Hexlite
Hexlite
About the Game
Hexlite is a rogue-lite real-time strategy game set on a hex tile grid. Combat is simple yet fast-paced, and the AI will mercilessly exploit every mistake you make.
Key Features
- Rogue-lite – Play through multiple runs with up to ten stages of increasing difficulty and randomly selected levels.
- Progression – Earn coins during runs, which can be spent in the shop to make future runs easier.
- Perk System – Choose powerful perks after each level.
- AI Battles – Face up to 8 AI opponents in chaotic free-for-alls.
- Tile Upgrades – Upgrade your hex tiles to improve Attack, Defense, or Production.
- Pause - Pause the game anytime to regroup and maintain the upper hand.
Controls
Unit Production
- All tiles controlled by the player or AI automatically produce units.
Sending Units:
- Left-click and drag from one tile to a neighboring tile to send units.
- You can chain commands by dragging across multiple owned tiles.
- Commands persist until changed, and units will be continuously transferred.
Camera Controls:
- Click and drag with the right mouse button to move the camera around.
- Scroll to zoom in and out.
Game Speed:
- Control game speed with the buttons at the top or use hotkeys (1, 2, 3).
- Use the Spacebar to pause the game. (Use it often!)
Upgrades
- Each hex tile can be upgraded to enhance its capabilities. There are three upgrade types, but a hex tile can have only one at a time.
- Attack upgrades make attacks coming from the tile more effective. (Hotkey: q)
- Defense upgrades makes the defense of the tile stronger. (Hotkey: w)
- Production upgrades double the units produced by the tile. (Hotkey: e)
Disclaimer
This is my first Unity project and is not intended as a commercial product. However, if you enjoy it and have suggestions, feel free to comment—I might continue development.
Credits
- Riddlebick - For helping me to get started in Unity
- Palsafluf - For rigorous testing
- alkakrab - For the great music
- shapeforms -For sound effects
- Craftpix.net - For free icons
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Hexlite Version 1.1118 days ago
- Hexlite Version 1.120 days ago
Comments
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Quick strategy guide for anyone else who stumbles upon this little gem of an rts.
Perks
- You are probably not winning until you make some meta progression upgrades. Prioritizing the perk rarity followed by the number of production upgrades will greatly increase your odds
- Restarting until you get a rare or better perk will make your life much easier
- In terms of perk priority, raw stat boosts are far more valuable as opposed to upgrade count, especially since the shop can start you off with up to 5 each. With a maxed out shop you can ignore raw upgrade count perks for the entire game
- Defensive/offensive focus perks are the best in the game, a flat +20 to attack/defence without upgrades is unmatched. Extended logistics is the next best to improve manoeuvrability. Their uncommon equivalents are fine to pick up as well.
- Concentrated industry for optimal use requires you don't drop your production upgrades on your first nodes (and slower starts can be death sentences on maps like Europe). I wouldn't take it.
Strategy
- Check the different AI perks at the start of battle, prioritizing AI's that specialize in production. If the AI ever gets blitzkrieg and extended logistics, unless you have an absolutely cracked build and godly rng, you are finished
- Chaining all your tiles into one is a good way to pile resources onto a tile and will be the first thing you do in most levels. The AI prefers to not even attack a node when there's a large value difference, so just piling up a bunch of units on a chokepoint is a great way to stall while you focus elsewhere.
- This is probably obvious, but having multiple nodes attack the same one will speed up the attack/transfer rate. Good for breaking down enemy fortifications when possible
- The strategy for most of the earlier stages is to rush adjacent factions before they can build up. Ideally aim for their production upgrade hexes to destroy their supply line.
- Shift up your attacks to focus on undefended/weakened nodes. The AI stumbles when you break up its chains quickly, which will help you to expand. Generally, once your production rate is higher than anyone else on the map you will probably win.
- The hardest stage in the game is easily Europe, the end boss is a joke by comparison. I've only managed to beat it once and it took me like 20 minutes. Restarting for something easier is advisable.
First, congratulations on beating the game! I know it’s a tough one, but I hope you had fun on your journey. Second, many thanks for this detailed analysis. I found your strategy and perk advice very interesting and well thought out.
The only thing I might add is that focusing on a single upgrade path can be quite effective during a run. For example, I’ve found that investing heavily in attack upgrades can significantly boost early expansion.
Since you’ve spent some time with the game, I’d love to hear if you encountered any bugs, if there was anything you didn’t like, or if you have suggestions for new perks or levels you’d like to see in the game.
Thank you! This game was a blast. I never really tried the single upgrade path, will give it a shot sometime.
For bugs, the two I encountered:
- Pressing escape on a a maximized window on macOS would minimize the window first, then show the restart menu
- Rarely, counterattack/critical attack text would appear on attack/defense upgraded hexes when I didn't have the upgrade. I think I only saw this in subsequent runs after I had the upgrade in a previous run. I play in browser for more context.
