Tetris

[carlfoxmarten]

So I'm washing dishes last night, when I started to think about what I can add to the classical game of Tetris (I haven't played any variations to know what's available), and I came up with several peculiar yet interesting ideas:

Block firmness:

• Normal:
  Act like regular Tetris blocks do.


• Soft/Jelly:
  Move the same way that normal blocks do, but when they land, each piece falls to the lowest point it can go vertically (no falling over sideways).


• Brittle/Cracked:
  Lands the same way that soft blocks do, but can be "wiped" off the shape as it's guided down the playing area to break the block apart, so as to fill in holes of a different shape.

Special pieces:

• Lightning:
  When removed, it causes lightning to strike from above and clear the entire column that the piece occupied. Estimated to be rather annoying.


• Bomb:
  When removed, causes an explosion to remove surrounding pieces to a radius of either 3 or 5. Pieces above the blast radius fall down as far as possible. Estimated to be both helpful, but also annoying.


• Hollow:
  Acts like a normal piece until you try to remove it, which doesn't work because it doesn't count as a normal piece. Can only be removed by lightning or explosions. Estimated to be rather annoying.


• Sticky:
  Each side of each piece of the block is sticky and will grab onto falling blocks, pulling only the blocks that actually touch beside them. Each side only acts once. Estimated to be extremely annoying.


• Crazy controls:
  Turns all controls upside-down and backwards for twenty seconds. Estimated to be mildly aggravating.


• Upside-down:
  Turns the view upside-down for thirty seconds. Estimated to be rather unhelpful.


• Small tremor:
  Shakes the playing area just enough to drop all pieces down as far as they will go. Estimated to be very useful.


• Earthquake:
  Shakes the playing area vigorously for ten to twenty seconds, not only removing all pockets of empty cells, but also toppling the higher stacks. Estimated to be visually annoying, but extremely useful.


• EMP:
  Emits static discharges through the display, blacking out the Next Block window and leaving some static in the play area until you've used three more blocks. (the next blocks are also randomized so you can't rely on what you'd seen there before)


• Lightning storm:
  Lightning strikes randomly removes blocks from the grid.

I figure that this would be of high enough quality that I'd be able to sell it once it's finished...

Anybody have any additional ideas or thoughts about the ones I have here?

Updated Dec 4, 2008
Updated Dec 8, 2008

Comments

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

These ideas would definitely liven up the classic game, which still enjoys enormous popularity. Make it so!

[carlfoxmarten]

I shall endeavour to do so!
(I've also added a couple more blocks)

Nice to see such enthusiasm! =^_^=

I figured out how to compile my current Tetris game for Windows as well as Linux, would you be interested in a copy when I'm finished tweaking it?
(which shouldn't take more than a week)

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

Of course! Thanks for the offer.

[sleepyjohn00.livejournal.com]

Haven't played Tetris for more than fifteen minutes total, so these may not make sense or may exist already.

Chameleon pieces that take the color of adjacent blocks if two or more are the same color.

A keystroke to do a mirror reflection of a falling block.

Pieces that melt once they're in place.

Just trying to think of ways to be annoying :)

[carlfoxmarten]

Pieces that melt once they're in place.
That could be doable, and would be very annoying if you didn't know which pieces would do that.
(which means that it shouldn't do that more than about once every fifty pieces or it would get way too annoying!)

A keystroke to do a mirror reflection of a falling block.
That might be rather helpful actually, once the player wrapped their mind around the thought, so how about a special block that randomly rotates the next block until you land it?

Incidentally, I figured out how to compile my current Tetris game for Windows as well as Linux, would you be interested in a copy when I'm finished tweaking it?
(which shouldn't take more than a week)

[sleepyjohn00.livejournal.com]

I'm always interested in new ways to not work B-} I have Windows XP, Solaris, MacOS X, and several flavors of Linux available.