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[True Valhalla]

Hex Wars is a game where the player has to conquer the whole map. To do so, they use their territories to attack other territories. Each block of land has “dice” on it, which are rolled to determine the outcome of any battles. The more dice that a piece of land has on it, the stronger it is. At the end of each turn, the player gains some extra dice depending on how many territories they have in total.



It can be played here: http://bit.ly/HexWars

This game is designed for mobile, but can be played on PC too (not Linux). What do you guys think?

Total development time was around 30 hours.

Hex Wars: HTML5 mobile browser strategy game is looking for sponsors

[Dacke]

HTML5

can be played on PC too (not Linux).

Wait what?

Half point of HTML5 is that it's standardized, so that it should behave the same no matter what OS or (modern) browser you use.

I can inform you that the game works perfectly in both Firefox and Chromium on my Linux computer.


I remember playing almost exactly the same game in a Flash implementation a number of years ago. Did you create that one as well?

If you are interested in feedback:
The gamy unfortunately lacks sufficient strategic depth the keep me interested. Risk has troop placements, troop movements, attacks that aren't all-in and regions that give extra income. While your game boils the gameplay down to the basics, which can be an interesting thing to do, it unfortunately results in a game that never forces you do make interesting/challenging decisions. You just muddle along until you (most likely) win.

[True Valhalla]

This game has been designed for mobile primarily, so desktop is just an afterthought here. On Linux, there is a bug with orientation which effects some browsers (whether you'd see it is dependent on screen resolution) which I can't easily fix yet.

As for the Flash version, no I didn't make that - however there are many similar games like this, it's not exactly a unique snowflake Though I like to think the visuals help it stand out a little.

Thanks for your opinion on the game itself. Hex Wars is made for mobile which generally requires inherent simplicity, however it does not have the strategic depth of Risk because I'm targeting more of a casual audience.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Danmark]

Combat resolution seems to be winner-takes-all. Takes much longer for the clear winner to win than to become dominant.

The AI often makes very poor decisions.

Whether the game is winnable at all seems to depend on initial deployments and AI actions. If it's winnable, it's trivial; otherwise it's a waste of time.

Territories and borders aren't obvious enough at a glance (it'd be a nightmare on a small phone display in even mild sunlight). The purpose of emphasizing each hex in a territory with a huge white circle isn't clear.

[True Valhalla]

The AI often makes very poor decisions.

It seems like you had difficulty winning a round, so I guess the AI makes perfectly decent decisions It's not incredible AI, but it puts up a decent fight.

Whether the game is winnable at all seems to depend on initial deployments and AI actions. If it's winnable, it's trivial; otherwise it's a waste of time.

The game can be beaten, and is influenced by many aspects: yes, initial deployment and AI actions, but also your manipulation of the space (keeping weak pieces behind your front line, using bottlenecks), your ability to predict the AI's intention, knowing when to fortify your position and knowing when to attack.

Of course, there is the random element of the dice as well: rarely a much weaker piece will beat a stronger piece, which makes every attack a risk and can throw the power balance at any moment.

There are many elements in this game which make it deeper than you might initially think. It's no "Total War", but there is strategy here and skill is required to win.

Territories and borders aren't obvious enough at a glance (it'd be a nightmare on a small phone display in even mild sunlight). The purpose of emphasizing each hex in a territory with a huge white circle isn't clear.

I didn't want to fill in each piece with a flat color, but instead stylize it. Using the circles and faded colors on a white background was how I chose to do that, but I agree that the borders could be improved. If I remade the game, I'd implement them differently.

Thank you for your opinion.

[Danmark]

It seems like you had difficulty winning a round, so I guess the AI makes perfectly decent decisions

It's true the AI usually makes fine decisions. My issue was with the occasional strikingly poor decision (that does not characterize games of this type).

There are many elements in this game which make it deeper than you might initially think. It's no "Total War", but there is strategy here and skill is required to win.

Latter part wasn't a criticism as such, just an impression. I've played very many Risk-inspired area control games, and this one isn't as challenging as most, due to its simple rules and small scenario (which makes sense for a casual crowd). That you can get a bum outset, depending on initial deployments and AI actions, is a flaw.


It's impressive that you made this in 30 hours, I just feel it'd be worth more dev time.

[Dacke]

30 hours, eh? That's pretty damn impressive.

The almost identical game I thought of is Dice Wars:

[True Valhalla]

That you can get a bum outset, depending on initial deployments and AI actions, is a flaw.

I've played about 100 full rounds of the game myself, and perhaps only twice felt like the initial random setting really caused me problems. Granted, it's only fair that the turn order is random, however I also feel like the initial deployments are stable in that if one of your three initial stacks is weak, you have another that is stronger. So from a technical level at least, it's all balanced, and from my perspective I feel like the games are fair and importantly, winnable.

It's impressive that you made this in 30 hours, I just feel it'd be worth more dev time.

This game actually started off with the goal of finishing a commercial HTML5 game in 24 hours. I failed, but I did get the game to a state that I was happy with and knew was worthy of sale within my market.

30 hours, eh? That's pretty damn impressive.

The almost identical game I thought of is Dice Wars:

<snip>

Thanks. I was definitely inspired by that game, I tried to avoid that "clone" feel though because that's not what I was going for. Of course, comparisons are only fair