Chesstris

Very minor release today (1.1). I just fixed the bug where you couldn’t press “M” when entering your name at the end of the game. (Because it took you to the main menu instead. Oops.)

I also registered Go-Tetris.com, which simply redirects to the game page for now. I’m thinking I’ll probably offload go-tetris onto it’s domain when I get some free cycles. I was going to do this today, but I forgot that I’m using chesstris’s database for the high scores, and I’m not sure if flash will transmit the high scores correctly across domains, so I’ll want to do some testing before I make that plunge.

A lot has changed in this new version, and it feels to me like a whole new Go Tetris!

The new features include two new Game Modes (”Fast” and “One Color”), multi-space eyes, keyboard menu navigation, in-flash tutorial (that still needs a bit of work), and a bunch of bugs fixed behind the scenes.

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Below is the latest version of Go Tetris! (1.1), created by Martin Grider. This page will be update periodically with new versions. Thanks for playing!

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Hello Everyone! I’m very close to releasing a new version. I’ve got eyes larger than one space working, but I want to make some progress on the phantom bug I’ve written about earlier before I post this new release.

I’m really just writing to let you all know that I haven’t disappeared completely off the face of the planet. Most of my free time lately has been taken up with wedding preparations. Those are coming along great, but unfortunately, that doesn’t leave a lot of free time for game development.

I’m curious if anyone reading this would be interested in helping with Go Tetris!? I’m considering releasing most of the code as open source, and wonder if there is interest. If that is you, let me know, thanks!

Thanks for your patience!

Here’s what “alpha” means to me: Not yet “feature complete”. Also, buggy.

I’ve spent nearly all afternoon trying to reproduce the “phantom stones” issue. Stones that appear, after a Living group is removed from the board, hanging in the middle of nowhere. When you try and set something down on them, it’s as if they’re not even there. Great fun.

I did finally reproduce it, and have some small amount of further information, but no idea why it happened in this particular instance and not the dozens of times I had captured living stones in the same game before.

Long story short, if you experience this particular bug, and you think you might know why, or how to reproduce it reliably, please leave a comment below.

Thanks!

This new version has some major changes, but one of the biggest unveilings is not really in the new version, but rather in the addition of the new High Scores Page. The game records your score even if you don’t enter your name, but there is also a form to enter your name at the end of the game. Read more for the rest of the changes.

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A couple of minor updates tonight.

• You can now rotate counter-clockwise! (With the “u” key.)
• Fixed that pesky bug where the last character of the score was cut off if you got more than 1,000,000 points.

Thanks to stillflame for the comment about how to implement the “rotate left”. It’s a bit of a hack, because all the spaces for all three right rotations have to be empty for it to work… so there might be some weird behavior if you’re rotating at the last minute, but it’ll have to do for now.

For that matter, thanks to everyone who has left comments!!! I love hearing everyone’s thoughts and suggestions.

My next feature will be either a high score list, (with “submit your name” functionality), or possibly expanding the number of empty spaces that can be considered for an eye. I know how I’m going to implement that one, but it’s still going to take me an afternoon or two. That means I probably won’t get to it until I have a good solid day to spend.

Thanks for playing!

I was surfing over at the indiegamer forums, and found this link to an article titled “Swap Adjacent Gems to Make Sets of Three: A History of Matching Tile Games” written by Jesper Juul.

After pouring through the article, here are my first impressions.

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Here are some screen captures that illustrate how to make two eyes in a group of stones.

In Go Tetris!, eyes can only be the size of one stone.

Above is one of the smallest two-eye groups possible.

Leave a comment if you have any questions!

Well, it’s taken me long enough, but I’ve finally finished the “two eyes” feature. It’s a big one, and one that I think really changes the gameplay. The only other change is that it now takes MUCH longer to go up a level. The next level is now reached when your total captures and total “living” stone captures equal LEVEL x LEVEL x 10. So to get to the second level, you only need ten captures, but for the second you need 40, and third you need 90. This means the game will get harder only very slowly, especially for new players.

I also added a check for those pesky “floating” stones that were basically hanging in mid-air all by themselves. Unfortunately, it’s much harder to check for groups of hanging stones, so those could still occur in the right circumstances.

I do think the new gameplay is very forgiving, and should make for a less stressful experience overall. More time for strategy and thinking!

A forthcoming post will explain how to make captures with two-eye groups.