HexEngine

A Hex tile engine that uses SpriteKit and is written in Swift.

The code tries to be as swifty as possible: i.e. use Structs instead of Classes where possible, tries to be as safe as possible, tries to adhere to Swift naming conventions for stuff and uses higher order functions.

The project is built for macOS, but as far as I can tell, apart from "scrollwheel" support and "mouseover" there is very little here that is macOS dependant. I.e. it should be easy to port to iOS/ipadOS/tvOS (watchOS might not be relevant).

Uses art assets from Kenney

Features

What is working

HexGrid and Map operations:

• choose/convert between Cube and Axial coordinates, find neighbours, diagonals, lines, hex within range;
• A map is generated using perlin noise and a fixed seed (so it's always the same);
• Basic map actions: pan around the map ("drag"), select tiles ("click"/"tap"), zoom-in/zoom-out ("pinch", scrollwheel);
• Convert between "screen space" and HexMap coordinates;
• Visibility/fog-of-war

Units:

• Select a unit, displays a path for the unit if one is set;
• Issue a "move" command and "build city" command for a unit;
• Melee combat for units;
• Path finding for units (takes inaccessible terrain and terrain costs into account);

Cities

• Select a city, issue "Build " commands;
• Cities and units have owners (players). Commands can only be entered on owning player turn.

Players

• Basic player implementation
• "Next turn" button processes actions for all units, i.e. moves along path if one is set;

Application technology

• UI is SwiftUI based;
• Save/Load game based on Codable conformance of World class;
• Main menu to Load/Save/New game;
• Unit and City abilities are based on a rudimentary ECS system. Will be improved.

What is missing

HexMap

• high res sprites for tiles

Units

• Ranged Combat
• Build improvements
• Other abilities
• Animations

Cities

• Population: needs and resources
• Production based on population, terrain and improvements

Players

• Tech tree
• AI

Why is this taking so long?

Adding features to the hexmap and world (i.e. the simulation) is not trivial. However, the effort required there is eclipsed by how much time UI work takes. Because that is where state becomes messy: UI state versus simulation state, feedback to users, handle different input modes. It also tends to be where the tight coupling starts to creep in. Update: UI became a lot easier after switching to SwiftUI.

So, what can I do with it now?

Well, it is off course not necesarry to make a 4x game using the HexMap. You could use it for something smaller. The basic scaffold is ViewController -> HexMapScene -> HexMapController -> World -> HexMap. To simplify, you can strip out all reference to UI/GUI and UnitController/CityController. You then have a basic map that you can interact with.

Contact details

Need to contact me? Drop an email at maarten@thedreamweb.eu or twitter at @maarten_engels

References

• The HexMap data structure and calculations are based on this excellent explanation of HexMaps: https://www.redblobgames.com/grids/hexagons/
• Assets used are from Kenney's packages: (Hexagon Pack)[https://www.kenney.nl/assets/hexagon-pack] and (Animal pack)[https://www.kenney.nl/assets/animal-pac]. Please consider (a donation)[https://kenney.itch.io/kenney-donation] and/or buy his (complete assets packs)[https://www.kenney.nl/store]