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This is a card game that forces a Hex token around the table between players. In this respect, it's sort of a game of Hot Potato. Whoever can't get rid of the Hex token by using his cards "blows up," thus losing points. Naturally, there are nuances to this. There are 17 different cards in the deck, some which merely pass the Hex token left, right, and across, while others split the token in two, or increase it's damage. One dismisses it entirely. One blows it up while in another player's possession. One forces the token to pass in only one direction, some cause extra effects if the token DOES blow up on you. A round ends when there are no more Hex tokens available, and there are as many rounds as there are players, plus one.
There are some interesting strategies that are not immediately apparent, but which become obvious after the first couple of rounds. Controlling when the last token blows up is very important since you lose and gain points based on this, so learning to play the cards to force the location of the tokens when they blow up is of paramount importance. Sending them to a player who has no cards to play works very well for this.
Scores are kept with individual cards monitoring "Voice", which is just points. How many you have at the end of the x+1 rounds determines who the winner is.
One last amusing thing about the game is a bit of chaos tossed in; a Hex Hex card; when it's played, all players have to drop their card hands and put their hands in the air. The slowpoke loses points. Not exactly strategy, but still entertaining.
Integrates with:
Hex Hex Next
Reimplemented by:
Hex Hex XL
- Manages to be fun despite its 'see what happens' nature.
- Offers a unique flavor of chaotic fun.
- Base game has very little strategic control.
- Hurl hexes at each other and deflect them at other people.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Play — Players use cards to perform actions.
- dexterity — Involves physically throwing hexes.
- Set Collection — Implicitly involved in playing cards and managing a hand.
- Take That — Players directly target each other with actions.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's a real time cooperative dexterity game where you build cures to deadly diseases using uh wooden blocks.
- The gameplay is fairly I don't know strategic doesn't give the right connotation but it's um there's a lot of player agency and that you are in fact designing the very things which you're going to build.
- You're matching sequences in order to stack towers of blocks like you did when you were like 10 years old in a frustratingly complicated pattern that ends up confounding you by the end of it.
- It really is a hard game to talk to people about, which is one of the reasons we did gameplay of it on the channel. it it doesn't come across as interesting as it is until you sit down and start playing with it.
- The initial game came so the core design mechanism and build mechanism came together extremely quickly.
- The game has a momentum to it. The game is real time and it's real time for a reason.
- The master cure system has turned out so well because it's a puzzle that is rewarding.
- The physical mechanisms of the game are evocative of this theme.
- Don't hide your designs because like nobody's going to steal them and if they do people won't buy them.
- Always keep interest curves in mind.
- I do find it really fascinating that whether it's you with Spirit Island or Elizabeth Hargrave with Wingspan that create games that are known across the I mean the depths of the industry as some of the best out there.
- Yes, we're rich. We're not ultra rich. We don't have a yacht. We don't have a second home, but we like we have a mortgage and we own our home and that's in the Boston area.
References (from this video)
- high interactivity and emotional engagement
- enjoyable party-style chaos
- low setup that facilitates quick play
- can be chaotic and rely on player dynamics
- not deeply strategic for some players
- backstabbing, take-that dynamics
- party-style tabletop space with social interaction
- emergent, chaotic, personality-driven
- Whiz War
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area/round interactions — rounds involve quick, revolving play that can disrupt other players
- card play / hand interaction — players play cards that cause effects on others and trigger reactions around the table
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I want you to feel something at the table and that to me is what creates the memories of gaming
- the system works as a pull business you have to get enough people excited that they're asking for the game
- if you have not pressure tested everything about that game to make sure it is ready to sell, don't release it
- I'm an omni gamer I like all different genres all different types of games
- Boom Patrol is a arcade game on the tabletop... it's a Tari Tank Battle meets Mario Kart
- Hi-Fi is gorgeous looking... the record player has a purpose in the game
- Adventure Party ... delivers a role play experience