BLOCKIES by Ayxs
Relax for a minute; with Blockies
👂 'Bloc-keys'
Note: The above WebGL game does not work (ldjam won't let me delete the WebGL version). Please play it on our itch.io page
Blockies is a relaxing Tetris like Puzzle Game where you, a Game Developer, are tasked to implement as many features into your game as possible. These feature come in all shapes and sizes, you have to place them within your 'Program Grid'. But, be sure not to use too many features without finishing them.
How to play:
Choose features you want to implement & place it on the grid
Complete layers to earn more points and space!
Don't go over the height limit
Objective:
- Choose puzzle blocks and try to place the blocks as efficiently as possible.
- Puzzle to your hearts content.
- Try to gain the highest score possible (This can be pretty high. One of our play testers reached a score of 80k points).
Controls:
- Right mouse button + drag: Spin the camera
- Left mouse button: Place puzzle piece
- Scroll wheel: rotate puzzle piece
- W/S: Move camera up/down
- A/D: Choose features
* Let us know which highs score you achieved! *
Enjoy the game :smile:
Changelog:
V1.2: - Added an online leaderboard to the game. - Fixed a bug where the layer score wouldn't reset after retrying
V1.1: - Fixed an issue which didn't lower the limit when restarting. - Fixed an issue causing difficult controls in tight spaces (more of an improvement really, but quite a small one)
The original version is available on itch.io, the WebGL game is running the V1.1 version.
Credits:
- Ayxs: Programming, Animations, Some Textures
- Bredera: Models, Textures, Environment, Soundsearcher
Ayxs & Bredera
Roadmap:
- Puzzle piece placement:
Generally it works quite well, however some difficulties can be had when placing a small block in the middle of a big tower where hitboxes overlap. @Ayxs has an idea how to improve this but there was no time during the Jam to implement this.
| Link | https://ayxs.itch.io/ludum-dare-54 |
| Apple MacOSX Intel | https://ayxs.itch.io/ludum-dare-54 |
| Apple MacOSX Silicon | https://ayxs.itch.io/ludum-dare-54 |
| Link | https://ayxs.itch.io/ludum-dare-54 |
| Link | https://ayxs.itch.io/ludum-dare-54 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/blockies |
Ratings
| Overall | 148th | 4.027⭐ | 93🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 223th | 3.864⭐ | 94🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 373th | 3.582⭐ | 94🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 214th | 4.152⭐ | 94🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 293th | 4.071⭐ | 94🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 541th | 2.944⭐ | 83🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 121th | 4.084⭐ | 91🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 78🗳️ | 134🗨️ |
Controls are a little bit janky. On top of what you've already mentioned in the post (blocks are hard to placed and are sometimes aligned non-intuitively to where you put your mouse) and small nitpicks (like too high sensitivity for camera rotation) the choice of some input methods is questionable, but maybe it's just a preference. For instance, scroll for rotating blocks feels weird. Also, if you're already dragging to rotate the camera, maybe you could use up and down movement to move the camera up or down? I don't know, it's probably something you should test, which, of course, you presumably didn't have time for.
Apart from that, gameplay is very nice and occasionally challenging, graphics are nice and simple, music fits the mood of the game. Solid entry.
One thing I wish is there was a web build of the game. People are generally more encouraged to play jam games if they don't have to download and unpack stuff, and you can post a web build post-jam, so you should probably do that!
Anyway, as I've said, spent some time on it:
Currently working on a WebGL version. Thank you for the suggestion totally slipped our minds yesterday evening.
P.s: You are currently world record holder of Blockies :grinning:
Super relaxing and chill! Would love the addition of precise positioning via buttons, sometimes I could not click on the field because mouse was hovering one specific cube of the figure, and I wanted it to be hovering after placement. This is what killed me in the end :)
I can't believe you made this in just 72 hours! It feels so polished!
The placement of blocks is sometimes a little clunky when trying to place in a hole on the ground, but otherwise everything is great - the controls, the visuals, the music, the sounds.
It all comes together as a nice relaxing puzzle! Well done! 😊
@favoured-fool Great suggestion! That would be really cool maybe if the game is developed further we can do something like that :smile:
@marti-mayolas Thanks. Happy to hear you enjoyed the game!
@kinami Somehow we managed to have almost the whole of Monday left for the last small features and a lot of polishing and finetuning. We are really happy with how it ended up. Glad you enjoyed the game 😊
Good work!
@zwikkelbaard Thanks for playing! Indeed the placement of the pieces could have been a bit smoother. still glad to hear you enjoyed it!
@mortusnegati Thanks for playing and great suggestion!
@evogengames @nicholaspfo @fatemperor @irinam @nekusoul Thank you all for playing. Awesome to hear that it was a good time overall :v:
@coderaurus Glad you enjoyed it! If we develop this further we will for sure have a look at the placing of the pieces to make it more responsive and smooth!
