I was disappointed to find out that Atomic announced his intention to do this very idea before I did, but the idea remains a good one and we’re going about it in very different ways, so…

I recently saw Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters and I remembered one of the most dreaded occurrences was the “drought” — a lack of a line block for more than seven blocks. I thought it would be interesting, then, to turn the tables on Tetris and choose the blocks with the specific aim of frustrating the player.

(There is a relevant effort called “Hatetris”, a variant that implements an AI which chooses the worst possible blocks for you.)

Below is a screenshot of the WIP. It’s currently two-player on one computer; one person uses the mouse to select the next block, while the other plays the game as per usual.

It’s playable here.

Ideas/issues going forward:

• Switch the roles at random points, so the players take turns picking pieces and playing the game. (Implementing keyboard control for both “players” would be important for this)
• Implementing an AI that tries to cope with your choices.
• Looking into an online matchmaking system for this kind of thing? Surely it’s been done a million times in AS3.
• Need a better system to represent success in frustrating the player, rather than simply forcing a lower-than-optimal score
• A setup screen for initial levels, junk lines, etc.

Anyone else got an idea for it?…