TIME EXTEND
The Hex
Beyond Inscryption: why Daniel Mullins’ least-known game might actually be his best
By Alex Spencer
Developer/publisher Daniel Mullins Games Format PC Release 2018
Six videogame characters walk into a bar. The Hex has the setup of a classic music-hall joke, delivered by one of the medium’s most dedicated comedians. Not too long ago, in E396’s preview of Pony Island 2, developer Daniel Mullins described the mechanically inventive twists that characterise his games as “pranks”. It made us think about the way other games employ basic comedic structure: introducing an idea, letting it sit for a moment, then subverting it in some unexpected way, jiggling your neurons just so to produce an involuntary bodily reaction. Which is not always, necessarily, laughter.
Consider how FromSoftware’s games delight in wrongfooting your expectations, with a well-hidden trap or extraneous boss phase, or the ways that in Super Mario Bros Wonder Nintendo finds new uses for Mushroom Kingdom staples, delivering its game-design punchlines with the density of a classic Simpsons episode. But for Mullins, this structure is the foundation of his entire back catalogue, all the way to his game-jam roots. Both Pony Island and Inscryption grew from Ludum Dare entries, and Mullins has become a frequent winner of that competition by understanding that the most successful thing you can make in 48 hours is, essentially, a playable one-liner.
Take for example his winning entry to LD52, with the theme ‘Harvest’. It’s a 15minute strategy/idle game hybrid in which you guide the formation of civilisation on multiple planets towards an ultimate goal: the production of mysterious orbs, which launch out into space, awaiting their destiny. And then a giant straw emerges from nowhere, Monty Python-style, slurps up the orbs, and the game force-closes to desktop, leaving you to once more study the title of its .exe. Ah – so that’s why it was called ‘Boba’. Cue laughter, or a groan.