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HEXvolver - a spinning Match-4 on a hexagon grid! 0.2 release!

A topic by zment created May 23, 2023 Views: 158 Replies: 3

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HEXvolver

https://zment.itch.io/hexvolver

Henlo everyone! I "recently" (read: 6 months ago) finally decided to make a PoC version of a game idea that had been bouncing around in my head for years. After that short burst, it was on hiatus for a few months, and now I'm back at it, with a 0.2 release which is starting make it be more game than not. As the development is starting to pick up steam again and the game is more and more playable, I thought I'd share it here to get more eyes on it! I'd appreciate all feedback and/or just trying it out and sharing with friends! Thanks everyone!

HEXvolver is a Match-4-or-more-Gems game, played on a hexagonal grid. Gems are moved around by selecting a midpoint gem, and then draggin outwards and rotating all the neighbouring games around that midpoint gem. You'll get a combo multiplier on successive matches without input. When matching 5 gems, you get a Fire gem, that explodes on matching. With 6 or more gems, you get a Lightning gem, that catches all gems in straight lines around all axes when matched. The game is currently playable on WebGL with desktop and has been tested to work with many mobile phones, and eventually targeting Google Play Store.

Rainbow Bytes330 days ago

The link seems not to work, but i navigated to the game over your name. I really like the idea of the game. It´s interesting, challenging and a bit different to most other "3 gems in a row" games. All in all I really liked to play it. However, the controls feel kind of "unnatural". It takes some time to get used to them. Also you maybe should consider to add some better soundfx, more animations and nice backgroundmusic. Well done so far, keep up the good work!

zment330 days ago

Thanks for trying it out and reporting the broken link. Fixed now.

The controls were a doozy to figure out, I tried out a few things in a preliminary testing period before even the proof-of-concept version, and this method came out as the "easiest". There's been a lot of feedback on maybe making some tutorial or in-game help for the controls, so that's something I'll try to do in the future updates - actually QoL stuff like that is roadmapped for 0.3.

Your suggestion about better soundfx, more animations and background music I'll take to heart. If I may ask, about the current sfx, were they too loud (ie. requires better mastering and normalizing), or doesn't fit the action? Or possibly both?

Thanks for the feedback!

Rainbow Bytes330 days ago

For the controls,maybe try left mousebutton for clockwise and right mousebutton for anticlockwise rotating. (just an idea).

I don´t think that they soundfx are to loud, but they are not supporting your game very good (my opinion). I think you will find more and better sfx if you invest some time for searching.

Oh one more thing. I had the feeling that there is not enough time specially if you are new to the game. I only was able to collect a few gemgroups, and then the time was over very quick.

Anyway, all in all i like this game and the idea. The result could become very interesting if you do it right.