Along with daily news, product reviews and whatever other assorted miscellanea we bring you here at Digital Trends, we also hope to expose you, the average person, to cool new things you might hear about otherwise. Things like Terry Cavanagh’s Super Hexagon.
The game, which was released for the iOS platform on September 6, has already sold about 45,000 copies — which is an impressive feat for a 99-cent downloadable indie game, developed by a single person, and promoted entirely through word of mouth. Cavanagh, Super Hexagon’s creator, seemed utterly floored by the game’s success when Joystiq caught up with him at the ongoing Fantastic Arcade wing of Fantastic Fest. “It is such a hard game, and such a niche thing. I didn’t expect it to get the reaction it’s gotten. I thought it would be cool if I made enough sales to pay for the phone I bought, it would be cool. I didn’t see it doing what it’s done. It’s up to like 45,000 sold so far,” Cavanagh said.
“Zynga would be disappointed with those numbers. But me as an individual, I’m ecstatic. That’s enough for me to live on. That’s several years.”
Those of you who have yet to play Super Hexagon are missing out on one of the most accesible, entertaining mobile gaming experiences available. You play the part of a tiny cursor that can be rotated around a central point by pressing the left and right sides of your iDevice’s screen. As you’re rotating, thick lines are falling toward the center point and it is your job to avoid hitting any of them for as long as possible. You’ll notice in that screenshot above, taken on my iPhone a few moments ago, that the timer reads “3:42” — that’s 3.42 seconds, and I died a split-second later. “Frustrating” and “unforgivingly difficult” are solid descriptors for Super Hexagon, but so are “intensely addictive” and “perfectly suited for the mobile platform.”
If your interest in this game is suddenly piqued and you own an appropriate Apple-branded gadget, you can find more information on Super Hexagon by visiting Terry Cavanagh’s official website or, as per usual, the iOS App Store. Just don’t blame us if you throw your iPhone through a wall.
