A match-4 puzzle by spinning in a hexagonal grid!

HEXvolver is a Match-4 hexagon based puzzle game. By grabbing a gem and moving to neighbour gem, you can orbit the other gems around to line up groups of matching gems. Match 4 or more to gain points and more time to play. With 5 matches, you get a fire gem that explodes on match, and with 6+ you get a lightning gem that destroys rows of gems in all 6 directions. Get a good high score and win the leaderboards!

Controls

Click/tap and hold a center Gem you want to spin around. Then drag  your cursor/finger towards any neighbouring Gem. Now just orbit your cursor/finger around the center Gem to spin the Gems around the center Gem and release to drop them in place.

Leaderboards

With 0.3 (and tentatively even a bit before) we can finally compare our scores with players around the internet! Or at least, do so with in-game functionality as opposed to just screenshots. Currently the leaderboards are divided into All Time, Monthly, Weekly, Daily and Hourly. The Hourly leaderboards might be a bit too granular - at least for now - so they might go away at some point. 

NB. The leaderboards will be force reset once or twice during development, mainly when there are gameplay changes that affect functionality

Planned improvements for the leaderboard include separate leaderboards for RUSH and CLASSIC gamemodes, rewards (what kind, no idea yet) for winning a leaderboard before reset and gaining top positions in All Time, and more data per leaderboard entry than just score (like what Score Multiplier did you attain or how long did you play in that highscore game). 

History

Originally started this game for my "Make an android game to Google Play speedrun solo jam". Target was to get under 48 work hours. I managed to get the base game done in half that time, but the rest - polish, quality of life improvements, game juice, metawork including setting and Google Play Developer, CI/CD pipeline for automated builds and uploads, etc. have resulted in a ton of workhours more than just the 48. So, maybe I'll get a task failed successfully and still get the game out on Google Play, even tho it takes me 3-4 times the amount of time originally intended? Anyhoo, good practice!


Roadmap for version updates

  • v0.1
    • Proof of concept
  • v0.2
    • Special Gems
  • v0.3 (Current version)
    • Leaderboards
    • Streamlined main game mode
    • Sound/Music improvements
  • v0.4
    • QoL
      • Small tutorials for control
      • Leaderboard account handling and deletion
        • linking with Google account/email
    • game juice
    • v0.4a
      • Android ads (only for Android)
      • moving up to alpha/beta on Google Play
  • v0.5
    • Bug fixing
    • polish
  • v1.0
    • Release on production track on Google Play


Known issues

  • Sometimes two opposite gems flip the position when releasing rotation.
  • Sometimes a just released gem that's now part of a match-group has it's animation all floaty and going in wrong direction
  • Aspect ratio fix won't activate until the window is re-activated after fullscreen. This happens when the screen size is changed when the game is inactive. It can't change the aspect ratio until it's activated again - sometimes the game gets out of focus and deactivates when entering the fullscreen. Just clicking on the screen again and it should be fixed.
Updated 1 hour ago
StatusIn development
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(3 total ratings)
Authorzment
GenrePuzzle
Tags2D, Abstract, Casual, hexagon, Hex Based, match-3, Non violent, Rotation, Singleplayer

Development log

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Comments

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(+1)

loving the update!

(+1)

I really like this game's concept, and as a random player, I think a bit of instruction/tutorial would go a long way. Even something simple like a quick info graphic letting people know how to click-and-rotate, and then a quick descriptive of what counts as a "successful combo", even something pre-structured so you don't have to worry about building something that responds to your otherwise generative system. You could just have a first-time round of a tutorial level which shows the player a few viable combos before setting them out on their own.

Some sort of challenge-levels would also go a huge way, forcing you as a dev to build a starting scenario that is fun but solvable, and enabling the player to enjoy something that is structured and not random while learning the basics.

I honestly think you could slap this up on an app store and get easy plays, especially with a global/local/friends leaderboard. And it would absolutely work with an ad structure, perhaps offering move-undos, additional time, etc. with limited ad viewing.

(+1)

Thanks for the in-depth feedback!

Simple tutorial at first play is planned, but hadn't really thought of a tutorial level or challenge levels Might not be a bad idea? 🤔

I'm currently in the process of updating the gem graphics and making special gems, and after that only the rest is missing - lots of juice need to be added, like audio and combo counter indicators and animations and screenshakes to special gem activations etc. + of course the app store incentivized ad monetization. 

Currently the bare minimum idea for that is when time is up, you can get +30s without losing progress by watching an ad.

(+1)

Interesting. Quite original, I like it.

(1 edit) (+1)

I have played similar before,but this is pretty good. Taken the ideas you have to update it, it will be very good. Mobile wise there are so many free with ads games,it hard to say if it will succeed.

(+1)

Thanks for testing it out!

Yeh I have no illusions of success, but I've been thinking about making something ad supported for mobile for ages and decided that now's the time. As long as I have something there, and hey you never know until you try, right?

(+1)

Pretty good first try I think, select and spin still feel kinda ..... clunky? and I think when you connect 4 gem need more pop to feel satisfying, and something to show that time got plus. Love to see how this game will turn out

GG! Yeah, juice and QoL stuff are coming, making it clear when you get more time could be a good thing to add, didn't even think about it earlier. Maybe either a floating "+<amount of time gotten>s", or a value shown on screen that actually goes to the timer progress bar... But yeah a good idea to let the player know that they've gotten more time to play! Thanks!

The select and spin is the meat of the game so I'm not changing that... tho there might be some ways to make it feel easier, and maybe even make it understandable from the get go? Perhaps an overlay animation of a finger pushing a specific spot, then moving up, and then rotating? Idk. Any ideas welcome!

Thanks for the good feedback!

(+1)

Idk how it gonna look like in mobile but on PC when you hover to a gem, you can see the gems next to it got highlight, I think when that happen, two arrows going circle fading in and out might somewhat help, or for more specific you could add lil animation a finger on a gem and move down so player can understand. But that is only on PC tho XP

A good idea! Might work on mobile too. Thanks!