Realistic Falling Blocks by Flying Dog Fish

made by Flying Dog Fish for Ludum Dare 54 (EXTRA)

I'd appreciate any feedback (ratings don't count for anything in an EXTRA game). Please try the finished version: 1.00. The other version are provided here only for the curious about the process.

The game is a realistic physics-based block falling puzzle. Press any key to get from the splash screen to the main menu. Use arrow keys / AWSD to move the current (transparent) piece. The current piece stays around for a while so remember you can use it to push around previously dropped pieces. Once you're satisfied with the placement of the current piece, you can carefully tap space to get the next one. If you fill a horizontal line it will disappear. The goal is to get the highest score before running out of (limited) space.

Everything's was done from scratch during the jam by myself, only the music was composed for the game by my composer friend Aziraphal.

Tools used: - Unity (gasp!) 2021.3.30f1 - Visual Studio Community Edition 2022 - GIMP - SFXR/BFXR - Audacity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyeIWMfirn4

version info:

1.00

adjusted position of splash / gameover screen to the exact center.

[0.99]:

fade in/fade out the different musics

[0.90]:

main menu so you can skip the tutorial
pause menu (on P)
special menu music (by Aziraphal)
preparation for gameover music (same as menu for now)

[0.80]:

changed gameover condition so you can't accidentally trigger it by moving the current piece around
improved visibility of the splash/tutorial by hiding the pit behind dark glass and changing the color to white
improved tutorial content to make it clearer
advancing from splash/tutorial/gameover screen only requires pressing the space once now

[0.75]:

ingame tutorial
new (final?) version of ingame music

[0.67]:

removed vertical correcting force, that was a bad idea

[0.66]:

new retro sound effects (instead of voice-based)
removed bug that prevented already placed blocks from rolling (and thus preventing mistakes to be fixed)
reduced self-correcting force to reduce wobble
require blocks to be (approximately) properly oriented to fit
added vertical correcting force so blocks stay in higher level (still need to figure out how to lower them when underlying blocks are removed

[0.60]:

new version of the music (by Aziraphal)

[0.55]:

highscore display
next block display
lighter blocks that tend not to roll over as much.

[0.50]:

added countdown sound
Correctly placed blocks have an autocorrecting force to make the game easier. Unfortunately this introduced the dancing block syndrome.
slightly smaller blocks so it's easier to squeeze them into tight spots.

[0.44]: - "Wireframe" falling/active polyblock - spoken sounds effects (not sure I like them) - adjusted probability of different polyblocks of the same size - less intensive side lights - higher start point for block to get more time

[0.41]:

intro screen appear animation
gameover screen appear animation

[0.40]:

improved handling/heavier blocks
draft music (by Aziraphal)
intro screen disappear animation
gameover screen disappear animation
disappear/explode animation

[0.30]:

display score

[0.25]:

Game over screen
splash screen
scoring (not visible yet)

[0.22]:

restart (automatic when failed)

[0.2]:

first published version

Possible additional improvements:

settings (music / sfx levels, ..)
powerups (shake the pit, laser to destroy some blocks, bomb to destroy many) - turns out they were not really needed
speed up so the game gets harder as you play
online highscores

Latest version HTML	http://flyingdogfish.com/ludum-dare/realistic-falling-blocks
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/realistic-falling-blocks

Ratings

Given

45🗳️

53🗨️

Feedback

Knildropi

04. Oct 2023 · 17:50 UTC

Interesting concept. You should add some kind feedback for when a row disappears. I hope you get to work on this some more!

🎤 Flying Dog Fish

04. Oct 2023 · 18:00 UTC

@Knildropi Thanks, that is a good idea. I certainly will work on this some more.

Mein-kun

06. Oct 2023 · 14:09 UTC

Hello! You know i`m thinking if blocks should be more cube-like than pillow-like (i mean the physics of movements). Because at start it was difficult for me to put blocks and win. OR maybe you should do several levels where blocks are:
plastic (easy)
pillow (middle)
water (XD)
I hope a gave you a piece of advice)
Good luck! I`ll be waiting the game with sounds and music.

