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Tetris but with Physics
Matter of Physics
Matter of Physics
Developed alongside Gravity Shift, Sea of Blocks is a simple competitive game where the objective of the players is piling some tetrominoes to reach the finish line as soon as possible. The main inspiration for this quick game was 'Tricky Towers'. Lots of focus in this project went into the 'feeling' and 'juicy' aspects of controlling these blocks. Different sounds and feedback where used in order to make this experience feeling as polished as possible.
It's just falling blocks, right?
It's just falling blocks, right?
Every single one of the 7 tetrominoes has a unique center of gravity and pivotal point when positioned. Everything was designed with the objective of giving the players a consistent and precise experience. The block dropper, for example, cannot move fully free. It follows a snapping rule of 25 unreal units. Each cube of the blocks is 50 units, and the base is 300 units. That is the reason of why for example the center of gravity and pivot could not match. When rotating a block of 90°, it needs to fit inside this snapping rule, otherwise this misalignment will cause an unexpected collision with another block. This would have caused lots of frustration to the player, for that reason, it was one of my main aspects to work on.
Hitbox of the Tetriminos
Hitbox of the Tetriminos
Several simulations & iterations have been made while working on the blocks. It is tricky to explain, but the feeling of piling these blocks one on top of the other was not something that has been underestimated. The objective of this experience was to create a system that would have rewarded precise players.
The Significance of Sounds
The Significance of Sounds
Sounds and visual feedbacks were important too into this game. I would suggest to just watch the gameplay and listen for yourself, but the attention to detail was one of my targets. For example, to differentiate the sounds of the 2 players, different pitch intonations have been used for the core sounds. In simple terms, when for example the left player moves their blocks the sound goes ‘TIK’ while for the other player its more like… You guessed it, ‘TOK’.
KABOOM
KABOOM
The idea of having an explosion at the beginning and the end of the game came to my mind near the end of the development of this game. Imagine working for 4 weeks to find the near-perfect balance of these towers and then suddenly having to find a way to make them collapse. It is one of the reasons I love making video games. The sudden twist in the development that changes how you see your game. I love it (I kinda felt like Oppenheimer).
Now the winning player can enjoy observing the hard work of the adversary falling apart.
To know more about this project and its development, you can check this wider document:
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