customizations and such

Submitted by etaipo@gmail.com:

One thing I noticed right away is that there's a delay
between pressing a key and seeing/hearing the piece
rotate and move. This doesn't effect actual gameplay,
but it's really annoying.

What about an option for changing the orientations and
column positions of where each piece spawns. It's
difficult to go from one "falling block" game to
another, so this would make the transition a whole
bunch easier.

What about an option for a dual axis rotation system?
It's a symmetrical way of making the I, S, and Z pieces
rotate. If a player rotates CCW, the S or Z pieces
orient vertically to the left two (out of three)
columns. Vice versa for CW. For I, CCW rotates on
left-middle, etc.

Lastly, how about a button to make pieces go all the
way left or right? I'd prefer this over the current
"hold left for a split second" way.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by pphaneuf on 30 Mar 2008 at 5:26

The way that pieces spawn and rotate (and they are fairly closely linked) varies
between implementations because for a long time, there wasn't a generally 
accepted
standard until the "Tetris Guideline" came into existence in 2001. Many players
experience "tetlag" when swiching from game to game, so it's something that's 
not
really avoidable. The fact that Quadra uses cascade gravity adds even more 
unfamiliarity.

The existence isn't well known, much less exactly what it contains, but games 
that
have published since then as "authentic Tetris games" give some indication as 
to what
the guideline contains. However, many people who do know about it feel that it 
puts
an artificial ceiling on the potential skill levels of the players.

I don't think that it's important (or even a good idea) to copy a system from 
any
particular game, but I do think that one system is chosen and stuck to, 
especially if
score records are going to be kept.

Over the last few months, I have been working on a rotation system that does as 
you
describe. However, I have not yet produced a working implementation of it. I 
would be
willing to explain it in more detail if requested, although I think it's 
probably a
little off-topic here...

As for "far left" and "far right" buttons, they may not be as necessary if the
"delayed autoshift" is fast, or can be configured to be fast.

Original comment by Shrapnel.City@gmail.com on 31 Mar 2008 at 3:38

kevincdurand1 / quadra

customizations and such #14