HexGL
A WebGL futuristic racing game built in three weeks. Think F-Zero in a browser tab — fast, neon, and surprisingly faithful to the genre.
Tune in
Play HexGL →Opens in a new tab on the original host.
Controls: Arrow keys or WASD to steer. Hold Up to accelerate. No brakes — this is the future.
HexGL began as a three-week Christmas project by Florian Boesch, a WebGL developer who wanted to see how close to F-Zero a browser game could get in pure JavaScript. The answer turned out to be: very close.
The track is a raised neon highway hanging in space. The craft handles like it’s on rails — which it is, sort of, by design. The challenge is learning the track’s rhythm: the sharp S-bend before the first tunnel, the long straight where you can finally breathe, the jump that punishes overconfidence. It runs at 60 fps on any machine that can handle Three.js, and on good hardware it runs at whatever your display can handle.
HexGL is also a minor piece of web history. When it was released in 2012–2013, browser-based 3D had only just become feasible without plugins. Most WebGL demos of the era were rotating teapots and particle systems. HexGL was a complete game — menus, laps, time trial, finish line — and it showed developers what was possible.
Why it’s on the guide: MIT license, genuinely fun, and a reminder that the best browser games often start as someone’s personal weekend project that got out of hand.