AI-Assisted Hex Card Roguelike 'Hex Reverse' Is Free on Steam for 30 Days

Ever wonder what happens when ChatGPT and Codex help make a game? Japanese indie developer IsaoWorks just answered that with Hex Reverse, a hex-grid card roguelike that launched on Steam on October 7 — and if you add it to your library within the first 30 days, it's yours to keep forever, even after it goes paid.

The battlefield is a 19-hex grid where you and your opponent take turns placing cards. Each card has six numbers, one for every direction. When you drop a card next to an enemy card, the touching edges compare values. If yours is higher, you flip their card to your side. Controlling more hexes through smart placement and number advantage is how you win fights.

Each run strings together a series of battles. After a win, you pick one card from a set offered by your opponent's deck and add it straight to your current deck, slowly building a loadout that fits how the run is going. It's classic roguelike deckbuilding with a spatial twist.

Beyond the six numbers, there are skills, elements, and special battlefield rules. Spend SP to trigger skills that buff your cards, change elements, weaken enemies, or draw extra cards. Different arenas come with their own rules and conditions that can flip the way a fight plays out, forcing you to rethink your strategy on the fly.

Between adventures, you head back to a base to prep for the next trip. There you can tidy up your deck, buy and sell cards, fuse them into stronger ones, and upgrade gear that gives permanent bonuses. All of that feeds into taking on tougher challenges called Rifts.

Now, the AI part: IsaoWorks used ChatGPT to organize specs and task lists, then handed coding to Codex. But the developer stresses the game isn't fully AI-generated — design, final tweaks, and actual testing were all done by a human. The whole project was mainly a way to test what AI can really do in game development and bank some experience for future projects. If you're not a fan of AI-assisted titles, keep that in mind before claiming it. Steam also lets you remove it from your library if you try it and don't click with it.

Will you be picking this up while it's free? Let us know in the comments.