![]() ¹ I was waiting for a friend to return from the bathroom at a pub in our hometown, it was the middle of the afternoon and I had the day off from working at the movie theater where I spent most of my time. That Terry consistently updates the game and ensures we as its players can continue to go cross-eyed in the pursuit of a seemingly impossible high score is a blessing, and one unfortunately not shared by many of the other apps I loved from that era. To this day I have a shockingly vivid memory¹ of finally surviving a run for one endless minute in the blistering "Hexagonest" difficulty level after weeks of attempts, a feat I just tried and failed to replicate while writing this.Īnd it’s a miracle I can try to beat "Hexagonest" at all in 2022 given the ways in which Apple has slowly eradicated the App Store's own legacy through forced deprecation and obsolescence over the years. In retrospect I can identify an eventual fan of FromSoftware's particular brand of masochistic game design through the lens of my score-chase-driven obsession with proving I can master a video game that uses a majority of its sparse copywriting to telegraph its own insurmountable difficulty. Even my brief foray into working on smaller indie game projects was in some ways brought about by the simple fact that I couldn't put Super Hexagon down, and I dreamed of creating something that would make others feel the same way. ![]() Visually, the bold and geometric art style influenced my own design sensibilities. Chipzel's unreal soundtrack inspired a track of my own as I started to experiment with creating chiptune music. Even back in 2012 I remember its aesthetic directly changing my relationship with games and the kinds of works I wanted to create. I consider Super Hexagon to be one of my more formative game experiences, and without it I'm not sure I'd be writing blog posts like this or hosting podcast episodes about video games on a weekly basis. I would never have imagined that anyone would still be playing it 10 years on. I didn’t expect any kind of reaction to it, let alone the one it got. It was a game that just sort of came along, while I was working on something else, a game I very much made for myself, tuned to my own reflexes. I still don’t really know how to think about Super Hexagon, sometimes. ![]() I don’t have any big plans today, sorry – but I wanted to mark the occasion here. I sincerely hope you check out the game and enjoy it.Game designer Terry Cavanagh via this blog post: So, hey! Today is the 10th anniversary of Super Hexagon’s original release. As an example, check out ": implementing secure leaderboards for my game", explaining the cheat prevention mechanisms I used to implement a fair and competitive online environment. I also wrote some articles on the game's internals. If you have any question about the game itself or any implementation detail, feel free to ask here on or the official Discord server - we have a channel dedicated to level development via Lua scripting and a channel dedicated to the development of the C++17 engine. The game is written in C++17, and it's completely open-source. I've seen incredible creations, ranging from brand new games implemented as a Open Hexagon level, to "Bad Apple!!" being embedded in the game via a matrix of moving walls. However, the most important thing is that Open Hexagon features a powerful Lua scripting system, allowing creative people to create their own levels. Open Hexagon expands upon this simple mechanic by adding features such as a 180° swap move, curving walls, and more. Note that Terry Cavanagh fully endorses the project! ![]() The basic concept is quite simple: you are a small triangle, and you need to avoid the incoming obstacles by spinning around the center of the screen. Open Hexagon is a "spiritual successor" to Super Hexagon, a popular indie game that was created by Terry Cavanagh back in 2012. I kept working on it (with the occasional year-long pause), until it finally reached a state where I felt proud to release it on Steam. Hey folks! I remember posting about one of my first SFML projects, Open Hexagon, about 6-7 years ago.
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