Play game
Tetromino Runner's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Art / Graphics | #48 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Controls / UI | #74 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Sound/Music | #78 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Overall Fun | #85 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Genre
Action
Shooter | Platformer | Slasher | Beat em Up | Base Defense | Survival | Racing
Rating
Family Friendly
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
awesome game, at first it took me a bit to understand how this game works but it was not long until i figured it out
Overall it was kind of difficult to worry about the tetris side of things and the platformer side of things at the same time, but this is coming from someone who isn't that into platformers. I might also be using the wrong strategy as often I was worried more about clearing the tetris blocks as best I could rather than trying to advance through the level. I found it difficult to get any further than 50m in any of my runs. I'm not sure if you need to have the precision skill to be able to jump onto the moving tetris bricks, but that was often my only way to escape the green wall of death was to take a risky jump onto a moving block, which I would often mess up and fall to my death. It's definitely a cool concept though and it was entertaining to play.
A quick note on artwork, I think the colors could use some tuning. Specifically, the character color options aren't that appealing to me overall.
Overall I think it's a fine concept and execution, while not something I'm going to spend hours on I can definitely see folks chasing high scores.
Hi mate,
Thanks heaps for the feedback and the video link, much appreciated! Although you commented that this usually isn't your sort of thing you actually performed with a very high degree of aptitude for a new player. It was heartening to see a player like yourself with a good level of gaming literacy be able to connect some of the dots (like the wall speed indicator) more fluidly than we have seen with less experienced gamers.
Unfortunate you had the issue with the sound levels. The solve for that must have somehow gotten disconnected during one of our hot patches. We will put it on the bug list.
Many of your gameplay specific questions are, for the time being, answered in the 'Learn to Play' menu but we hope to smooth out and integrate some of that learning process with some of the onboarding features we are currently working on. There are actually run modifiers (find in main menu) that tweak how the game plays similar to the skull unlockables in Halo which would be a good candidate for your random mode idea. We actually have a feature similar to that we are working on to have a mode where you can almost play the co-op version by yourself with the bricks automatically placing themselves.
Thanks again for the feedback and video!
The concept is pretty intriguing, with an interesting combo of different game genres. It can get a bit overwhelming for people who haven’t played Tetris before or are trying to juggle two games at once. I guess that part could be streamlined a bit more to make things more cohesive.
Visually, it looks chaotic, like a retro synthwave vibe which honestly isn’t a bad thing!! Maybe toning it down just a little could help make the gameplay feel a bit clearer and stand out from the rest! Not much else to add that apart from what others have mentioned.
That said, the game’s pretty good, and I’m definitely curious to see where it goes next. Good luck!
Thank you for the kind words!
Regarding the visual 'chaos' is much of that in relation to the binary effects from the Death Wall following you or are there other parts in particular you thought were cluttered / chaotic?
It’s more like the grid is too bright, overpowering the other elements like the blocks themselves. If you could tone down the grid brightness while keeping the same aesthetics, I think the it’d be a lot easier on the eyes.
Really fun concept of fusing Tetris and platforming!
I only managed to reach 135M on my best run (6 lines cleared, 3 coins)🙈
I wish there were an easy mode without the death wall, so I could keep going forever unless I fall 😄
The rules to clear tiles weren't very clear at first. I think it’s about lining tiles up to a certain length?
I'd like it if we could rotate the tiles like in Tetris. I am sure I'd be able to clear more tiles this way!
Hi DDmeow,
Glad you were having fun with it!
It sounds like you might benefit from checking out the 'Controls' and/or the 'Learn to Play' areas of the main menu. You can rotate tiles with the shoulder buttons / bumpers on game-pad (We recommend game-pad) or with right arrow / tab on keyboard by default. You can rebind the buttons in the controls menus if you have any issues with the default control schemes. Line clears are triggered on 10 (or more) bricks in a row (Same as Tetris). You can look for more clarity on specific mechanics like this in the 'Learn to Play' menu.
We are trying to implement some ways to better onboard new players but for now these are the tools available. I hope you give it another go with the other tools and knowledge. The game really picks up with a bit of practice. Internally we have had a lot of fun pushing ourselves to get better at it. There are some tips and tricks you might learn from looking at the video on the store page too. Best of luck!
Hey,
I love how the game looks - although I instantly removed the post-processing effect but I do that in any game that uses it. Your game is an interesting combination of game mechanics that I haven't seen before. Good job!
Played quite some time and had some runs. It is fun to try to improve on score and get a better highscore than before. There were two things I didn't like though (nothing too bad, but still):
1. The "read this before playing" wasn't shown correctly on my 3440x1440 screen. The background was shown just fine but the textboxes where placed weirdly and I couldn't read everything. Besides I think you have to read TOO much before you could start the game. I'd rather directy hop in and play some kind of super tiny tutorial level instead of reading 4-5 different options in an explanation menu.
