BumpHex

BumpHex is checkers for young children, from age four up. There is no jumping. There is bumping. Move one piece to any hex touching it — forwards, sideways, backwards, it is all the same move. Every enemy piece standing next to where you landed gets shoved one hex directly away from you. Shove somebody off the edge of the board and they are out. Shove them into another piece and both of them go. That is the whole game. A four-year-old can play it with you on the little boards; a five-year-old plays it alone, and a six-year-old starts playing it to win. BUILT FOR PLAYERS WHO CANNOT READ YET The first time BumpHex opens, it teaches itself. A hand moves from a piece to a hex, the hex glows, the thing happens, and a tick appears. Six lessons, one rule each, no words that have to be read and no way to fail — a wrong tap simply shows the hand again. HOW TO PLAY sits on the front screen for every time after that. Your army is always the one nearest you, the bar at the bottom says YOU, and on your turn every piece you can pick up breathes gently. Every army wears the crest of one of the six factions of the Haunted Space Hotel, stamped on every piece — its own emblem as well as its own colour — so the board still reads on a cheap screen, and to a grown-up who is colour-blind. The game saves itself after every turn. Nobody has to remember to press anything, and wandering off in the middle never costs you the board. TWO TO SIX ARMIES Before every game, WHO IS PLAYING? deals out the table: each player picks the army they want to be, and every seat can be a person or the tablet — one child against the device, or two children and two device players sharing the same board. Play against the tablet — one to five opponents at three difficulties, and Easy really is easy. Or pick PASS & PLAY and hand the tablet round: everybody taps their own pieces, everybody takes their turn, up to six people round one screen. No accounts, no network, nothing to set up — the tablet going from hand to hand is the whole thing. Three ways to win: Race Home, where you run your army to the far side; Knock Out, where you are the last one standing; and Crowns, where reaching the far rank crowns a piece. WHAT IT COSTS Seven boards are free forever — with every mode, every difficulty and every player count from two to six against the tablet, and pass-and-play for two. That is a complete game, not a demo that stops. One payment unlocks everything else there will ever be: the other eleven boards, including the big ones, and pass-and-play for up to six people sharing one screen. That is all BumpHex ever sells — once, forever. No adverts, of any kind, ever. No videos to sit through, no timers, no lives to wait for, no second currency, and nothing that nags. BumpHex collects no data about you or your child, and works with no connection at all. 100% Designed by Humans at Haunted Space Hotel Studios.