HexaGenesis
Nearly two years ago, I launched my first game Hexakai: a Sudoku-inspired game of hexagons. I found the project to be successful and personally rewarding – users are starting and completing boards of varying sizes and difficulties on a daily basis. Over the last few months, I’ve been brainstorming to find new, unique game concepts, ranging from word games to multi-player games to mental visualization games, and I’ve discovered a fascinating concept for a two-player game.
To explore this concept, I created HexaGenesis, an app that recreates Conway’s Game of Life in a hexagonal grid. This is a zero-player game which allows the player to create patterns of cells and watch them expand, contract, cycle, find stability, or wither into nothingness. The board is an infinite hexagonal grid and the cells on the grid come alive or die based on the number of surrounding cells.
The original Game of Life, not to be confused with the board game, is both a subject of study by mathematicians and computer scientists, and a source of enjoyment for hobbyists looking for unique patterns of repetition and stability. For me, it’s a mix of the two – this project has already helped me prototype a playing board, understand the nature of cellular automata, discover the unique properties and constraints of hexagonal cellular patterns, and refine my ideas for the new two-player game I’m working on.
On the about page of HexaGenesis, I discuss more of the details of the game for those who are interested. For now, I’ll share some patterns below to provide a visual representation of the game.
Patterns
The pattern below is a simple, two step cycle that shows a honeycomb continuouslly filling and emptying.
The pattern below is a cycle that repeats after six steps. This pattern is symmetric with rotational symmetry and has a pleasing aesthetic. Not all cycles share these qualities.
Most patterns don’t end up forming cycles, they either find stable states or wither away entirely. The pattern below represents the simplest stable state.
Another example:
Conclusion
I created this project mainly to explore a concept, but I imagine I’ll be updating it every now and then as I find new patterns and think of new features. For now, stay tuned for announcements for upcoming books and games.
