Hexic is a 2003 tile-matching puzzle video game developed by Carbonated Games for various platforms. In Hexic, the player tries to rotate hexagonal tiles to create certain patterns. The game is available on Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (via backwards compatibility) Windows Phone and the web. Many clones are available for Android and iOS. The game was designed by Alexey Pajitnov, best known as the creator of Tetris. While most earlier releases of the game were developed by Carbonated Games, the most recent version released for Windows and Windows Phone is developed by Other Ocean. The name is a portmanteau of the words "hectic" and "hexagon". Gameplay The objective of Hexic is to rotate hexagonal pieces of various colours and clear them from the playfield by forming clusters or flowers. Clusters are formed when three pieces of the same colour touch each other. Pieces above the cleared pieces fall, potentially forming more clusters and causing chain reactions, and new pieces appear at the top of the playfield. Bonuses are awarded for clearing more than three pieces at a time, and some pieces contain bonus stars, which yield extra points and can clear larger groups of pieces depending on how they are cleared. The player can create a "gold-star" by arranging six like-coloured pieces into a hexagon or "flower", surrounding a piece of a different colour or type. The surrounding pieces are cleared, and the center piece is replaced by a silver-star (unless the center piece was already a silver-star, in which case a new silver-star drops from the top). A gold-star allows the player to rotate all surrounding pieces clockwise or counterclockwise. Forming a flower of silver-stars changes the center piece into a black pearl, which allows the player to move three surrounding pieces in a Y or inverted Y pattern. The ultimate goal of the game is to form a cluster or flower of black pearls, after which the game will end. Bombs appear occasionally throughout the game. A bomb is coloured like other pieces on the board and can be defused by rotating it into a cluster or flower of the same colour. The counter on the bomb counts down with each move, and if allowed to reach zero, it explodes and the game is over. Defusing a bomb by clustering it with at least one multiplier piece of the same colour causes all pieces