Hints, Emojis, and Feature Revamps
Hexakai's received a lot of improvements over the last few weeks! I've added new features, revamped existing features, and got two bug fixes in.
Hints
You can now use hints to help you solve Hexakai puzzles! Each hint will mark a cell on the board and give you either:
- a warning that the assigned value is wrong.
- a range of possible values for that cell, one of which is the true value.
You can only look at each hint once. Once you've closed the hint, you can't return to it. You'll then have to wait a moment before viewing another hint.
Cell Value Visualization Types
By default, the value range for hex cells is 0-9 + A-F for larger boards. After receiving feedback that the inclusion of letters may be confusing for some, I've added a feature to allow you to choose what kinds of values you work with. You can now select the type of cell values you want to see from these choics:
- Standard: this shows the default values specified above.
- Numbers Only: instead of A-F, you'll see 10-15.
- Letters Only: instead of 0-9 and A-F, you'll see A-P.
- Greek Alphabet: values will range over the lowercase greek alphabet: α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, η, θ, ι, κ, λ, μ, ν, ξ, ο, π.
- Emojis: just for fun, I threw in an option for emojis. Values will range over: 😀, 😂, 🤔, 😍, 😎, 🤩, 😊, 🙃, 😉, 🥳, 😴, 🤯, 🥸, 🤠, 🥺, 😇.
You'll be able to change this selection even after you've started a board, which means you won't be tied to any single visualization and can play around with it.
Pencil Marking Improvements
Pencil markings now appear directly on the game board. Before, you had to right click or long press a hex cell to see what pencil marks it had, if any, but now, everything is visible at a glance. On desktop and laptop devices, hex cells with have up to 8 pencil markings visible at all times. On the Android and iOS apps, the number of pencil marks visible will change based on the level of zoom. If there are ever more pencil markings on a cell than the amount that can be displayed, a plus sign will appear at the bototm of the cell to indicate that more markings are present but not visible.
I've also fixed a bug pertaining to the undo/redo functionality. Now, pencil markings will be included, so you'll be able to undo and redo markings along with everything else.
Daily Puzzle Revamps
The puzzles on the daily puzzles page now include an info icon on the top right. When clicked, it opens a dialogue box that gives you information about the board's size and difficulty level. Some puzzle boxes also include a "Watch Playthrough" button which links you to a YouTube video of my own playthrough of the puzzle, pulled from my daily puzzles playlist. Generally, I record playthroughs once a week, so this option won't be available for many daily puzzles.
I've also improved the way the app handles daily puzzle urls. You can now navigate to any daily puzzle via hexakai.com/app?d=YYYY-MM-DD. Note that typing a date before the first puzzle or a date in the future will not take you to a valid daily puzzle. This feature was implemented in part to improve the user experience on the daily puzzles page, as well as to simplify the process of sharing daily puzzles.
iOS Improvements
I've received feedback from a few iOS app users that opening the color and pencil marking selections wasn't possible on some devices. Solving this was surprisingly difficult, but I've managed to find a working solution across all iOS devices, including iPads and older iPhones. Now, iOS users can open the color and pencil marking selections by long-pressing on the cell they want to work on.
2,500 Boards Solved!
Lastly, I'm happy to announce that more than 2,500 boards have been solved by the player base! It's wonderful to see that players are enjoying the game, and it's exciting to see the rate of increase at which boards are being solved.