One day long time ago, I decided that hex grid coordinates lovingly described by redblobgames and used by every developer delivering actual games are inelegant. I wanted to store them in a rectangular array, and also store all edges and vertices in rectangular arrays with simple numerical addressing for the usual algos (distance, neighbors etc) between all 3. I messed around with it and a map generator for a few weeks. Needless to say it was as elegant as a glass hammer, 3 simple arrays beautiful to look at. I didn't finish anything close to a game. But it was a great fun.
If I ever want to deliver a game I might outsource my hex grid to AI. But back in those days I could have probably used a library.
Is hacking about messing around with things? You can still do it, ignore AI, ignore prior art. You can reimplement STL because std vector is "not fast enough". Is hacking about making things? Then again, AI boilerplate is little different than stitching together libraries in practice.
If I ever want to deliver a game I might outsource my hex grid to AI. But back in those days I could have probably used a library.
Is hacking about messing around with things? You can still do it, ignore AI, ignore prior art. You can reimplement STL because std vector is "not fast enough". Is hacking about making things? Then again, AI boilerplate is little different than stitching together libraries in practice.