Ha, I'm delighted to see someone actually make a game about refactoring. I have to say, though, the blocks being different colors really threw me off - I was trying to match colors the entire time my first try until I realized it was probably more like Tetris. As far as being minimal, keeping all the blocks the same color would make a lot of sense and also make the game more understandable. Another thing that would help is to make sure the player gets a successful line-clear early on, so they know what they're going for. I wasn't really sure what "success" would like look at first, and I ended up guessing wrong. If you have time, it might be worth prototyping a version of this where blocks disappear when four or more of the same color are touching.

Thanks for detailed comment. I'm not sure if LD48 rules allows to modify such things after compo is finished.

Loved the voice overs!

really neat idea! does a great job of evoking the frustration (and fun!) of refactoring

RealyUniqueName: you can always make a post-compo version that doesn't enter the competition itself.

Oh hey, I think I recall seeing you talking about this game on Twitter. I'm glad you finished it because it's amazing. I definitely did not expect a "Tetris derivative" to be so much fun and refreshing. The mechanic, the story, the voiceover and the execution were all top notch. Definitely one of my favorites this LD48 so far!

Really interesting take on the Tetris concept, very fun to play actually ! And it's not often you hear a voice-over in a flash game... :)

Good fun. I agree with the previous comment about the colours being a little misleading. But overall I enjoyed it.

This is such an unique idea and a great combination with a known game concept! I think this would work on a touch screen very well. I had much fun to play it.

Great idea. Fun game! Tight controls.

I like this idea. It was pretty fun.

Okay this is very good to play !

Entirely agree with the first comment - I was trying to match colors for a while too.
I like the concept a lot, might want to start off with smaller levels/slower speed.
Great job overall!

confusing at first but once I figured it out it was cool

It isn't really minimal, but it's a good idea. I agree with others, the colors not meaning anything threw me off. It seems pretty well polished.

Quite Hard. Nice sounds ( especially at the ending ). i liked the game :).

Great idea. The inversed Tetris mechanic works pretty well. The story is also pretty funny. Sound totally fits the game.

Love the concept, very cool and minimalist ;)

Has a real polished feel. Interesting to see a new take on a classic. That it's a variation threw me and it took me a while to figure it out (that you only need to fill a line regardless of color). Great effort!

Really awesome take on the theme and fun game.

I'm sorry I cannot play this game because it's in Flash (I don't have Flash). Not your fault of course...

just wanted to drop by to say that I thought the image, from the preview, looked like a penis. Cheers!

Ok, i've deployed to html5. Hope you'll enjoy it.

Never thought my finger can look like a penis. I'll keep screenshot as is, maybe it encourage more people to try my game :)

Nicely frustrating ^^. Good job.

Neat game, I like the presentation and "story" of it and it's a fun take on a well known game.

Great, original concept. Liked the style. And the audio was funny. Nice job!

Hilarious! Loved the sounds and Finger UI transitions :-)
Both modes were quite hard but a very fun and interesting twist on an old (but still awesome) game idea!

Took a while to figure out what to do, as I was mistakenly trying to group the colours into blocks. A unique take on a familiar theme.

I find the concept interesting, all the taunt during play are great for the mood and the graphic fit well. I find it a bit difficult, but you have a good game.

Now I'm thinking you just made the best advertisment of you game... :-B
The game was actually very fun. Here is one complaint though: on later levels the line disappearing effect was in way sometimes.

It takes some time to break the Tetris automatism.
Cool idea and the game is well polished.

What a great idea. I actually like this more than tetris, there is more strategy.
And the background story is funny and adds someting to the game.

I'm not sure if there would be a copyright issue with tetris, but I whink this would be a great game for tablet or phone. But then it would have to respond to touch (you move the layer where your finger is).

And then you could add maybe some more faces of the boss where he gets angries all the time.

Yeah, i'm already making a tablet version ;)

Very interesting take on the Tetris theme. The presentation looks good, only I think having the instructions permanently inside the playing area does not look so pretty.

Probably the best example of code refactory i've ever seen in my entire life. Pretty fun to play too. GOod job!

Very interesting idea! I think the game is hard, maybe it needs some balancing. I played it 3 times, and in all of them i could get only one line eliminated, with the time almost over.

Post-compo version was balanced. It was beated several times by different people. I'm satisfied with current difficulty :)

Clever idea!, I wouldn't imagined it, I like it. Btw you used the same framework I used, it's nice. Grat work!.

nice alternative tetris like, it's fun to play

Well as a Tetris derivative, I'm going to have to compare it to the real deal. Tetris wins. Here is why:

On slow speeds the game is too easy as there is enough time to move every row optimally (this is partly true for Tetris as well), but when the speed rises above a certain, not that high, level, planning flies out of the window and a frantic disaster of a defeat ensues.

This is because to succeed in refactoring one would have to utilize the core mechanic which, in theory, offers limitless reconstruction of the current terrain, to a high degree.

Attemts at this are foiled by the keyboard controls which add another layer of complexity to the game.
You'll have to think about the incoming block, the current situation and the current position of the selection, in a too small of a time frame. This is made worse by the fact that every new block spawns into a random position with no indicator of said position.

So, there are too many variables to think about when time is nigh and one of them is even based on luck.

In the original Tetris one only needs to think about the next tile and to which positions it fits on the relatively slowly changing terrain.
This data can be attained with a swift glance and maintained vigilance over the terrain and speed, allowing for a more flexible difficulty curve and thus a more enjoyable experience for me.

An here are a few suggestions to boot:

To combat the issue raised by keyboard controls try the mouse. Dragging and dropping a row would work especially well on a touch screen, but it would significantly boost the speed at which a player can react on a mouse as well.

Gamemodes based on maximal refactoring, rather than block usage, timelimit or increased speed, would also help.

I completely agree with you about complexity. But with mouse controls game in current state becomes too easy. I just had no time to think about implementing smoother complexity curve.
However, i like the core mechanic and i'm trying to adopt it for mobile platforms and to fix complexity issues )

I like the unique spin on such a well-known game. A lot of fun to play. Great job!

Really great game I liked the sound effects, but as others already said, there is a problem with the controls. A simple solution would be, to be able to move the incoming block left and right, or to be able to move all the rows at once, this would make the game much easier to control.

Cool and unique twist to the already familiar Tetris gameplay. The game is very addictive plus the voiceovers were really nice.

Made me laugh, what a hilarious way to describe the game mechanics! Instant fives for everything.

Nice concept, really simple but good idea

Solid entry, liked the voice acting touch, reverse tetris was fun though the lose conditions I don't think were always clear. Still, had a bit of fun with it.

The instructions weren't terribly helpful as to what I was supposed to be doing but I got the hang of it, and soon loved it. Spent more time playing it than I expected, great job!
T'is a bold man who uses vocals, but I think it paid off!

Ooh it took me a moment to get what I am supposed to do. The colors were confusing because they didn't matter at all. Pretty good game, the instructions were not terribly clear though.