Columns Clone

[Xkeeper]

I'm working on a game in similarity to the old Sega game, Columns.

Controls:
Left/Right: Move
Down: Drop (doesn't work so well because there's no repeat...)
Up: Hard-drop.
X: Rotate/cycle colors.



Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAng0LEhx44
Github: https://github.com/Xkeeper0/columns-clone (slightly outdated to the video above at the moment.)


Old version screenshots:
https://love2d.org/imgmirrur/JdN1uOn.png
https://love2d.org/imgmirrur/5O9RCgD.png

[Xkeeper]

Just figured I'd mention that I've added more mechanics, like different scoring mechanisms, leveling up, and gravity.

If you gave it a shot, try giving it another one. It's a little more detailed. There's still no graphics, but the core gameplay is mostly there.

[Xkeeper]

New version out today.

Release r5 changelog:

Basic graphics set! No more numbers.
Piece DAS (delayed auto-shift). No more tapping left/right
Pieces can be moved down automatically by pushing down (no more tapping)
Magic gems exist and can be used (shows up every 100 pieces placed)
Pieces can go above the top of the playfield
Pieces above playfield exist, but aren't checked for clears
Some other minor things


Direct link on Github:
https://github.com/Xkeeper0/columns-clo ... clone.love





Thanks for the feedback again. If you have any options you think would be useful in the game, let me know and I'll try to implement them next.

[retrotails]

I don't remember Columns being so easy... After playing seriously for a while I gave up on changing and even placing pieces at all, I just filled in gaps and got massive (10 or so sometimes) combos by chance that kept me alive. I suicide'd at around 10 million points.
Maybe add another piece type or two and cut down the speed - it gets pretty quick to the point where you can't really make any decisions but you don't have to because you can just fill in gaps.

[Xkeeper]

Yeah, it being too easy is a bit of a problem carried over from Columns on the Genesis. That game ordinarily has 4, 5, or 6 piece colors (in Arcade, 6 is the default) and mine is only 4. You'd get the same experience by picking Novice difficulty on that game, though the playfield is a little smaller in that.

The game itself is about that easy on the real thing. At some point in E_FUTURE I'm going to make the number of block types configurable, so you can have a 6-piece game which won't be nearly as easy.

As for the speed, around what level were you having issues? I can play competently even at level 25 and up (not just throwing pieces around).

[retrotails]

Yeah, it being too easy is a bit of a problem carried over from Columns on the Genesis. That game ordinarily has 4, 5, or 6 piece colors (in Arcade, 6 is the default) and mine is only 4. You'd get the same experience by picking Novice difficulty on that game, though the playfield is a little smaller in that.

The game itself is about that easy on the real thing. At some point in E_FUTURE I'm going to make the number of block types configurable, so you can have a 6-piece game which won't be nearly as easy.

As for the speed, around what level were you having issues? I can play competently even at level 25 and up (not just throwing pieces around).

Around there, I don't remember exactly, but the point is I got to 10 million points or so in the time Tetris wouldn't be anywhere near that fast. I only ever played Columns once on some horrible clone system, despite owning it for the Genesis and Game Gear lol, but I have a few thousand hours into Tetris, so I don't know how they compare speed wise.
Oh and great remake btw. The SFX are like every indie game ever but that's fine, and the controls feel great which is what matters.

[Xkeeper]

The scoring is a bit ridiculous, yes. Comparing it to Tetris doesn't work out so well, though:

Tetris: You can 1 to 4 lines at a time.
Columns: You can clear 3 or more pieces at once (6 is common, 9 is infrequent, over 15 is rare but happens sometimes)

Tetris: No possibity for one piece to clear more than one set of lines
Columns: One piece can set off multiple clears in a row.

Tetris: Only oppertunity for chaining is successive clears
Columns: Similar enough.

Columns proper uses a fairly weird scoring method that I don't have all the details of any more (short version: level x 30 x chain).

Columns Clone uses a much different scoring method:

Blocks cleared: Blocks deleted from the board in this clear
Total chain: Total number of clears in succession. Resets when a piece is dropped without clearing anything
This chain: Total number of clears in succession for this piece. Resets on every piece drop.

100 x (blocks cleared - 2) x (total chain) x (this chain) x (level)

It can get pretty ridiculous, and if taken advantage of properly (several pieces in a row with one or two clears, then one big chain with many blocks cleared) you can score ridiculously high points.


Basically, the scoring is a lot like pinball/Giga Wing (arcade) in that you have to throw your ordinary expectations for points out the window, because millions of points is about where you should expect to end up.



Okay, enough about scoring. The sound is just stuff from as3sfxr. It was all done in a relative hurry, but I tried to pick sounds that all work well in the context, until something more permanent is in (maybe different sound sets?)

Glad to hear that the controls are smooth. I need to fix them up because right now they're based on framerate and not dt, but given that you only ever need to move 4 columns the differences are negligible.

Thanks for the feedback again. I might rework the scoring so that it's displayed like "10000000" or some other stylistic decision...

[Xkeeper]

I made an itch.io page for my game.

The latest version offers a simple menu where you can pick Easy, Normal, or Hard. They have 4, 5, and 6 block colors, respectively.

The difficulty seems a bit high at levels 20 and up. I might keep the lock time at one second instead of having it drop...