Go Tetris! 0.2 alpha

The current release adds a “next piece” preview to the right of the game board. Now that my dream of actually playing this thing is realized, I was really starting to miss that look ahead when the game starts to speed up. (Didn’t hurt that at least two of you gave me feedback that it was something you wanted, also.)

While I was at it, I fixed a bug that allowed rotating the “J” shaped piece into the left wall when a piece on the right was pressed up against it. Oh, and while I was adding the piece preview I also pretty much re-wrote the attach movie code to do things in a way that made a bit more sense.

I’m hoping I’ll have time this weekend to bang out the “eyes” functionality. For those I haven’t already explained this to, I’m hoping to also test the playing field for “live groups” of stones, that is, groups with two or more eyes. Those will also break, (or capture), possibly with a slightly higher point value. Open question: Should this new way of removing stones from the board still be considered capturing? I think I’m leaning toward not counting them as stone captures, and instead keeping track of them a slightly different way.

That will definnitely add another dimension to the game, and, I’m hoping, really open it up to longer-lasting gameplay. (One of the most frustrating aspects of the game to me is that once you’ve left a gap or hole in your stones, there’s really no way at present to recover.) Of course, slowing down the speed would also help with game longevity, so it’s possible I’ll tackle that (easier) project first.

Anyone have any suggestions for feature priority? Any suggestions for features? I know I probably don’t have any loyal readers at this point yet, but maybe someday soon.

In other news, I’ve been thinking a lot about who I should try and promote Go Tetris! to, and who might be interested in it. The Go community is first on my list, with puzzle game enthusiasts shortly behind them. I think I want it to feel “feature complete” before I really do any promoting outside of the limmited “friends and co-workers” I’ve already sent it to, so that means at least another couple of weeks of coding ahead of me before I really worry about it. In the mean time, if you’ve just stumbled onto the site… (or arrived here after I’ve started promoting it) …enjoy!