🎤 Flying Dog Fish

06. Oct 2023 · 15:19 UTC

@mein-kun I think you mean the cubes should be heavier. That is a good idea. I'll experiment with the cube weight and forces and see what works best. Thanks.

Gossian

07. Oct 2023 · 21:35 UTC

I love tetris and this was a really nice take on it, very challenging, mildly infuriating but there's a lot of potential here and I'm excited to see where you go with it!

Neowedge

09. Oct 2023 · 07:42 UTC

Very interesting idea! Nice entry!

fatEmperor

11. Oct 2023 · 13:38 UTC

Nice game

kanity

11. Oct 2023 · 23:10 UTC

Started with 2.0, the first published version - I assume, what you did in three days. It worked fine for me, the blocks were appearing by themselves and I tried my best to place them relatively accurately. I think the physics were pretty realistic, blocks weren't appearing too fast, and though it was hard for me to place them carefully, I don't think it was supposed to too easy. I'd say they started falling after I pretty much covered the "floor".

Then I clicked on the last version on itch.io (version 0.55 HTML link) and it was so completely different xD I can see how much you improved it from the 1st version. It is much more pleasing to look at, compared to the raw version. Cute intro (though I tried clicking at first), very nice models of non-placed-yet-blocks (probably my fav visual feature), music and sounds are great, colour helped a lot. I actually started making rows that disappeared, and appreciated a little "support" that placed my blocks a bit more carefully for me after I press Space. It is so much nicer when I have a bit more time to place a block and can initiate the next one myself, but I think it's a great call to keep some internal timer that can run out. Tbh not sure if I want the timer to be shown to me, I kinda like the beeps instead, looking at seconds/milliseconds would make me nervous.

Got to this point:
![blocks.jpg](///raw/c93/65/z/60304.jpg)

The rows underneath are all green, however some blocks were a bit "higher" and not in a completely straight line heligh-wise with others, probably that's why they didn't count even though they were green.

+ Overall, it's a cool take on a (tetris-like?) game, and good job on continuing the proccess&making changes! It's definitely paying off!

🎤 Flying Dog Fish

12. Oct 2023 · 16:59 UTC

@kanity Thanks for the very thorough review. Judging by your score it seems the game is more playable than I anticipated. And you are right, blocks need to be on the same level to disappear.

LDJam user 377500

13. Oct 2023 · 15:25 UTC

really fun game to play. adding some sound effect when the blocks disappear and its ready to go. good job!

🎤 Flying Dog Fish

13. Oct 2023 · 16:28 UTC

@mncc8337 Thanks. There actually are sound effects, but apparently not loud/distinct enough as they get drowned by the music. I guess I'll have to make some better ones.

PSV Games Studio

14. Oct 2023 · 00:47 UTC

Very cool and fun game! The game fit well with the theme. Good job!

betovf

14. Oct 2023 · 11:38 UTC

Its funny to push blocks around trying to get some order :laughing: I like the shadows on each wall to see where the piece really is. Good job!

Kairoseyoshi

16. Oct 2023 · 08:13 UTC

a good rethinking of Tetris, the training is well and beautifully implemented, and I really like the attitude of the developers that they often update the game correcting bugs

LDJam user 375151

16. Oct 2023 · 11:33 UTC

Fun game. I agree with some of the other reviewers where the blocks were very light which made it very difficult to stack. Felt a bit like trying to stack cardboard boxes during a tornado. I think it was a bit too frustrating. I would have things lined up and when I would place the blocks they would move again, which seemed odd. Really the only other thing I would advise would be to add volume control. As soon as the game started, I lunged for my volume control as the music was blaring. But other than those small things this was really well done!

🎤 Flying Dog Fish

16. Oct 2023 · 14:31 UTC

@draekdude Thanks. I tried using heavier blocks like you and @mein-kun suggested, but they tend to roll over too much when dragged over the ground. Version 0.50 has them.

