The Creation of Hexa Trex Puzzles

I though I would write about my recent creation.  Over the past year I have been developing the Hexa Trex puzzle, and I thought I would share with you the creative process. 

 It started off in Newfoundland on a hiking trip in Gros Morne National Park.  We were walking down the mountain with Alex (my husband) and talking about games.  He said that it would be easy to create a game, and that I should do it, as that is what I always wanted to do (all my life).  We started bouncing ideas off of each other, and then finally it hit me.  Our favourite game at the time was Settlers of Catan (an excellent game, I might add).  This game uses hexagonal tiles as part of the setup process.  This is where my Hexagonal tiles idea came from.  Also, I really like math, and I am a math teacher, so in almost no time at all, the foundations for Hexa-Trex was layed.

 As soon as we returned home from the trip, I sat at my desk and drew a whole bunch of linked hexagons on a blank sheet of paper.  I then filled in the hexagons with random numbers, math symbols and an equal sign.  From there, I tried to find equations winding through the numbers.  It was extremely satisfying to find a long equation.  I tried it on Alex, and he too was very happy with himself when after searching and searching he came up with a nice long complex equation.  We figured we came across something fun!

 The next step was to check whether this was already an old idea... and after extensive searching, we found a few games that were similar, but not quite as unique and simple as ours.  I therefore decided that I should at least try to create a  prototype of the game (as this was the initial intention for Hexa-Trex). 

 My first prototype was very basic - a cardboard box, a gameboard printed on our printer, some cut out hexatrex tiles, a borrowed sand timer from another game.   But now, at least, we could test out the game, polish the rules, improve on game play.  We played it several times, just Alex and I, and then with some of our friends.  Each time, adjusting the play slightly, thinking of how to make the game more interesting, more challenging.

 After sufficient testing (or so we thought) I wanted to make the game.  I was so anxious to put it out there into the market.  Make everybody see how great, how fun the game actually is!  I needed to make a sample batch of the game: maybe 2000 copies, maybe 500.  I was now looking for local printers that would print my game.  Many printers said that this was too specialized, and that they couldn't do everything I was asking for (a gameboard, some tiles, a box). 

However, there was one guy, that was willing to talk to me.  I brought in my crappy prototype, and told him that I wanted to make a game like this, but nicer (of course) - 500 copies.  We had a nice long discussion about what I wanted, what was best.  But at the end, he said that I should make a few "nice" prototypes myself, and see if there was interest in my game in local stores.  He was a complete outsider, yet he gave me some very good advice.  He showed me the basics of craftmanship: cutting with exactoknives instead of scissors, laminating cardboard with paper, etc.    

I set out to prepare a "final" prototype.  It took me a long time to decide on the box design, the size of the game, the material used.  Every little thing affected another little thing.  But after months of hard hard work, I finally came up with a beautiful game.  (When I show people this prototype, they never believe that I created it myself, in my own house - it's that pretty!)  Hexa-Trex was now REAL!

I set out to local game stores to ask how I could go about putting my game in their stores.  Thinking that I was going to independent stores, they would be more interested in my "independent" game.  How wrong was I - they didn't want to give me a chance.  In their small stores, they had to have stock that would sell, not my silly little game. 

After a few depressing outtings to the local stores, I decided to try another route: sell (or licence) my idea to the big game companies (Hasbro, MegaBloks, ThinkFun, etc.).  But to talk to them, I found out, that I need a games' broker.  So I took my beautiful game and sent it away to a couple of game/toy brokers for an evaluation: both answered with a negative reply... they were not going to be able to sell a "math" game concept to the "big guys" (although one of the evaluators gave me "really high marks" for the presentation of the prototype). 

My enthusiasm was now fading quickly.  Was this really a good, fun game?  Was it really worth while?  Then one evening, my husband placed some Hexa-Trex tiles on the table and said: Find the equation that winds through all the tiles.  There were not too many tiles, maybe nine, but the challenge was fantastic.  I spent close to 15 minutes figuring out the solution.  And afterwards, I wanted more!  We must have something good here - and this is how the Hexa-Trex puzzle was finalized.

 Now people come from all around the world to our website to do these puzzles, to challenge themselves.  In fact, if you are one of those people, write a comment, let me know.  I would be thrilled to have more feedback!

 If you want to challenge yourself to the puzzle of the day, go to our Hexa-Trex section.