Meet Game Designer Bruno Albuquerque and hear about his game Hexenwood and it's AI-powered companion Hexenwood AI.
Hexenwood/Hexenwood AI is part of the brand new Sakura Strategy Game Pack, three amazing strategy games new for the Blinks Game System in 2021.
Tell us about your game?
The game is a territory control game based on a PC game called Hexxagon that, in turn, was based on another game called Ataxx designed by Dave Crummack and Craig Galley in 1988. This version is a from scratch implementation based on the rules for those games and with some Blinks-specific features. In the game, players take turns moving their pieces so they can expand their controlled area and take over pieces from other players. It is a highly strategic game and the Blinks version supports up to 4 players
Early proof of concept of Hexenwood AI. Video by Bruno
What makes your game unique?
The game takes full advantage of the technology provided by the Blinks platform and is a very good display of how a cluster of Blinks can act as a single entity even being composed of multiple pieces
When I got hooked with the Blinks platform, I started looking at all the amazing games the platform had and although I liked all of them, it did look to me that the platform was capable of doing even more. I played Hexxagon a lot on my computer and It hit me that because Blinks are hexagonal pieces and because Hexxagon was a full-fledged PC strategy game, trying to write a Blinks version would be both a good fit and an interesting challenge. From my personal point of view, I was right in both counts.
What's your favorite thing about making games with Blinks?
Blinks are very flexible and although the hardware in it is understandably simple (it runs on batteries, for one thing) there is still a full computer inside each one that can be programmed at will and use the available hardware interface (button, leds, IR, magnets) to create really interesting experiences that most notably include the ability of Blinks to talk to each other and "think" together.
Jon and Dan take you through Hexenwood
Meet Bruno
Long time software-engineer by profession and a tinkerer by nature. Always trying to make the most out of any interesting platforms out there and specially interested in the intersection between conventional physical games and technology. A biker and big fan of motorcycles.
Here is my github link: https://github.com/brunoga
I am @brunoga on Twitter.
Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100029123895434
Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCOhV8exsSofOeSpLo6zPA9w
Read More about the other Sakura Strategy Pack Games
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Read about Bandits