@caladrius Thank you for the kind words. Awesome to hear you enjoyed it. You can always come back and try to beat your previous score :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
@nathmate The cut away would be interesting to look into further. it was not intended that it would be more difficult to place blocks in the middle of the grid. Something we will have a look at if we develop this further!
@miraculousmelon Glad you enjoyed it! you are the first one that caught onto that. You go through each piece before the pieces repeat themselves. there is still some randomness to it. Interested to find out what your high score was :smiley:
@thebmxeur Thank you for playing! we tinkered with the idea of rotating the block vertically but due to time constraints decided to not implement this. Maybe in the future :smile:.
Anyway, aside from the control issues, this was a really well made game. Very smooth gameplay. Maybe the menus could use some polish. But overall great game!
I like how calming it is with the music and without the rush of normal tetris.
Really enjoy playing games and starting again to improve! There is a lot of care that has been taken on this game !
We quickly become addicted to this game, it's a very good sign, we must continue to develop it !
Good job team
Great UI and everything runs smooth apart from a few block placing systems - I sometimes was unable to place a block exactly where I wanted on higher layers. As @somewan already suggested vertical rotation would be an incredible feature(although might make it too easy)
Very polished, great job, and even the positive language used on the buttons adds to this great experience.
This is not a trivial game to implement : ))) Congrats on the effort and the mesmerizing result (both visually and in terms of audio)! Perfectly fits the theme! Perfectly!
Now to the bit of honest and from the top-of-my-head feedback.
**1)** Short-tempered people will not go too far with this game :/
I am not saying I am short-tempered, I did a few runs, but it's a bit *hard* to always understand and *see* if a given piece will fit in. This is an inherent property of the game, I know but MAYBE it could be improved with **1**: being able to change camera perspective?? Imagine - like a 3d editing software / I don't know.. that's one idea - the game itself is a challenge for this. Not sure if camera angle - bu a few presets for camera angles could be nice.. maybe.
**2)** It could just be me but... I got a bit irritated and felt slightly limited that I couldn't rotate the pieces in *every* possible direction. While this could be on purpose, this makes for the player to feel more limited than the already-limited space :P provides. It's already hard enough to place tetris pieces in 3d space.
Those 2 things are the main. It's honestly a HARD job to make it *perfect* and probably there is no perfect, so have to say **respect** for your out-of-the-box entry : )))
Hope the above provides some help! Good Luck!
Since many pieces had a flat base, but my tower didn't always have a flat top surface, I really wanted to rotate the pieces vertically.
Nice calm choice of music. I liked the names and descriptions of the different pieces.
Well done! :clap:
let's go!!
This game is fantastic. I've been playing it all day.
There're some nitpickings I found by playing through the game several times. The first being the mouse sensitivity for rotating the camera, I think it's a little fast compares to the vertical movement. Second, it would've been a lot nicer to be able to rotate the pieces in all 3 axes instead of just the Y. That would create a lot of placement possibilities and greatly enhance the overall enjoyment, you have no idea how many times I wished I could rotate a piece on the X or Z axis just to fit it in that particular spot! Lastly, it's kinda hard to know if there were any unfilled spots left because the outer pieces hid them. I would suggest decreasing the transparency of the surrounding pieces a little bit if there're unfilled spots inside them, that would definitely make the experience of placing pieces more satisfying and forgiving.
But in conclusion, I really love this entry and I, wholeheartedly, appreciate the creativity along with the effort you guys put into it. That was a really special experience I had, it did made me reminisce about those good 'ol carefree days as a kid, magnificent job on this one!
I screwed myself over a few times thinking I could rotate the block along an axis that I could not, a few times I misjudged how much vertical space I had left, and placing the blocks was at times difficult, but it kept me captivated nonetheless! Aside from a few throwaway low-scores, I scored a 3305 and a 20195.
Nice, clear color palette on the blocks. The scoreboard background gradient that's also the button trim kinda clashes with that neon style, I would've gone all in on the neon vibes instead there. Soothing music to boot. All in all, a great Tetris variant!
I dig the neon look. Suggestions:
Maybe have some way to see lower floors by making the top ones transparent(like when hover mouse over a lower floor).
Some more juice would be great too. Tetris effect is a good example of how much far polish can take tetris.
Overall, a very solid entry.
I really like the 3D art style and core gameplay. The process of the game also impressed me a lot. It was a little bit hard at first, but I soon got the hang of it :)
I like the slow pace and calming atmosphere. I like the metaphor of different pieces representing game features as well.
I think it would be more fun - both easier and more difficult, in different senses - if pieces could also be rotated around axes other than vertical.
Managed to get a score of over 13000, getting a nice respectable place of 6th on the leaderboard. Unfortunately it got stuck in a scenario where both choices were 4 blocks tall and had nowhere to go, but the game's so relaxing I can't even be disappointed.