For perks I'd like to see some more "tradeoff" upgrades like "concentrated industry". Some examples:
- Aggressive Deployments - "+25 attack to attack upgrades, -25 defense to defense upgrades"
- Specialized Offence - "Halve your current number of attack upgrades, give them +30 attack". This one would force the player to keep going for upgrade count perks even with a maxed out shop
I'd also just like to see some more perks that change how you play like "blitzkrieg". Some ideas:
- Siege Preparations - "Adjacent attack upgraded tiles gain +20 attack and +50% attack/transfer rate"
- Fox Holes - "When a defense upgraded tile has 25 or more units, it gets +40 defence"
- Scorched Earth - "When losing an occupied tile, it is converted into a 5 unit unoccupied tile instead of being given to the attacker". This one could be given to the AI for some really cool stages (e.g. simulate Napoleon's invasion of russia in 1812)
- Reinforcements - "When upgrading a tile, give it +3 units."
The numbers given are just examples of course, I think the balance on this game, while difficult, is relatively good. I just want to see some more tactics to this game and more risk/reward in the perk selection.
For stage design I think it would be nice to see more levels with unoccupied upgraded nodes. Production upgrades were fairly common, but I don't think I saw empty defensive upgrades outside of the king level.
Thank you again for the response.
Regarding the first bug, yes I know that is not ideal but i don't think i can do anything to prevent that as is is bound to the fullscreen functionality of the Unity webapp. The the second bug is more mysterious, I really don't know how this could have happened. Are you sure that it was not the case that the AI had that perk?
I really like how you think regarding the perks, some of them are actually things i have had in my mind by myself. The reinforcement one is one i would really like to implement and which should be easily doable! Siege Preparations is another good one, I was thinking about different version of such aura effects, but it is not that easy to implement. Scorched Earth is a really creative idea and I love the historic context but i fear in the game it might be a bit frustrating to play against (when the enemy has it) or also if you loose a tile temporarily and then spend units running into a neutral tile. I would only use it as special ability of an AI in certain scenarios
And yes its true I didn't use this functionality that often. I have to say designing the Levels and balancing them out was not that easy and adding more variables to the equation made it even more difficult
I have to see when and how i find time to continue with the game. I would love to create a multiplayer version but sadly that is a completely different (and more difficult) story :)
Correction to a previous comment: Ganging up on an unclaimed unit is best, while focusing on a single unit in skirmishes is best
After spending a grand total of 6 hours of my life on this game (taken from sleep cuz y not) I can confidently say that in this game you either get Blitzkrieg and win or you don't and lose
Also, instead of having multiple units gang up on a dude, training them and focusing on a single powerful unit is the way to go
Yeah no Extended Logistics AND Blitzkrieg on an AI? No sir I am ragequitting (c u tomorrow mwuah my new fave game)
Btw did you download the game? You have a bit more chance with the bought perks in the shop...but still a very hard game!
Nope ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) gotta restart each time
On a side note itch io really kills the formatting for the lenny face :P
Not just yet. I'm waiting for stuff to get a bit more refined, but I'll definitely do so in the future :D
I am not sure about Blitzkrieg, in the later levels it was disadvantageous for me to have all my troops directly at the front.
For me personally: I love the Logistic perks!
I once got 2 gray Logistics and one Yellow(Golden?) Logistics, but I don't quite see the difference tbh :P
Nice concept, I really like this type of games. Though it wasn't clear to me whether I should wait to gather all my units in one place or directly give the attack order to desired tile. I gave my order while having only 1 unit and thought it would conquer the neutral tile over time. But to me it didn't seem like that was the case even though at some point neutral tile had 1 unit and mine had 2. Seeing the units move would also be a good way to build intuition about the mechanics. Overall great potential!
Hey, thanks for the comment! Yeah, the underlying mechanic is probability based, so it might seem like nothing will happen if you're unlucky. I've tried to minimise that a bit, but it can still happen in small maps. And the hint about visulisation is a good point. There's a little animation of the arrow, but I also thought about making it more visible.
The arrow barely pulses red... and the game is so fast paced that it's barely noticeable unless you accidentally make a loop, but I guess something is better than nothing
How is this game so stressful
Thanks for playing! I designed it to be a bit of a challenge, but I'm currently working on making the first levels easier. For the later levels, my advice would be to pause the game often to take your time and think things through.
Yea kinda my fault for thinking this was like those crappy cell games on the App Store
Fun game this one is. Sorry for my short attention span tho ( •̀ ω •́ )y
Killed 2 more hours of sleep, darn the stoobid AIs
Is there a strat or something?
Haha, glad you found your way to the game. I know it can be difficult. It always depends a bit on the perks you get. But I like to choose attack upgrades and use those early to expand. And if two AI fight I always try to hit the stronger one, while keeping some units in reserve.
=w=
"depends a bit on the perks" you say
I had been annihilated each and every single round before Blitzkrieg came up
And now I'm dominating ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ (￢︿￢☆)