when I was being productive again.

------
aembleton
Wow, that is seriously addictive! Love it.

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sungeuns
Great game! Thanks for sharing :D

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whistlerbrk
Love it! I'm terrible at it!

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bdcravens
Clone on App Store in 3, 2, 1 ...

~~~
Paul_S
Just look at all the titles mentioned in this thread of games that came out
previously with similar ideas, all borrowing from others. The last original
idea was the big bang and that was over 13 billion years ago.

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thakobyan
This is awesome. I like it.

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joaorj
Post your first try score! (and don't waste more time playing, if you can)

Mine: 3387

------
ff_
Wow, a really awesome game!

It's the perfect mashup of Tetris and Super Hexagon.

------
edsiper2
great game!, please make it multi-user (matches!)

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5414h
How can the iOs version weight only 4,7mb , i dont get it .

~~~
klausa
Most of the app bundle on iOS are various assets (.pngs, videos, sounds, etc).
This looks like it's drawing everything in code, so the app bundle is really
small.

Marco's new app, Overcast also has UI drawn almost entirely with code (all
icons are generated with PaintCode [1]), and his app [2] is 4.5mb.

[1]: [http://www.paintcodeapp.com](http://www.paintcodeapp.com) [2]:
[https://itunes.apple.com/pl/app/overcast-podcast-
player/id88...](https://itunes.apple.com/pl/app/overcast-podcast-
player/id888422857?mt=8)

~~~
morb
Even that 4.5MB doesn't seem particularly small to me. Podkicker Pro, Android
podcast client takes 2.15MB on my phone. App itself take 792KB, and feed
metadata takes 1.38MB.

------
finalight
it's time

for octagontris

------
sergiotapia
Now build it using Swift|Elexir|Haskell. :P

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josekpaul
Cool game!