LDJam user 11093

16. Oct 2023 · 21:45 UTC

Nice entry! I've tried the 0.80 version and haven't see issues except an error message at page loading (FireFox or Chrome do the same) :
HTTP Response Header "Content-Type" configured incorrectly on the server... ... Startup time performance will suffer.

But it doesn't seem to have consequence.

cdunham

17. Oct 2023 · 08:43 UTC

Pretty fun game, frustrating trying to get pieces where you want them to go though. The realistic physics is a cool idea and the gameplay fits in well with the theme

croze

18. Oct 2023 · 04:19 UTC

Also assuming 0.2 is the correct version for the rating so played that one: after 14 individual boxes were on the floor, they just stopped falling, so not sure if it eventually does a "tetris" kinda thing. I see where you were going with the idea, just couldn't get it to work as expected.

🎤 Flying Dog Fish

18. Oct 2023 · 08:56 UTC

@croze :face_palm: If you assume you make an ass of u and me. This is an EXTRA game, it's supposed to be updated right until the end. Ratings are irrelevant in this format anyway, you're just supposed to give me feedback on the latest and greatest version. So no, I didn't fail at making a game, you failed at looking at it! So thanks for nothing. :face_palm:

aucguy

19. Oct 2023 · 02:45 UTC

As I kept playing the blocks more and more blocks kept and getting red and disorganized which made it harder and harder to clear rows. I think this is what you were going after. It was fun to use the current piece to get the red blocks in place under the time limit, although I wasn't very good at this.

Also having the blocks' color depend on whether they were in the correct 'cell' was a very good idea. The particle effects for forming and dissolving the text with little cubes looked very good. I also liked the music and I think that the music fit the game.

One small bug: the horizontal piece that has four cubes in a row sticks into the playing area.

🎤 Flying Dog Fish

19. Oct 2023 · 22:25 UTC

@aucguy Thanks. Let's call that small bug a feature :wink:

LDJam user 307016

20. Oct 2023 · 10:51 UTC

😄😄😄👍👍👍

🎤 Flying Dog Fish

20. Oct 2023 · 12:28 UTC

@knildropi @mein-kun @gossian @neowedge @fatemperor @kanity @mncc8337 @psv-games-studio @betovf @kairoseyoshi @draekdude @patbgames @cdunham The game is now complete.

kanity

20. Oct 2023 · 13:00 UTC

@flying-dog-fish I love how you added menu with instructions and Pause option, that feels great; I did worse this time though (considering the score), got a lot of blocks turn red on the floor ^^'' I did try to play around with rotating the blocks though, spending a lot of precious time xD

Tetracold

20. Oct 2023 · 19:03 UTC

Very fun!

interesting take on the game of tetris, I really like it!

I also like all the visual effects you added, it makes the game look really fancy and cool.
he music also helps a lot, it's long enough to where I really don't mind it at all. it's also just nice and fits the gameplay.

The gameplay is fun. I tried my best to line them up well and get as much points at possible, but things always devolved into chaos rather quick lol. I enjoyed it tho, that was part of the appeal for me!

great job on this!!

LDJam user 266061

22. Oct 2023 · 15:12 UTC

**Hello there, these are notes I took while playing. But I didn't play for long since I was in a rush: so here are the impressions of someone who rushed and who probably did not understand well.**

- The instructions follow the pixel artstyle. It's better than usual block of after-thought text, but sometimes, it is not very understandable (for example what is this a kind of toggle?)
- I have the impression you have to align green blocks to score, but the fact that block becomes quickly red made me think it was impossible (I thought it was like Not Tetris 2, which seems to work with a percent of filled line).

🎤 Flying Dog Fish

22. Oct 2023 · 22:08 UTC

@aaln Thanks for the notes. I don't think you got it quite right. The blocks do get red quickly, but you can make them green again by pushing them around with other blocks. I don't know anything about Not Tetris 2, but I believe my game takes a different approach to making it easier to play, so filling a line (either direction except vertical) (not the whole layer) with 5 blocks isn't that hard. The blocks that are approximately correctly placed (green) also get a correcting force that pulls them to the correct spot and orientation.

I also made a gameplay video that explains it better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyeIWMfirn4