Tetris Cities Beneath the Waves: A Loop Hero Game Jam Experiment

Dive Deep into ‘Podvodsk’: A Unique Tetris-Like City Builder From the makers of ‘Loop Hero’

Four Quarters, the studio behind the critically acclaimed roguelike Loop Hero, has released a fascinatingly different experiment: Podvodsk. Imagine the addictive gameplay of Tetris, but instead of clearing lines, your constructing a sprawling underwater city within a seemingly endless abyss. Linked tetrominoes become the foundation for your descent, provided you can score enough points to keep the construction going.

For the uninitiated,the core concept involves building a gradually narrowing underwater metropolis using randomly generated building blocks.These blocks are suspended from a stable platform above, and each placement demands points while together generating them based on a variety of scoring conditions. Crucially, the screen continuously scrolls downwards with each piece played, adding a constant sense of urgency.

Different building types cater to distinct strategies. residential blocks thrive when clustered near other structures, while factories maximize ore mining when positioned against the chasm walls. Buisness centers, mirroring real-world financial districts, benefit from a bit of space, and seaweed farms flourish in proximity to their botanical brethren. Scaffolding, though point-less, offers a cheap way to manipulate the landscape.

Standout tiles include bunkers, wich can be anchored into the rock face and score based on connections to other bunkers – a vertical chain of these feels like the genesis of a truly extraordinary underwater stronghold.Science centers earn points for every screen scroll they remain visible, incentivizing deep placement, and city centers provide the next three building blocks for free.

While the number of building types might seem limited, the game cleverly extracts depth from their interactions. The pixel art is also visually appealing. The biggest challenge lies in the element of chance. To mitigate this, “Tactical Mode” is highly recommended. This mode stores unused building pieces for one turn, allowing for strategic planning – like using scaffolding to reposition a valuable seaweed farm.

The scoring dynamics evoke comparisons to the board game Seaside, though Podvodsk takes place entirely underwater. For those concerned about supporting Russian developers in light of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Four Quarters has publicly voiced their opposition to the war and encouraged alternative means of accessing their games.

How did the developers address the challenge of maintaining the core “Tetris feel” within the turn-based, deck-building structure of Loop Hero?

The Genesis of an Underwater Tetris World

The recent “Loop Hero” game jam sparked a fascinating wave of creativity, and one project, “Tetris Cities Beneath the Waves,” particularly caught my eye. This experiment wasn’t about recreating Tetris exactly, but about leveraging loop Hero’s procedural generation and deck-building mechanics too feel like a Tetris experience. The core idea? Building a city – or rather, a submerged metropolis – block by block, using the familiar Tetris shapes as the foundational elements. This project demonstrates innovative game design and a clever application of existing game frameworks.

Core Mechanics: Loop Hero Meets Tetris

The project’s success hinges on translating the core Tetris gameplay loop into Loop Hero’s structure. Here’s how the developers achieved it:

Tiles as Tetrominoes: Rather of conventional Loop Hero tiles, the game utilizes tiles shaped like Tetris tetrominoes (I, O, T, L, J, S, Z pieces). These are placed procedurally around the loop.

City Building, Not Hero Progression: The focus shifts from leveling a hero to constructing a functional, expanding underwater city. Each tetromino tile represents a building block, contributing to the city’s overall score and stability.

Deckbuilding for Tetromino Control: Players don’t directly place tetrominoes. Instead, they build a deck of cards that allow them to influence the placement of tiles. Cards might dictate the type of tetromino spawned,its rotation,or even trigger special events.

Line Clears as City Upgrades: Completing horizontal lines with tetrominoes doesn’t eliminate them in the traditional Tetris sense. Instead, it triggers a city upgrade – perhaps unlocking new building types, increasing resource production, or bolstering defenses against underwater threats.

Resource Management: The city requires resources to function. Tetromino placement and line clears generate these resources, creating a compelling feedback loop.

Challenges and Solutions in Development

Adapting Tetris to loop Hero’s engine wasn’t without its hurdles. Developers faced challenges in:

Procedural Generation Constraints: Loop hero’s procedural generation is designed for a specific tile set. Forcing tetromino shapes into that system required careful coding and balancing to avoid illogical or unplayable layouts.

Maintaining Tetris “Feel”: The core satisfaction of Tetris comes from precise placement and quick reactions. Replicating that feeling through a deck-building system demanded thoughtful card design and a responsive UI.

Balancing City growth and Stability: uncontrolled city expansion could lead to structural instability (gaps in the city, inefficient resource flow). The developers implemented mechanics to penalize haphazard building and reward strategic planning.

Visual Portrayal: Creating a visually appealing underwater city built from Tetris blocks required a unique art style that blended the geometric aesthetic of Tetris with the atmospheric world of Loop Hero.

The Role of Deckbuilding in Strategic City Planning

The deckbuilding aspect is crucial. Cards aren’t just about summoning tetrominoes; they introduce strategic layers:

Rotation Cards: Allow players to rotate tetrominoes before placement, crucial for fitting pieces into tight spaces.

preview Cards: Show the next few tetrominoes to be spawned,enabling long-term planning.

Specialty Cards: Introduce unique tetrominoes with special properties (e.g., a tetromino that generates extra resources, a defensive tetromino).

Event Cards: Trigger random events that can either benefit or hinder city development (e.g., a sudden current that shifts tiles, a discovery of a rare resource).

Removal Cards: Allow players to remove poorly placed tetrominoes, but at a resource cost.

Effective deckbuilding becomes essential for optimizing city layout, managing resources, and mitigating risks. Players must carefully curate their decks to adapt to the ever-changing loop.

Potential for Expansion and Future Development

“Tetris Cities Beneath the Waves” is a proof-of-concept,but it demonstrates significant potential. Possible expansions include:

Multiple city Biomes: Introducing different underwater environments (coral reefs, deep-sea trenches, hydrothermal vents) with unique challenges and resources.

Advanced Building Types: Adding more complex structures that require specific tetromino combinations to construct.

Enemy Encounters: Introducing underwater creatures that attack the city, requiring players to build defenses.

Multiplayer Mode: Allowing players to collaborate on building a shared underwater metropolis.

Integration with Tetris Official app: Exploring possibilities for cross-promotion or even a limited-time event within the official Tetris mobile game (tetris.com).

lessons Learned from the Game Jam

This Loop Hero game jam experiment offers valuable insights for game developers:

Genre Blending: combining seemingly disparate genres can lead to innovative and engaging gameplay experiences.

Procedural Generation as a Foundation: Loop Hero’s procedural generation system provides a powerful framework for creating dynamic and replayable games.

The Power of Constraints: Working within the limitations of an existing engine can