Over the course of developing Super Hexagon, Cavanagh had played through it a large amount of time, becoming particularly experienced with the mechanics. The visuals of Super Hexagon are barely different from its original Hexagon iteration. Cavanagh has stated that he is "not much of a visual artist," thus settling on a minimal look quickly.
As the game's designer Terry Cavanagh saw potential in the project, he decided to increase the game's difficulty and expand upon its concept. Super Hexagon started off as a smaller game prototype titled Hexagon, made and released in one day for the late February 2012 game jam Pirate Kart V. Additional, "Hyper" difficulty stages can be unlocked by surviving for over sixty seconds on a level. The game contains six different difficulty levels, beginning at hard (Hexagon), harder (Hexagoner), and hardest (Hexagonest). The pace of the game progressively gets more difficult the longer the player has survived and to distract players, the game features a chiptune soundtrack, a background that regularly changes color, and walls that occasionally change direction. The controls are simple: the player must pivot the triangle to the opening in order to survive. Super Hexagon is a fast-paced twitch game in which the player controls a triangle on a hexagonal grid in the center while walls come from the edges of the screen. The game is based on an earlier prototype by Cavanagh, simply titled Hexagon, which was created for a twelve-hour game jam in early 2012. Originally released for iOS in September 2012, versions for Windows and macOS were released 3 months later, and Android, BlackBerry and Linux versions followed in early 2013.
Super Hexagon is an independent twitch video game developed by Terry Cavanagh, with music composed by Chipzel.