Hextris is a game in which the goal is to stop blocks from leaving the inside of the outer grey hexagon.

Designed at a Hackathon by Young Developers

Hextris is a combination of the games Tetris and Hexagon. It was initially created during HackExeter, a 10 hour coding marathon open to middle-schoolers and high-schoolers. The game was named the event’s first place winner, and it was created by Team Snowman, consisting of Garrett Finucane, Noah Moroze, Michael Yang and Logan Engstrom. It was subsequently updated and hosted on GitHub for a live demo. The theme of the hackathon was “Wasted Time,” and Hextris certainly aligns with that theme. It’s a fun game, well-designed and easy to play. It can, like Tetris and Hexagon, be frustrating, but that’s why it’s so enjoyable to waste time trying to reach a new high score.

Simple Controls, Fun Gameplay

The gameplay of Hextris is simple. The right and left arrow keys are used to rotate a small hexagon at the center of the screen. As the game goes on, color-coded blocks fall from the sides of a larger hexagon. The blocks stick to the smaller hexagon, stacking on top of each other if the colors do not match. If three blocks of the same color are touching, they disappear and you’re awarded points accordingly. The game continues until your stack of blocks reaches the outer edge of the larger hexagon. Although it sounds simple, it can be confusing to get blocks to fall on the side of the six-sided shape that you want them to. Overall, though, it’s a fun game built by a promising group of young developers.