Hexataire

 

Hexataire

Created by Group 6 (Konner Rooney & Jeden Chase), Blog Written by Konner Rooney

    Hexataire is an all-new version of Solitaire for you to try! If you find yourself getting stuck often in Solitaire, give Hexataire a try! It introduces a way for players to get out of tight spots, while also giving new opportunities to strategize!

How to play "Hexataire"

    To play Hexataire, the player must set up a formation of five"zones":

•         The Eye, where all of the unused cards are flipped upside down.
•         The Hexataire, where six cards are facing up and surrounding the eye.
•         A Stopwatch, to track the player's time taken in the game.
•         A Sheet of Paper to track how many times the player resets.
•         And the Seven Homecards that are typically found in an ordinary game of Solitaire.

    The player plays Hexataire in a similar manner to Solitaire, attempting to stack descending numbers together, with the suits' colors switching with the numbers, and sorting them all into four piles. However, if the player finds themselves stuck, they have more options! They can take and use cards from The Eye, use Aces as wild cards that can be used in place of another card, or reshuffle their cards plus reset their stopwatch! The score is then determined by taking the current time on the stopwatch and multiplying it by the number of attempts. The lower the score, the better you did! Try to beat your friends' best, or try to set your own personal record!

The Iteration Process

   After our initial playtests for Solitaire, the group agreed that there were times when we got stuck while playing. While you can switch cards around and re-pair them to counteract this, we wanted our new version of the game to offer more tools that the player can use to bypass these moments, as well as a way to have new ways to strategize.

    Reshuffling was the first tool that we created for the game. In regular Solitaire, reshuffling is usually done between rounds after a player finishes or gives up. However, reshuffling is an important element that be used during games in Hexataire. It can be used to get players out of a predicament and continue playing with a clean slate, at the cost of getting a bigger number for a score (which is less than desirable in this game).

    From there, The Eye was then implemented. It acts as a smaller, yet visible pile that can be drawn from instead. However, this also counts as a reset within the game's rules. We also changed how aces work; in Solitaire, they are the final type of card you want in each pile. But in Hexataire, they act as wild cards and can be placed as any number or any color. The only con is the fact that this can only be done four times, as there are only four aces per deck.

    We believe Hexataire provides a fresh take on Solitaire's format. We hope our changes and new elements give players a familiar, yet new card-game experience.

Problems Encountered

    The group had very similar visions of how we wanted to rework the game of Solitaire. This resulted in us coming up with a game we were both satisfied with! The only real bumps in our progress were the occasional incidents of miscommunication, but I feel like we worked past that by the time we finished our second version of the rule sheet. The only thing I would really change would be a bit more of a solid structure throughout the process. Our workflow seemed to be a lot better once we were able to assign specific times to meet and tasks to do!

In conclusion, I'm very satisfied with the new game our group came up with! I hope to continue trying my luck and skill with Hexataire, as well as applying the experience to the collaborative projects I work on in the future!