Share My Creation Gem Drop - (Tetris style game)

Now on the Play Store!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.coffeeinducedgames.gemdrop


I'm working on a Tetris style game, I'm using the LibGDX library with B4A to do it. Let me know what you think? The controls are swipe to move pieces left and right, tap either side of the screen to rotate, and swipe down to drop piece instantly. Standard Tetris rules apply.

I'm planning to add extra features, such as powerups and combo score bonuses. I'm also thinking of doing an online high score table (if I can stop it crashing on peoples phones, as I'm seeing with Invaders).

UPDATE:
Hi all, I've updated it to fix the white line issue on screenshake, and I've added new music and sound effects.
I'd love to get a little more feedback on this now. I've got to change the gameover screen, put a few on screen messages in while playing, ad some uninstrusive ads (I'm trying to make a living) then it should be ready for it's first release on the market.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ecr9xf8yawkzkj7/GemDrop.apk?dl=0

 

[josejad]

Amazing¡¡

 

[andymc]

Amazing¡¡

Thanks! I'm trying to add "juicyness" to my games more. Things like having the screen shake when you drop a block from a high height, or having the blocks above the completed rows jump up due to the force of the blast from clearing the rows. Makes the game more satisfying to play. I've got to tackle sound effects and music next, then extra features like rewarding the player for multiple lines at once, or clearing row after row with each piece without missing.

I've also kept the code flexible, so I can change the board size easily, and adapt it for other game types (thinking Doctor Mario next?)

 

[Peter Simpson]

Hay @andymc,
Congratulation, I absolutely love this game and you putting your spin on it is a plus in my opinion. But then again I like Tetris which was originally developed by Russian Alexey Pajitnov and was originally taken/owned by the Soviet Union before being published in the USA by, hmm I forgot. Yes I've watched a couple of interesting documentaries about this game and how it conquered the world back in the day, but I cant remember everything, I'll have to watch them again.

Anyway I have come across an issue with the slam shake. When I slam the blocks down the screen obviously has a cool shake. When the shaking stops sometimes there is a white top horizontal/white right vertical or both line at the top. I presume that it happens because when the screen stops shaking it does not stop back in it's original starting position (where it started shaking originally) thus you can see the white background as top and right lines.

I've sent you an email with the original screenshots and an explanation.

Screenshot loaded into Photoshop (Top and Right )

You can see in the attached files the top and right lines, I coloured them in red to make them stand out a bit more but they are actually white.

What a fabulous take on this game you have created Andy, brilliant.
I have no idea how you game creators do it, but hay I create business app and you create games, each to their own...

 

[ilan]

Nice!

 

[andymc]

Hi @Peter Simpson thanks for the detailed write up! I'm aware of the issue. And you're right that it's due to the camera view not correctly resetting back to it's original place. But I also want to avoid the white lines showing during the actual screenshake while it's shaking, so will probably do something like change the backing to black instead of white, or see if I can render the background larger than the screen to fix this issue.

 

[andymc]

Hi all, I've updated it to fix the white line issue on screenshake, and I've added new music and sound effects.
I'd love to get a little more feedback on this now. I've got to change the gameover screen, put a few on screen messages in while playing, ad some uninstrusive ads (I'm trying to make a living) then it should be ready for it's first release on the market.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ecr9xf8yawkzkj7/GemDrop.apk?dl=0

 

[andymc]

Now on the play store
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.coffeeinducedgames.gemdrop

I'd love some feedback and some nice reviews left (if you like the game that is! )

 

[LucaMs]

It looks nice (forgive me, I did not install it, I refer to the images).

I wonder if it will be "lucky", given that it already has a lot of competition (I hope... good luck).

Anyway, I like watching videos on the Play Store

 

[ilan]

I'd love some feedback and some nice reviews left (if you like the game that is! )

hi andy, i have tested your new game (and also rated it) what i have found is that i got a lot of crashes.
the crash happens when i die so if you enter the level and push all shapes down to the bottom (to die fast) you will get a crash if the ad was not ready to load i guess.
there is something with the ad loading that cause the crash. sometimes the ad loads but a lot of times the app crashes.

the second thing is that it looks very borring as it is right now. i like the shaking animation and the way you show where the block will fall but i miss a lot of stuff like score board and archivements etc...

how about unlock new shapes that were not in the classic tetris after a player reach a score. and also put some different backgrounds from time to time.

the background music does not match the game in my opinion try to find something different.

i understand that the game is still in his first stage and i am sure you will make something awesome out of it so i wish a lot of luck with it

 

[andymc]

Thanks for the feedback Ilan, I'll look at the crash bug, it may be that I just need to check if the ad is loaded before showing it.

I'm planning to ad different level backgrounds, some background animations, maybe even some characters. I will also be adding online score baords and achievements.

I could add more tunes to pick from, the original gameboy Tetris has 3 tunes to choose from, maybe I could do that?

New shapes would be good, this would mean either 3 or 5 blocks, as the current shapes use all combinations of 4 blocks, but the code allows for blocks of any shape and size, so it's very easy to add new ones.

 

[andymc]

I've fixed the crash bug, it was caused by trying to place a piece on the board when it was at the top of the screen. I was being stupid and not checking the point was in the grid before trying to write to it (index out of bounds exception).

Have updated the game on the play store.