Sometimes a game surprises you simply because it plays unlike anything else on your shelf. Hex Factor is one of those games.
It arrived with very little hype, yet by the end of the evening the Meeple Guilders around the table were already debating whether it might crack our individual top-five games of 2025. For a definitive answer, you’ll have to check back in a few weeks.
That sense of surprise was very much part of designer Frederick Weller’s goal. He wanted, as he put it, “a very easy-to-learn game that will stimulate the geek brain in a whole new way.
“You can learn to play in one minute, and yet the process of playing is very mentally stimulating. But it’s stimulating a part of your brain that you didn’t know you had.”
Weller explained that his journey into game design began during the 2020 shutdowns.
“As a theatre actor, I started designing games when the theatres shut down in 2020.
I wanted to develop a game that could be equally engaging to both the children and the adults in our quarantine bubble. I knew it would have to be some kind of visual puzzle, like the game Azul.”
In Hex Factor, players have a hand of hex tiles, each featuring one of three designs. From those hands, everyone simultaneously tries to match designs on a central, modular board. When a player completes a match first, they drop one of their wooden markers onto that space to claim it.
Once any player has placed their fifth marker, the game ends and scoring begins. Captured areas with five matching designs are worth more points than those with four, which in turn are worth more than those with three.
It’s a race game of sorts, though it rarely feels like one. You can win without being the player who triggers the end of the game by placing the fifth piece, which adds an interesting layer of tension.
That tension was very intentional.
“I wanted the players to experience the classic board game tension of trying to balance different tasks that may sometimes conflict,” Weller said via email.
“But I wanted this tension to be experienced on a strictly visual, pattern-building level.”
He continued:
“I love the urgency of the game. It’s a pulse-racing experience. You are pressed for time, but there is no clock. The clock is the other players. You are racing to claim territory before the other players do.”
Replayability is high thanks to ever-changing hands and the game’s brisk pace. Lose a round and you immediately want to play again. Weller has also included advanced rules—most notably an alternate scoring system—that add further depth for experienced players.
For a game that feels genuinely different without being complicated, Hex Factor is well worth a long look.
You can find it at get.roxburygames.com.
About Author
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
Hex Factor: A Most Pleasant Surprise
It arrived with very little hype, yet by the end of the evening the Meeple Guilders around the table were already debating whether it might crack our individual top-five games of 2025. For a definitive answer, you’ll have to check back in a few weeks.
That sense of surprise was very much part of designer Frederick Weller’s goal. He wanted, as he put it, “a very easy-to-learn game that will stimulate the geek brain in a whole new way.
Weller explained that his journey into game design began during the 2020 shutdowns.
In Hex Factor, players have a hand of hex tiles, each featuring one of three designs. From those hands, everyone simultaneously tries to match designs on a central, modular board. When a player completes a match first, they drop one of their wooden markers onto that space to claim it.
Once any player has placed their fifth marker, the game ends and scoring begins. Captured areas with five matching designs are worth more points than those with four, which in turn are worth more than those with three.
It’s a race game of sorts, though it rarely feels like one. You can win without being the player who triggers the end of the game by placing the fifth piece, which adds an interesting layer of tension.
That tension was very intentional.
He continued:
Replayability is high thanks to ever-changing hands and the game’s brisk pace. Lose a round and you immediately want to play again. Weller has also included advanced rules—most notably an alternate scoring system—that add further depth for experienced players.
For a game that feels genuinely different without being complicated, Hex Factor is well worth a long look.
You can find it at get.roxburygames.com.
About Author
Calvin Daniels
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
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