COLUMNS v1.0

[Han]

Feedback is certainly welcome. The scoring rules have changed and should now more closely resemble the original scoring system. Click here for Wiki info on the game

The only thing left to add is the "fluff" (intro screens, UI for changing the keys, etc.)

Keys are: 4-down, 8-left, 2-right, and 5-rotate, +/- pause

How to play:

• Three blocks are dropped in a "column" and the player maneuvers the column using left, right, down, and rotate (to rotate the colors within the column).
• A combo is earned when three or more blocks of the same color are aligned in a row, column, or diagonal.
• Three points are awarded for every triplet of blocks within a row, column, or diagonal. For example, if one creates a column of four red blocks, then there are two possible triplets for a score of six points. A triplet is any three consecutive blocks (in the given row, column, or diagonal). A multiplier of one more than the current level is also assessed.
• Once all combos are scored, they are then deleted and the remaining blocks fall toward the bottom to fill any gaps. Should this cascading of blocks cause new combos to form, combos are then scored but the multiplier is increased by one per level of cascading. Thus it is generally much better to play a piece that will cause several levels of cascades than to simply try for a max combo.
• The level is increased every 100 blocks. The game speed will increase as the levels increase.
  

Download:
  columns.zip (Size: 5.82 KB / Downloads: 228) (Updated 19-MAR-2014)

Changelog:

19-MAR-2014

• Minor graphics fixes
• Added new "blocks" counter -- keeps track of total number of blocks cleared
• Changed scoring scheme to match that of the original game
  

12-JAN-2014

• Fixed potential error with pressing touchscreen
• Adjusted colored regions of blocks
• Added Game Over screen
• Minor adjustment to how blocks clear (blinking animation)
  

If you want to modify the background color, change cBGC to a value between 1 and 7 inclusive, and modify the cBGT value between 1 and 255. The first is a color choice (see the variable color) and the second is an alpha blending level. A very subtle background would be cBGC:=7 and cBGT:=192;. Keys are defined by cRot, cLeft, cRight, and cDown, etc. See top of source file for more info. You can also modify the block colors. Please note that purple (#FF00FFh is reserved for masking). All these will eventually be built into some sort of options screen.

[Mic]

Yes, I'll review it this WE !

[ArielPalazzesi]

Very very very nice!!!!

I like this game. Goog work Han!

[Kevin Ouellet]

Good work, as always!

By the way, any reason why there is a checkerboard made of white and black instead of mid-gray? Is it to keep an old-school, low-color vibe? I think it might be better to use plain gray instead.

[Han]

No reason, just put stuff together to get things to work, and the checkerboard was to help with alignment. :-)

Edit: If I recall, the tile is actually generated by code, and is not actually imported. So you can change it to whatever color you want with the cBGC and cBGT variables.

[Han]

Updated to 1.0 -- changes in how scoring was calculated; closer match to the original Game Gear scoring scheme. See first/original post.

[anderin]

Down is 4, not 7

[Han]

(03-20-2014 05:08 PM)anderin Wrote:  Down is 4, not 7

Oops! Thanks! (fixed)

[Kevin Ouellet]

Glad to see the new update

[Han]

It looks like the old Game Gear scoring scheme is outdated -- almost all games I see these days have ridiculous scores. I'm wondering if the perhaps I should "pad" the scores by a factor of 100; or at the least shorten the number size for the scores (I can barely break 750 points).