2. The "wall of death" does a sound when it eats up blocks. I think this sound should only be hearable when the wall is on screen or at least VERY close. I could hear it the whole time and that was a little annoying.
Wish you all the best with your game!
Thanks for taking the time to have a look, really glad you found it as unique and interesting as we do.
Onboarding is consistently our biggest struggle - we actually have a new suite of 'stuff' that is almost ready to try to deal with a bit of this. We have had to be pretty creative but I think what we have is something good.
I agree on the Wall of Death sound, have added that to my list of things to do.
Thank you!
Hi Ogamo,
I'm glad you were having fun! Thank you for your notes on the resolution issue and the sound sound effects. The sound effects are meant to be a useful indicator for when the Death Wall is eating a lot of blocks and speeding up but at the moment it applies equally to grey and coloured blocks (but it only speeds up with coloured ones). Internally we had discussed representing this by having little puffs of binary pop out from the left of screen whenever a coloured block was destroyed off-screen. Maybe this could have a much more subtle sound effect. I think if we added that we could then have the brick explosion noise fall off with distance from the wall as you would still have a moment-by-moment visual and audio feedback of your performance. Do you think you would prefer something like this?
Thanks again for taking the time to try the game out and provide feedback, we appreciate it a lot! :)
Hard!
This game looks really neat, I dig this kind of glitchy art style, and it also sounds cool.
It combines two games in a potentially interesting way, but while the block placing half of it is inspired by Tetris,it is also very much different enough that it I felt that I didn't understand it at all adequately (how do you remove a "line" when there's no well to fill?). If you then layer a platforming experience on top of that and a visual style which looks good but... sometimes makes it hard to read what is going on, combined with the fairly complex controls that follows from playing two games at once, you get what I felt: Confusion.
I watched the dev play and that sort of confirmed two things:
I think there is something to your game which good players can really enjoy, but you do have a problem getting people over the hump to where they enjoy playing, preferably within the first couple of minutes. Some things that one could possibly consider:
In addition to the challenges above it should be mentioned that I have a slightly different challenge tied to my particular setup. I don't currently have have access to my gamepad, and my keyboard layout is non-standard in a way that doesn't work at all with the standard mapping (in a Kinesis Advantage way). I remapped it to be able to play at all, but when you don't know how to play properly it gets very hard to figure out a good keyboard mapping.
I haven't mentioned the fact that from a technical PoV this game feels like a complete and polished package, it just works very well with no fuss, which is absolutely not something you can take for granted. So good job, if you just figure out how to onboard new players, I think you potentially have a winner on your hand! Good luck!
Hi Renos,
I am one of the devs on the game - Thank you for taking the time to leave some feedback, I appreciate it.
What you have outlined is a nice synopsis of our feedback as a whole. I can't disagree with any of it.
What we have, I think, is technically somewhat unique, and I continue to really like the idea - though its fun is somewhat hidden behind its mastery - somewhat the antithesis of onboarding. The team and I have enjoyed countless hours of running, and really just want to enable others to do the same.
I was curious;
- Did you have a read of the 'How to Play' section prior to trying to play the game? - Did you find it unhelpful?/how might you have preferred that information presented?
- Was there a specific element in the visual environment that was obscuring your purpose more than the others?
I am super glad the key re-binding brought someone some utility -> what a pain in the patella.
In a super early build of the game we did actually have a 'tutorial' where the elements get layered in, one at a time. It never felt 'right' -> Honestly I think the trick in our case is integrating the learning into the game's loop, IE as you practice you can use more of your skills to take control of more of the elements but are not required to do so from the outset.
Thanks for dropping by Renons,
Feel free to reach out in the future for game dev related bits and pieces!
Hello again!
So, I took back my gamepad from the kid, discovered that I didn't quite vibe with the default bindings for an XBox style gamepad layout (having all the character controls on the left hand except the jump button, which had to be handled by the block control hand, didn't work for me at all), but that was easily remedied. And indeed, the game was clearly easier to control this way, and I scored better. I still mostly felt stressed out, not achieving and kind of "flow". I think maybe the game should be way easier to start with in the beginner mode, the actual act of building the road ahead with blocks and jumping on it is actually kind of fun by itself, I don't know that you need the time pressure and adrenaline surge on top of that very quickly.
I did find myself with enough time to actually try and build some lines. There's a real feeling of urgency with building as quickly as possible to get away from the wall of death, and a slight mismatch with the need to construct lines that ultimately destroys your path forward. I think this is good, it makes for important choices.
