HexLight

From the Devs

About This Game

HexLight™ turns a glowing hex battlefield into a deterministic war of color, geometry, and devastating action chains. Command evolving shapes, capture factories, solve 30 handcrafted puzzles, and battle solo, locally, or online—then tailor the battlefield with Xbox controller support, an accessibility mode that turns off flashing, and your choice of Light or Dark Mode with custom lighting settings. Build your own challenges in the puzzle-level editor and upload them directly to the Steam Workshop. Turn up the bass and immerse yourself in HexLight’s unique futuristic blend of lo-fi and dubstep, produced by MadManCam.

There are no dice rolls deciding combat. Movement, range, color changes, production, and board events follow readable rules, so every victory comes from planning the sequence better than your opponents. A single Triangle can begin a color conversion that travels across the map; one misplaced unit can close a route that took an entire turn to prepare.

Master a Color-Combat Ruleset

HexLight™ is built around three light families: Red, Green, and Blue, with Orange, Lime, and Purple serving as their multiplayer variants. Units begin as a solid color, but attacks can mix their light. Reach three distinct channels and the unit whites out, shattering or breaking into lower shapes.

• Triangles are fast, expendable attackers. They add the bridge color needed to begin mixing enemy units and can assault factory flags.

• Squares remove light at range and leave temporary removal fields. Used after the correct Triangle or Hexagon setup, they can convert enemy pieces to your side.

• Pentagons refract another color into friendly or already mixed units, enabling breakups, bonus-move farming, and finishing attacks.

• Hexagons are slow ranged pieces that strike solid enemies exactly two hexes away and project a defensive presence around them.

• Circles roll across an upper layer, ignore many lower-layer effects, add light to enemy units, and can collide with other Circles.

Build, Break, and Chain Actions

Each player normally activates one unit per turn and may complete up to two combines. Pair matching shapes to climb from Triangle to Square, Pentagon, Hexagon, and finally Circle. Mixed units can be broken back into multiple lower shapes, opening lanes and creating new tactical resources.

Bonus moves earned from breakups, whiteouts, friendly Pentagon refractions, factory captures, and charged Prism attacks can be stored for later. Spend them immediately to continue a conversion chain or bank them for a coordinated burst turn. Triangle Momentum grows as the match advances, allowing a limited number of expended Triangle attacks to generate bonus moves after each Light Storm.

Capture and Defend Factories

Factory flags are both objectives and production centers. A controlled factory normally produces a Triangle on its owner’s turn. Every tenth owner turn triggers one global burst round for all armies, and controlled factories can fill their center and surrounding ring, transforming a quiet position into a new front line. Attack enemy flags, repair damaged friendly flags, defend their occupants, and decide when a production farm is worth more than another advance.

Claim the Central Prism

The exact center of the board holds the Central Prism. End a turn there and keep the same unit in place until your next turn to claim it, score 25 points, and store a powerful one-use charge based on that unit’s shape.

• A charged Triangle shatters a non-Circle in one blow, survives the strike, and occupies the target hex.

• A charged Square flips every non-Circle in its field directly to its owner’s solid color.

• A charged Pentagon can shatter any enemy non-Circle and grants additional bonus moves.

• A charged Hexagon can break a priority target on an enemy factory hex, including a defending Circle.

• A charged Circle stores extra movement and a separate pass-through shatter.

Holding the center also grants a rearming one-hit shield, but the Prism cannot be monopolized forever. It refreshes only after its center zone clears, dormant pieces are eventually pushed out, and three transparent light walls constrain movement and attack lines around it. Those walls rotate whenever a Light Storm strikes.

Survive the Light Storms

At turn 100, turn 200, and every 100 turns afterward, a Light Storm transforms the match instead of letting a stable board remain solved forever.

• Six new neutral factory flags appear one ring inward from the original flag axes.

• Controlled flags can rotate into another player’s region, teleporting nearby pieces with them.

• Marked controlled flags exchange regions and carry pieces on or next to them.

• Every other unit stays on its hex, while the exact center cannot be used as a storm landing hex.

• After Storm N, up to N expended Triangle attacks per player turn can each generate one Triangle Momentum bonus move.

• A qualifying eliminated player can receive a one-time resurrection through newly created storm flags, replacement Triangles, and stored moves.

Storm results are deterministic in saved games, replays, and multiplayer. Everyone sees the same transformed battlefield; adapting to it is part of the strategy.

Learn, Practice, and Create

• Five guided tutorials teach Triangle attacks, Square conversions, Pentagon refractions, combines, breakups, Hexagon attacks, and factory captures.

• Thirty handcrafted puzzles challenge you with blocked routes, long conversion relays, spatial combines, and irreversible dead ends.

• Single player includes seven AI difficulty levels, loadable saves, and AI-only simulations.

• Hot seat supports local multiplayer on one computer.

• The Scenario Editor lets you place units and flags, set objectives and turn limits, test your creation, and save it locally.

• Steam Workshop integration lets creators publish scenarios and players subscribe to community-made challenges.

Online Multiplayer

Host a public or private lobby, invite friends, or browse open games. HexLight™ supports four online formats:

• 1v1 — a direct tactical standoff.

• 1v1v1 — negotiate, cooperate, and double-cross when the balance shifts.

• 2v2 — coordinated four-player team warfare.

• 3v3 — a full six-color battle across the board.

Deterministic turn validation, state checks, replays, and anti-cheat systems keep online matches synchronized while preserving the exact tactical rules used offline.

Readable Rules, Deep Consequences

Use the detailed game log, score and momentum displays, and in-game rules reference to understand the board. Then look several actions ahead: clear a landing hex, prime a target, convert the correct relay, break a mixed unit, and send the resulting Triangles into a factory before your opponent can answer.

HexLight™ is easy to begin, difficult to calculate, and built for players who enjoy abstract strategy with matches that evolve far beyond their opening formation.