FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD42 → Shrinkage

Shrinkage

By woubuc

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2893.4867
Fun2203.5067
Innovation6182.6167
Theme2253.8267
Graphics2123.6267
Audio1.9012
Humor4561.9255

Comments

bigjigglyproductions 2018-08-12 22:58

Great for killing time, controls feel a bit delayed but you get used to it eventually. :thumbsup:

fadex 2018-08-12 23:10

Love the theme execution, but at the end of the day it's just tetris :D

4thwallstudios 2018-08-12 23:21

Fantastic execution, the movement is really fast though! :thumbsup:

listonos 2018-08-12 23:38

Simple yet thematic twist on classic game. The UI and graphics are wonderful, I wish I could make that elegant looking game. I think I would prefer to start at slower pace though.

suve 2018-08-12 23:51

Tetris with extra punishment. Depending on your love for the original, either an interesting new challenge, or an exercise in getting punished for what seems like the proper thing to do.

czarsilvestrini 2018-08-12 23:58

I like it. Very simple. A little bit too fast for me.

kippllo 2018-08-13 00:07

I LOVE TETRIS! This is a cool new take on it!

Pros: - Really nice Aesthetic. (Rounded edges on game outline and all!) - Good solid gameplay! - Sticks to the theme well!

Cons: - There is no hold. (While I am not usually a fan of holding blocks, it would be helpful since the area gets smaller!) - There is not enough of a buffer when a block hits the ground/another-block to when it is considered "placed" a few times I was trying to keep moving but it placed the block instead -_-

Overall really solid game!

ex3d0 2018-08-13 00:17

It's a good take on a true classic. Obviously yes at the end of the day all you really did was make Tetris but it was still enjoyable.

The graphics are minimalist which I think is absolutely perfect for Tetris and you captured the theme well.

There are some (in my opinion) necessary mechanics from Tetris missing (such as previewing the next block and being able to move a block on the ground before it's considered to be placed) but all in all it's alright.

brandon-js-lea 2018-08-13 00:24

The problem with imitation is that the thing you're imitating is probably pretty good, so trying to do what it already does well is that the comparison between it and the imitation will probably be quite unfavorable. Especially with tetris where the game has been tweaked and iterated upon. I bring this up because compared to tetris, the controls feel quite slippery here. I'd often be wary about moving side to side because often my pieces would go too far.

All that said, this game is surprisingly good. I'd find myself going to causally clear a line because it was easiest at the time when suddenly I'd realise what I was about to do. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm familiar with normal tetris or if this is an actual smart innovation upon the formula, but as of right now this feels like a genuine mechanical improvement rather than just a gimmick. I see people say that the genius of tetris is that the difficulty adapts to your playstyle, which is all right but having that extra pressure there makes this a lot more interesting.

I do have a couple of issues however. Firstly, I think you should start with more lines to get back or some intensive to over achieve from the get go. As far as I can tell, there's little pressure/use of the new addition if I'm already at full screen so the mechanic feels a little under utilized. Then again, you do lose a line if you only break one line so perhaps this is a non issue.

Secondly, is the hold. There doesn't seem to be one which is a slight shame.

Finally is the rather big bug that my piece disappeared. Literally, it's gone and the games softlocked because of it. I think I glitched it through the wall or something.

All in all, whilst very unpolished it has a clean look and the mechanical addition is very interesting and actually effective.

omnipotentindie 2018-08-13 03:27

Clean simple graphics, and cool game mechanics that add to tetris in a good way, and fit with the theme.

emily-chen 2018-08-13 05:31

A good twist on a classic game. The difficulty spike seemed to happen a bit early in the game, so if it were me, I'd hold off until the player gets into the groove of the gameplay a bit before throwing that in.

erendelous 2018-08-13 08:06

Not really sure about the difference between your game and tetris, but your game is ** amazingly ** stylish and the "running out of space" process seems quite nice, too)

malif 2018-08-13 08:08

Nice little twist on Tetris. Could do with a few of the other Tetris features (Hard drop, hold). Very clean art style, but preview could be clearer. Controls feel a little sluggish at points and I also got a bug where the pieces all moved to the left.