I don't know that I quite like the way the lines shake as you approach 10 blocks, it does signal danger to the character, which is reasonable, but completing lines is mostly good, and signaling danger for that feels wrong. I would go for something less "stressful" to signal that. On the whole, I think a way for the preview (which is very useful) to clearly show that dropping the block there will indeed remove the line, would be useful. In Tetris it's very obvious when lines are full, with the walls being there... in this game I found myself not having the time to count whether I'll end up with 9 or 10 blocks, which is a crucial difference.
I did indeed look at the "how to play section", both before playing at all, and after playing a bit, at which point I found it more useful, having some frame of reference. And then again later to make sure I understood correctly. Thinking about it I might suggest that something akin to the "dev plays" video should probably make up most of the main menu? To get the player a general feeling for the "shape" of the game to make it easier to understand the actions the "how to play section" refers to. And somehow I missed the "10+" blocks to complete a line text, I think with the general number of... numbers on that screen... my eyes sort of glossed over that piece of information. I'd make it extra big and put it mid-sentence so that it can't be so easily skipped over as "something before the sentence".
I don't know if that was helpful, teaching this game is an interesting challenge.
Hi Renons,
Thanks again from the whole team for your feedback here. It is very helpful. As was stated before on-boarding for this particular game has proved rather difficult. Internally we have discussed it as being somewhat akin to learning to juggle. One ball (platforming) is easy enough, two (moving blocks) is maybe a little harder, three balls at a time (platforming and blocks) is extremely difficult without practice. The game is a bit of a throwback to arcade skill-testers so some degree of investment on the player's part to progressively improve is expected but we really do need a better way of easing them into it and encouraging that loop of slow practice and progression. We are working on some ideas towards that end internally but keep running into the issue of needing fresh eyes on the project to test it with. Are there any particular resources you have used in the development of your own games for testing puzzles etc. that you could recommend?
Thank you again for the honest feedback. We will definitely take it onboard.
Sounds you're on it, good luck! I don't have much in the way of qualifications, just like thinking about this kind of product design/user experience kind of stuff, so can't help you with the reading I'm afraid.
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 8! My name's Hythrain, a co-host and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
Tetris mixed with a platforming game. It's pretty fun and I generally like it.
I'll admit I wasn't a fan of the large amount of visual clutter going on. There were so many things to catch the attention of your eye while you're also trying to put blocks down that it can make it difficult to keep track of what you need to. In addition, I feel like the vertical walls cause a lot of problems for the game's design, from preventing new blocks from spawning in to making it too challenging to get your block where you need it without something stopping it. Given the time challenge of running from the "void," I feel like the game needs less vertical walls.
Barring that, what may work better is letting the player just control the blocks from spawn. So instead of having the whole gimmick of the blocks constantly moving left, let the player just control the next block and place it where they want. That would nullify the issue with the vertical walls, since now they can't interrupt the player. They instead become an obstacle for the player to overcome while trying to not leave too many coloured blocks for the void to devour.
Speaking of, I think another thing that could improve the gameplay and really amp up the high score potential is if the void could also lose speed. Like, as its speed increases it needs more coloured blocks to maintain that speed. If you do a good job clearing blocks, you'll cause it to slow down and maybe even reach its base speed. This could then allow you to more strongly incorporate the platforming into the game; now the player needs to use their blocks to navigate around obstacles and try to leave as few coloured blocks as they can, but some obstacles will make it unavoidable. In those situations, it means the void will gain a surge in speed and overtake the player if they're not fast enough. To make this work better, the base speed of the void would need to go up so that it can be more of a constant threat. This design could even allow you to make set stages, with end goals for the player to reach.
Hi Hythrain,
Thank you so much for taking the time to play the game, the team really appreciates the feedback.
We would absolutely love to see a link to the VOD when it is uploaded.
You are the second person to describe the play space as 'visually cluttered' - Heard, appreciated, taken on board.
Currently, the void that is chasing you eats the blocks that you leave behind, which increases its speed. Clearing lines, and playing 'tidily' reduces its speed to some base level (difficulty dependent). I think this current design achieves a similar thing to what you are describing in your last paragraph. Please let me know if I have missed your point.
There is a youtube video on the game's itch page that can highlight some nice tech to help deal with the obstructions in the environment, as high level play starts to look quite different to beginner play. Our largest challenge with this, somewhat complex, game has been trying to onboard players to the concept in a way that is low friction, and enjoyable from the outset. This is something, that I think we are still failing at somewhat. We continue to work on 'revealing the fun' as early as possible, as we believe that the late game once mastery of the controls has been achieved is very enjoyable -the ramp to that point *can* be less so.
Thank you again for taking the time, we really do listen, and we do appreciate it. Look forward to seeing the VOD when you are ready.
Cheers!
Rollmop.