''Hexcells'' is a

puzzle video game Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, Sequence, sequence solving, Spatial ability, spatial recognition, ...

series developed and published by British designer Matthew Brown. There are three games in the series: ''Hexcells'', ''Hexcells Plus'', and ''Hexcells Infinite''.

Gameplay

The gameplay of each installment in ''Hexcells'' is similar to ''

Minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

''. Each level contains a grid of hexagonal orange tiles. Under each tile hides a shape that is coloured either blue or black. The player left-clicks a tile if they think it is blue and right-clicks if they think it is black. Each black tile and some blue tiles display a number which represents how many blue tiles it is bordering. The objective of each level is to locate all of the blue tiles with the fewest mistakes. At the top of each row, column and diagonal in each level there is a number which displays how many blue tiles there are in that section. These numbers, as well as the numbers inside the blue or black tiles, may have symbols surrounding them:

curly brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

() show that the neighbouring blue shapes are conjoined, and hyphens () show that they are not. Each game contains six "worlds" of 36 levels, and ''Hexcells Infinite'' contains an extra "infinite" mode with

procedurally generated In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated content and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. I ...

levels. The art style is minimalistic and has a contrast between the orange and blue tiles.

Development

''Hexcells'' was in development throughout 2013. ''Hexcells'' and ''Hexcells Plus'' were released on 20 February 2014, and ''Hexcells Infinite'' was released on 1 September 2014.

Reception

The games have been commonly compared to ''Minesweeper''. They were praised for their simplistic art style and contrastive colours. One stated negative was that there was no punishment for making mistakes. ''Hexcells Infinite'' was rated 80/100 by New Game Network, who described it as "a unique idea based around the age old concepts of logic".

Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC game, PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017. History ''Rock Paper S ...

described the game as a "ludicrous pleasure to play".

References

{{Portal bar, Video games 2014 video games IOS games Linux games MacOS games Puzzle video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games

Gameplay

Development

Reception

See also

References