I feels like I made all the bugs and mistakes one could possibly make in the progress of making my Ludum Dare game.

When I squashed one bug another would immediately pop up. I had some moments where I was close to burning it all down to get rid of all the bugs once and for all.

The release version was also really buggy so I made a new version that hopefully has all the bugs squashed. I'm pretty happy with it now.

• All blocks are now counted for rows
• A semi rare case where letters would be placed somewhere else should be fixed
• No duplicate letters and lower case and upper case of the same letter in the same round
• Fixed issues with game over state
• Fixed some fundamental stuff with traceing and tracking blocks

I added some glitches in the process, you got to make compromisses somewhere.

The game is like Tetris but with several twists. The obvious one is that the shapes are letters. Instead of moving anything, you have to write letters in spaces. The letters you can write each round are shown on top. When you make mistake by writing a letter where it doesn't fit you get punished with the water level rising and you haveing less space. Completing whole rows will delete rows like you know it from Tetris. There is also no rush in the gameplay since you can take all your time to think about what to write in what space which makes it more of a puzzle and less arcade.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/$380119

P L A Y

I did an update for my little twisted letter tetris-ish game.

This one actually adds some stuff and not just fixes my many past mistakes (you better know them as bugs)

Here is the rundown of all the note worthy stuff:

• Added difficulty progression, by making 2 to 5 letters per round
• Added more fx and shit
• Fixed more bugs (those rare impossible letters should be fixed)
• Added more glitches
• Improved letter select algorithm

I'm a solo dev but I actually had help here, in the form of an AI I whipped up. It tested the game for me so I faster could find issues and fine tune the letter select algorithm. Its complexity got a bit crazy but the results are much less holes, in the game as well the logic!

Check out the game here https://tocogames.itch.io/textris

If you want to play the original jam version, its also available there as the V2 version.

I didn't get to make a tutorial for my game Textris and a lot of people got confused.

You might be thinking

• "Textris, that sounds familiar"

You are also right to assume it is inspired by that rather massively popular game with a rather massively similiar name. Then you might be thinking

• "I know exactly how to play this"

And then that is where you are wrong.

It actually twists your expectations pretty hard.

Here is the quick start of the most important part of TEXTRIS:

Your ultimate goal is then to complete whole rows without messing up. Filled rows will be deleted like you know from Tetris which is of course increases the space you have. The other twist is that any mess up will increase the water level which will permanently decrease your space! You will also have to deal with more letters each round as the game progresses but there is no time pressure at all so you can chill and take your time. When a letter gets out of the top of the playing field its game over.

I still have tutorial planed for inside the game but for now this quick start hopefully clears up any confusion.

Try it for yourself here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/textris

Textris finally has a playable tutorial!

A lot of people got confused by the gameplay which is quite different to what you might expect from a Tetris inspired game.

Its a short tutorial that goes through all the important stuff including a brand new feature which is special double letters where you have to choose one of two letters while the other one gets discarded.

Also new is a highscore list. I tweaked the difficulty progression as well. If you get a chance to play it I would love to hear how it is for you.

I also did a lot of little things on the visuals including realtime water reflection which 100% not faked and doesn't have glitches at all. In my humble opinion it is realest water you have ever seen in a video game.

Here is the full list of changes: - Added playable Tutorial - Added Highscore list - Added special double letters - Added some menu stuff - Added more fx and visuals - Added screen shakes - Added real realistic realtime water reflections - Improved letter and placement previews - Improved letter algorithm performance

You can play it here https://tocogames.itch.io/textris

I just released a new version of Textris with 2 new game modes!

• The arcade mode shown in the video is similiar to Tetris but with some twists including flying over things and switching the letter at any time
• The Arcade-Puzzle mode combines elements of both including giving you all the time in the world to plan things out
• New glitch letters can take up any shape. The music you hear in the video is also new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GKERjcZwOA

I also fixed some issues but I balanced that out by adding the glitch letters.

The game is here https://tocogames.itch.io/textris