Tumble

Overview

Tumble is my take on the falling block puzzle game we all know (it’s Tetris). You drop blocks, clear rows, and try not to get buried.

The difference is in the shapes. The more rows you clear, the more block types get added, which makes the game steadily harder. What starts simple quickly turns into organised chaos. Some of the blocks are particularly cruel (and some are really handy).

Development Story

I wanted to make a Tetris-like game with a twist. The idea was to keep the core loop but add variety and surprise through new shapes.

The first thing I built was the basic falling and clearing loop. Once that was working, I focused on block rotations. That was trickier than I thought. Getting pieces to rotate into the “right” orientation took some trial and error. I started writing them by hand but after the basic shapes I got confused quite quickly. In the end I made a little editor that let me draw shapes and calculate the proper offsets automatically. That sped everything up and allowed me to add some morre complex shapes.

Design Notes

Visually, I wanted it to nod to Tetris but still feel different. The board has vertical colour bands to make drop positions clearer. The blocks themselves are drawn as crates, which gives everything a bit of an industrial vibe.

The pacing is classic Tetris at first. Blocks fall faster as you go, but the real challenge is when the uncomfortable shapes start showing up. That’s when the strategy flips, and you have to unlearn some habits. You will have to let go of making the idea you can make everything perfect, and focus on adapting quickly instead.

Technical Notes

Tumble makes use of a few neat BeepMini features:

• The entire UI is a single BeepMini artwork, built with the textmode editor.
• Generated music and sound effects keeps the soundtrack tight and lightweight.
• Speech synthesis kicks in when rows clear, which adds a fun bit of personality.

Nothing too heavy code-wise, but the block editor tool was a big help for testing shapes.

Player Tips

Keep the board as flat as possible. Look ahead to the next piece, and don’t build deep wells unless you’ve got the right block lined up.

In the early game, leaving single block gaps for long pieces works fine. Later, when the odd shapes start showing up, it’s better to keep things balanced. Once the unusual blocks arrive, the game becomes less about perfection and more about adapting quickly.