A year ago I began work on my game WireBlocks. Unfortunately life got in the way of working on the project (and this post) for quite some time. So now a year later, I wanted to resume work on the game for One Game A Month. The last task I had been working on was updating the visuals to be a bit more pleasant than basic programmer art. All the changes discussed here are summarized in the picture above and below the break.
WireBlocks is a game based on the popular game Tetris, with some key differences. First, for each piece the player is given, each square will have up to four wires in it. The wires are axis-aligned, or in other words, can go up, down, left, or right. Wires, and the piece shapes overall, are randomized. Second, the mechanic for removing blocks is updated. In classic Tetris, players remove blocks by filling up an entire line with squares. In contrast, WireBlocks has players forming connections from one side of the board to another. This can be accomplished with a single straight line across, which then reduces it down to the same conditions for classic Tetris. Yet in WireBlocks, the paths formed can twist around each other. This leads to requiring players to manage where they place blocks, or else they can block off a promising connection. Finally, gravity reversal is included as a backup method to get unstuck.
The source code for the game can be found on GitHub here. Updates are pushed periodically. The game is developed in Java and currently requires knowledge of how to compile and run a Java project to play. An executable will be coming soon.
The Nexus Grove 