bewelge 2018-08-13 08:19

Very nice mechanic on top of original Tetris. Didn't make it too far though but I don't think I ever made it far in an original Tetris game either ;)

denneledoe 2018-08-13 09:17

pretty good, but it felt just a little too quick. other than that, great job!

firefly4 2018-08-13 11:37

The aesthetic is so good!

sentmoraap 2018-08-13 12:00

The width (13 width vs 10 in regular Tetris) makes me uncomfortable. It is a deliberate game design decision ? At first I thought the width would change instead of height, which could be an interesting challenge. But it's an interesting way to force combos. The tetrominos are almost immediately locked when they touch the ground, which make placing tetrominos underneath overhangs hard.

eric-kulbiej 2018-08-13 13:05

Nice game, enjoyed it very much. Keep it up!

chaitae 2018-08-13 13:47

I love tetris, and minimalist style for this game.

drunkardwolf 2018-08-13 13:57

Love the art style, and the game feels super polished. Amazing work on the UI. Would have had fun, but I suck at the game haha! Great job :)

teo-miklethun 2018-08-13 15:34

If I were you, I would have a tiny bit of time when the blocks are touching the ground where you can still move them. Regardless though, great job!

arbe 2018-08-13 16:40

I like the idea and the clean, minimalistic style. I think the arrow keys as controls were a poor choice, though. They feel slippery and oversensitive. That might just be me, though. Great job overall!

reuno 2018-08-14 02:32

Love the color palette and the overall presentation. The tutorial is well written, nice touch. I feel like the size changes could have used a little more oomph, they're relatively hard to notice.

wongkongphooey 2018-08-14 20:05

A nice twist on Tetris! Nicely done to work in the theme, the game is slick and graphically very nice too. Well done!

woubuc 2018-08-15 06:57

Thanks everyone so much for the feedback and for playing my game in the first place! I think the most common comment is that the game is a bit too fast, I realise now that I may have left it on "dev speed" that I set it to for faster testing.. Sorry! :)

Most of the other issues and missing features mentioned are things I recognised myself when working on the game, but didn't have the time to implement or polish. I'm not sure yet but if I do decide to continue working on the game to properly finish it, those things will definitely get fixed.

devio 2018-08-15 17:49

Was pleasantly surprised when it came to the closing in, and felt like the pieces were getting faster, although it was the room getting smaller. Its Tetris at the end of the day but that being said, you made your own take on it. The gameplay can and will get addicting, and following the magical weird phenomenon of Tetris, does not get repetitive. Good work!

nufflee 2018-08-15 18:13

Interesting idea, you made me learn how to play tetris! :D Great job!

swess 2018-08-15 18:14

Nice Tetris rework! Enjoyed it !

boopsgames 2018-08-15 18:15

I like the concept: turns tetris vs comboing into a single-player game mode. I wish the controls were a bit better, like rotating left and right. Plus the speed is a bit high.

lndrstrll 2018-08-15 20:57

Interesting rework, i liked the simple twist of the game. :recycle:

chronicbite 2018-08-15 22:41

Simple concept but brilliantly clean and elegant execution. Good job, I had fun!

tuism 2018-08-16 07:09

Mmmmmmmm

Really, the concept is something interesting, but playing it for even five minutes and one sees that it's basically just tetris but harder. The added mechanics make no difference to the gameplay other than demanding that you make more than one lines at a time. It. Is. Tetris.

In addition, the pieces drop way fast and that makes it much harder to get to the extreme left and right, especially if you made "mistakes" in making a line.

