Checkers for ages 4 and up — no jumping, there's bumping. No ads, no reading.
BumpHex is out now on Google Play. Free to install and free to keep playing. One optional purchase, paid once, and no adverts of any kind — ever. Coming soon to the App Store.
App StoreComing soonBumpHex is checkers for young children, from age four up. There is no jumping. There is bumping.
Move one piece to any hex touching it — forwards, sideways, backwards, it is all the same move. Every enemy piece standing next to where you landed gets shoved one hex directly away from you. Shove somebody off the edge of the board and they are out. Shove them into another piece and both of them go.
That is the whole game. A four-year-old can play it with you on the little boards; a five-year-old plays it alone, and a six-year-old starts playing it to win.
The first time BumpHex opens, it teaches itself. A hand moves from a piece to a hex, the hex glows, the thing happens, and a tick appears. Six lessons, one rule each, no words that have to be read and no way to fail — a wrong tap simply shows the hand again.
Every army wears the crest of one of the six factions of the Haunted Space Hotel, stamped on every piece — its own emblem as well as its own colour — so the board still reads on a cheap screen, and to a grown-up who is colour-blind.
Every seat picks its own faction and can be a person or the tablet. One child against the device, or six people passing one screen round the table. No accounts, no network, nothing to set up.
Race Home, where you run your army to the far side. Knock Out, where you are the last one standing. Crowns, where reaching the far rank crowns a piece. And King of the Hex, where you hold the middle. Two switches go with any of them: DOUBLE BUMP sends a bumped piece flying two hexes, and CRUMBLE eats the edge of the board away as you play.
The game saves itself after every turn. Nobody has to remember to press anything, and wandering off in the middle never costs you the board.
com.hauntedspacehotel.bumphex