Simple Hex

This two-player connection game, Simple Hex, offers a quick and easy-to-learn gameplay experience. Players choose red or blue and take turns coloring empty cells on the board. The objective is to create a connected path of your colored cells linking opposite sides of the board. The first player to complete this connection wins.

The game features "Play with AI," "Play with Friend," and "Pass & Play" modes. The AI offers three difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard) and can play first or second. Alternatively, you can play against a friend using separate devices or via local pass-and-play. While simple to learn, mastering Simple Hex presents a significant challenge. An undo button lets you reverse your last move(s) – this feature is not yet available in AI mode.

To balance the inherent first-player advantage in Hex, a "Steal Move" option allows the second player to switch positions with the first player after the first move. This forces the first player to consider moves that don't guarantee a win. This option is also unavailable in AI mode.

Three board sizes (7x7, 9x9, and 11x11) provide a gradual increase in complexity, hence the name "Simple Hex."

For more information on the game of Hex, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_(board_game)

We extend our gratitude to interns Saatvik Inampudi and Shoheb Shaik for their contributions to performance improvements in the AI algorithm's first version. The current AI utilizes a "stable" unbounded best-first minimax game technique. For more details on this, please connect with me on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nsvemuri/

What's New in Version 0.45 (Last updated December 18, 2024):

The easy difficulty level has been adjusted to be genuinely easy, and the medium level is now slightly easier.