Hexapse is built on top of Hextris, an open-source puzzle game released in 2014. It was created by four high school friends as a weekend project — and it quietly grew into one of the most-played hex puzzle games on the web, racking up tens of millions of plays and even hitting the top of the App Store charts in its category.
In late 2014, four students — Logan Engstrom, Garrett Finucane, Noah Moroze, and Michael Yang — set out to build a fast, minimal puzzle game in the browser. Inspired by Tetris but reimagined around a rotating hexagon, they shipped the first version of Hextris in a matter of weeks, originally as a pure HTML5 Canvas + JavaScript project with no frameworks.
The game spread quickly through Hacker News, Reddit, and gaming blogs. A native iOS port followed and climbed into the App Store's top puzzle rankings. The team kept the source code open on GitHub under the GPLv3 license, which is why projects like this one can continue to learn from it, modernize it, and build on top of it today.
Hexapse is a respectful continuation of that work: a modern React/Canvas port with new modes, a daily challenge, cloud leaderboards, themes, and accessibility features — while preserving the tight, addictive feel of the original.
Co-creator · Game logic & engine
Logan went on to study at MIT, where he became a PhD researcher focused on machine learning robustness and adversarial examples. On Hextris he drove much of the core game loop and collision logic.
Co-creator · Gameplay & physics
Garrett worked on the falling-block physics, scoring, and combo system. He later studied computer science and oceanography, applying simulation work well beyond games.
Co-creator · Rendering & UX
Noah focused on the canvas rendering, animations, and the minimal interface that became Hextris's visual signature. He went on to study electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.
Co-creator · Web & polish
Michael shaped the web build, page layout, and release polish, helping Hextris feel native on both desktop and mobile browsers. He later studied computer science and continues to build for the web.
Original source: github.com/Hextris/hextris. Hexapse is an independent build that extends the original game; all credit for the core gameplay belongs to its founders.