Hexpress by RunicPixels
Web-GL Build available on: https://runicpixels.itch.io/hexpress
You have a part time job at the Hexpress Wand Delivery Service!
Bring around magical weapons to snobby wizards, but be careful as pillagers and monsters roam the field.
CONTROLS
Move with WASD
Interact with Space or E.
Aim with Mouse.
Shoot with Left Mouse Button.
CONTENT
Survive while you deliver wands and artifacts to wizards spread across the kingdom.
A variety of wands that each have their own gameplay.
A large handcrafted world.
Retro style pixel art with a handmade 4 color palette.
Note : The Web-GL build on Itch.io includes a bit of post-jam polish to iron things out, download the windows build for an accurate representation of the state of the game finished during the jam.



https://lospec.com/palette-list/hexpress4 - palette we made for this jam.
Web-GL Build available on: https://runicpixels.itch.io/hexpress
| Link | https://runicpixels.itch.io/hexpress |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/hexpress |
Ratings
| Overall | 141th | 4.051⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 195th | 3.882⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 454th | 3.5⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 476th | 4.007⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 96th | 4.471⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 105th | 4.088⭐ | 70🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 732th | 2.847⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 256th | 3.917⭐ | 68🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 31🗳️ | 25🗨️ |
Plus, I liked a lot of your isometric tile map. By the way, a BIG map considering the jam's deadline.
The game needs some implementation (scores, objective, etc.) but, I liked what I saw here!
Good job!
:thumbsup_tone1: :purple_heart: :dart: :frog:
The size of the map is impressive.
With some additions like objectives/upgrades... this could really be a nice polished game.
I would like to see more :smile:
Good job.
And definitely @aderix! We did have a passive item upgrade system / progression / win condition planned, which we unfortunately couldn't finish that during the jam, but who knows we might add it in a post-jam version!
All the weapons were powerful enough that it sometimes made sense to take my least favourite weapon if the distance was shorter than the other options (chain lightning :angry:). That entire "choose your delivery" concept was a great extension of the Crate Box level up system, I appreciated the extra control but the game still rewarded me for using all the weapons.
Fantastic job! Best of luck
I have just a tiny bit of feedback - I really liked trying out different wands, but I would've preferred having upgrades at every stop instead of switching wands, this way I could progress in the game and it would also give more meaning to each run. I guess the upgrades could be rewards for delivering stuff to the snobby wizards.
@fuse-in-a-bowl yep, super crate box was a huge inspiration for this concept!
@bartalomew, @purpledartfrog it was a fun challenge to work with a limited palette like this, it really makes you think about every pixel even more than usual in pixel art!
@aviv-levy thanks for the compliments! Wand switching is a core aspect of our gameplay, but passive upgrades were definitely planned!
@kaptajnen agreed with the visual helper, we might improve that still a little bit more in a post-jam patch!
@rabbert in our Itch version, we do have a score system that takes harsh penalties upon taking damage beyond your health, but an actual lose condition is also still something we're considering for a potential post-jam version.

@purpledartfrog good luck! there's a lot of premade palettes, and you're free to use Hexpress4 for your own game jam if you want! https://lospec.com/palette-list/hexpress4
@yaroslav-kravtsov Thanks!
@goddoesplaydice I'll tell our musician! :)
Amazing that you pulled this game in 3 days, congrats to you, solid entry!
I don't get two things : how can I lose? and why I just lose hearts and lifes reset? You didn't have time to finish game over screen? I can understand, it's okay.
The best part defenetly is just trying new wands, and when it's done there is zero interest to play further and kill enemies, but explore new things is nice actually. They all have unique shots, sounds and it makes very different impact for you. I just have fun and don't do score, and it make most of my play time)
If there will be interesting goals to do in game with game over, I think I can have a lot of time playing this! You have a really good game basis. Also it will be nice if distance will be shorter, and you can get more score while playing.
**MUSIC IS AMAZING** I even remember it while write this review :)
In total, I like this game, it feels way too good. Sound is Amazing! Good work, guys!
