The concept got under his skin somehow, and Cavanagh couldn't let it go, attracted to further polish and refine it ( he called the compulsion "primal"). The original is still available on Cavanagh's website. Pirate Kart invites indies to contribute "awesome/terrible" and otherwise rule-breaking games to a collection designed to challenge what some indies see as the boundaries of convention that overhangs the festival circuit. The game originated as a prototype, Hexagon, which Cavanagh made in 48 hours for the 2012 Pirate Kart. ![]() "Easy" is quite literally not in the vocabulary-the game has three modes: Hexagon, Hexagoner and Hexagonest, and they're labeled "hard, harder and hardest." I've heard Cavanagh joke that the first two modes are just practice. The score is determined by how many seconds you can last. ![]() Playing Super Hexagon is simple in concept: rotate a tiny arrow through a maze of shapes without touching the sides react quickly to changes in those boundaries. It looks abstract from a distance-sharp bands of deep color and shape that transmute to the throbbing heartbeat of Chipzel's mean but vitally-catchy chiptune synth. Similarly, it's pure simplicity and not cruelty that fuels Cavanagh's demanding Super Hexagon, a finalist for this year's Independent Game Festival in the Excellence in Design category. One persists because the interface is so elegant, and because ultimate mastery is so compelling and offers the player the experience of gifted performance. His lens on games has more in common with the concept of practicing music, which offers a system of skill, repetition and rehearsal. It's not that his designs delight in frustrating players, although they are both delightful and frustrating. VVVVVV gets called "masochistic" by nearly every reviewer who loves it.īut to call Cavanagh a "sadist" would be misplaced. Which is good, given that it's something you'll be pressing several trillion times.Impeccable precision's the watchword, and Viridian's crude pixel happy-face provides a blank look of humor in the face of just how hard the game is-a litany of instantaneous deaths, immediate restarts, and the slow, brutal grind of learning one's way through patience and self-restraint. The music's suitably thumping, and the restart button triggers without pausing for so much as an instant. He's even posted about it over on Free Indie Games, so all's well that ends well, I suppose. I'm hoping Super Hexagon will be out on PC and Mac REALLY soon - I'm working flat out to make that happen!" "I'm a little upset that he released it before I had a chance to release Super Hexagon on PC myself - but I'm basically alright with it! I've just checked it out there, and it's not bad at all - the harder octagon stage was pretty cool. Happily, you can customize everything (rotation speed and, um, yep) and design your own levels, so it ought to be interesting to see what players come up with.Ĭavanagh himself, meanwhile, is surprisingly cool with Open Hexagon's existence. Beyond that world-shattering alteration, though, this is pretty much Super Hexagon - just more open, on PC, and free. I like the voice in Cavanagh's version better. And while a PC version's on the way, developer Vittorio Romeo got Cavanagh's permission to put his own open source spin on the eternally rotating formula. Because, you know, it's pretty great and stuff. This process continues until you look like a lumpier version of Grimace, the (in this case aptly named) McDonald's mascot, but for some unknowable reason, you don't stop. Seconds later, you're back on the ground. But then - vision fuzzy and head still pounding - you get up and give it another go. Super Hexagon immediately punches you in the face and draws blood. Other games take the time to introduce themselves and shake your hand. ![]() Terry "VVVVVV/delightful human being" Cavanagh's Super Hexagon is an evil, evil thing. ![]() Update 2 - the creator of Open Hexagon has apologised profusely for releasing his clone game before the PC/Mac version of Super Hexagon, and attempted to explain why he got the wrong end of the stick. So, if you like Open Hexagon please be sure to give your support to the creator of the game it so liberally borrows from once Super Hexagon itself arrives on PC. While the Open Hexagon dev was given a blessing to make a game 'inspired' by Super Hexagon, he was explicitly told that it couldn't be a clone. Update 1 - there's been some kind of breakdown in communications here, as it transpires that Terry Cavanagh isn't as cool with this game as we first thought.
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