I really don't see how the addition makes any real difference. It's like playing Mario without mushrooms. It's just harder.

julien-foucher 2018-08-16 07:11

Ooooo that's a cool concept! At first i was like: "Meh, that's a classic tetris..." Then i realised i was wrong :D

2 small things: The start speed is maybe a bit too fast, and there is no "instant drop" key. You can accelerate fall, but i prefer an instant drop.

tattomoosa 2018-08-16 07:12

Really cool twist on Tetris. Controls felt a little off though. If I'm not mistaken the coming piece was actually random instead of Tetris' 'random order but one of each block before it repeats' ordering, but maybe that was intentional. What's really cool though is that you made a really meaningful addition to such a classic game - here there's more of a reason than just a high score to get Tetrises. Presentation is good - very clean, although of course sound would have been nice.

barrier 2018-08-16 07:27

Feels like a harder version of tetris, unless you are a tetris pro, then maybe it's easier if you can clear 4 lines everytime :D

zuhairghias 2018-08-16 08:10

Fun play. I got ticked off because I never get the straight piece.

triplefox 2018-08-16 09:54

I read the words "score combos" and assumed that it meant something much more complicated than intended, like a particular pattern of blocks similar to other falling block games. The game never once spells this out, but all it would take is to get rid of all the introductory text(nobody reads) and use an image depicting the three patterns that are OK to match, and the one that is not.

However, there's a more subtle issue underlying this, which is a belief-and-expectation issue, and this is make-or-break for casual puzzle games. Tetris works because the scoring system and core interactions reinforce the line-filling pattern at each step. If you are five years old, like I once was, and sit down with NES Tetris and play to pack blocks together in interesting shapes, you will eventually by accident match one line. And when you match one line, then you try to do it again, and by accident match two. And so on, until the goals of the game are clear and you are in the realm of advanced Tetris strategy. At each step, it's coherent with what you understood before: the game ends because the blocks reach the top. If I pack the blocks tightly, I can play longer. If I make a single line, I can play longer. If I make two lines, I can play longer... and it's all constantly reinforced, because it's intuitively satisfying to pack together the blocks.

And in this game, the design pulls out the welcoming rug from underneath and goes, "hah, matching one line, what a noob!" Which in turn defeats one's desire to explore further. It's very hard to adjust how Tetris scores and reinforces play without disrupting player belief.

In a lot of other LD rating threads I remark on how the game scenario could be reworked to reinforce the game mechanics better, or vice versa, because there's usually some thematic coherence to rely on, where you're like, "oh yeah, bullets do damage in real life, that's why touching bullets in this game makes my HP goes down!" When it's an abstract puzzle game, you're just going on more base aspects of human nature, and with blocks that usually means stacking, ordering, pushing them together. It's very hard to change the formula given everything else about how the game works.

But all the same I really appreciate that you did this because although I had an understanding of Tetris being a form of the belief "it's fun to play with blocks"(which is broadly applicable to block-pushing games or building games like Minecraft), I didn't realize until now that it was also about reinforcing a specific way of playing with those blocks.

saoi-games 2018-08-20 04:35

Thank you for sharing your game with me. I played it on my stream tonight at https://www.twitch.tv/saoigames

I have rated your game, but all of my feedback was captured in the stream. It was in the middle.

You can hear my comments in the archive at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/299357576?t=02h44m40s

renier 2018-08-25 14:55

Was quite fun, a bit too close to actual Tetris for me.

ithildin 2018-08-26 22:29

Interesting take on Tetris with nice, minimalistic graphics.

If you're aware of the rules the 1-line penalty is a good incentive to try to remove more lines in one move.

However, it also becomes unforgiving once you've made a mistake, so in tricky situations the fastest path to safety (remove gaps and other stuff as fast as possible) adds some extra stress on the player.

p1nkmaria 2018-08-28 15:11

I like your games, i think it's pretty funny but also a little bit hard. Great job!

ursagames 2018-08-30 23:12

Challenging twist on tetris! Definitely adds another layer of complexity. Thanks for sharing your game with my stream awhile back. Your game was played around 2:49 into this vod: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/297885983

2022-10-14 03:46

[@](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/shrinkage)[bitlife](https://bitlife.online) fun game. Because I never receive the straight piece, I became irate.