In this article, I’ll use hexagons that have flat tops and pointy sides, but the math works the same if you want pointy tops and flat sides. (Diagonals distort grid distances.) Hexagonals have a pleasing appearance and occur in nature (for example, honeycombs). This is in part because each hexagon has more non-diagonal neighbors than a square. Hexagons have been used in some board and computer games because they offer less distortion of distances than square grids. The square coordinate system is the same even if your map squares are angled on screen in an isometric or axonometric projection. Locations can use the familiar cartesian coordinates (x, y) and the axes are orthogonal. Square grids are the most common grids used in games, primarily because they are easy to use. It’s simple, easy to work with, and maps nicely onto a computer screen.

I also have a guide to hexagonal grids with many more hex-specific algorithms. The impatient should skip ahead to coordinate systems. I’ll cover squares, hexagons, and triangles vertices, edges, and faces (tiles) coordinate systems and algorithms for working with grids. Grids are built from a repetition of simple shapes. Although many of the concepts here are useful for all sorts of grids, there is a bias towards the kinds of games I am interested in. I’ve mostly used grids to represent maps in strategy and simulation games. I avoid implementation details (such as source code) and instead focus on concepts and algorithms.

I’ve attempted to collect my thoughts on grids here on these pages. Grids are commonly used in games for representing playing areas such as maps (in games like Civilization and Warcraft), playing surfaces (in games like pool, table tennis, and poker), playing fields (in games like baseball and football), boards (in games like Chess, Monopoly, and Connect Four), and abstract spaces (in games like Tetris). I was really surprised when I realised this was the first Rody Zakovich workbook included so far.Amit’s Thoughts on Grids Amit’s Thoughts on Gridsĩ January 2006 See my updated version from 2021. My own attempt at creating a hex map, based on Matt’s post, was added to the blog in December 2016: gif in one of the blog posts below.īen Moss often delivers creative solutions to problems, and this article is no exception: Surprisingly, this is not a topic that I’m currently able to supply a video tutorial for, however, there is a.

The map is subdivided into a hexagonal tiling, small regular hexagons of identical size.įor the purposes of this post, I extend the concept to “Shape maps” in general – any instance where standard geographical State / County borders are depicted using shapes instead. A hex map, hex board, or hex grid is a game board design commonly used in wargames of all scales.

Hexagon board game map