Played your game for a while and the big problem I had is a navigation, since there is no any clear marker where to go actually. Probably if I would know map better it won't be a big issue, but there is very little time to figure it out, since you always are overrun by enemies.
I do appreciate a 8-bit art-style in art, music & SFX. As well I like how it feels to try out different wands (which you suppose to deliver as far as I understood). Overall a good solid entry, I really appreciate playing it for a while!
I played a couple times to test out all the weapons :laughing:
But never made it to a score higher than 5, it's getting pretty insane then :laughing:
A few suggestions:
Maybe pause the spawns, when you are at the tower, where you have to deliver the wand. This would allow a short break, to catch the breath a bit and relax.
I would remove the friendly fire from the saw-thingies. It makes me not want to pick it. It's not strong enough for the downside. :)
Is there a way to heal?
Very good game. Keep it up!!
Thank you @stefan-funke! I've fixed the enemy spawning while selecting wand bug and pushed it to our post-jam version.
Every wand has it's own health pool. For example, the saw wand has a lot of hp, and the ring has a bit less. Every delivery has it's own health which gets reset upon delivery. :)
Graphics are really good as well, I'm always impressed by what people can do with limited colour palettes - the water effects also caught my eye!
Congratulations on the excellent work. One of my favorite LUDUM Dare 53 games so far.
I would complain about sometimes the "see enemies through scenery" not working well, but I guess with the limited time of the jam it is hard to get those things right. Hell, I am impressed you managed to get that in at all.
It tooks me way too long to figure out where to deliver the first wand, thought the indicator was a bugged button ^^'
Turns out i was just moving in the opposite direction, so it wasn't moving ahah
A lot of the obstacles were pretty tall and easy to pump into. The map was fairly crowded, especially as the enemies build up. I also wished I had more options/strategy/risk vs reward than shooting and moving. Selecting the wand was nice, but I almost wanted a payout for harder wands or something that I could use to maybe buy some barebones upgrades or help me work towards a victory reached by achieving a total number of points or something.
That said, I only wanted that because I wanted to play more!
I would adjust the hearts to be one color for legibility's sake. Limited palette is a great challenge and choice but how you present some information. I felt the UI especially was very easily lost into the pixel jungle. Outlining could have helped for that.
Good job!
I love constrained palettes and the whole presentation, and I love the idea of using your delivery to fight–it's such an obvious idea in hindsight but I haven't thought of it before, nor seen it in any other game this event. And to top it off, it's about witches. This game is very smooth and a joy to play
I think isometric view makes this kind of game a disservice. The way you show the player's head behind objects is clever but also feels weird, and it doesn't extend to mobs. 3D would be ideal, but it would be next to impossible to make a 3D pixel art shader as crisp as your sprites, so I don't really have a solution
Otherwise, a very fun little game!! :D
My only critique is that it felt too easy? I could just mow down most groups of enemies, or just walk through them. I felt like I survived way longer than I should. And I think the font was a bit too hard to read. But those are nitpicks, great job!
Congratulations on the great work and good game! (´。• ᵕ •。`) ♡
- Large chance we'll make a better compass UI for the post-jam content update. (Maybe even in the bugfix still, depending on our time.)
- We're still looking into balancing the difficulty and fine tuning the scaling in our post-jam content update. Scaling might indeed be a bit slow now, and aside from spawn rate / delivery distance, there's not a lot of dynamics in both the player's side and the enemies side. We're definitely looking into another layer of choice when it comes to passive items for a potential future update.
- A more readable font option could be a QOL change, I'll propose it to the team.
- Managing visual information in a isometric, 4 color game is always a bit tricky. But there's certainly ways to improve the way things are rendered behind objects. I don't have any great ideas right now , but if something pops up I'll definitely look into it, dithering an entire sprite for example, if you're behind it.
I wish I could play a more polished version of this game, maybe with some kind of story or goal!
Love the aesthetics too, and the variety of weapons, forced by the delivery mechanic, which is a great way to combat the player psychology of sticking to one boring option if it's optimal.
Fantastically put together, it left me wanting more!