FourBlock Descent

About the game

FourBlock Descent is a falling-blocks puzzle made for the 32blit, the open-source handheld console from Pimoroni, by Charlie Birks, who goes by Daft_Freak and also helps maintain the 32blit software kit. It is a homebrew game: an independent developer wrote it for the device and released it under the MIT licence, and here it runs in your browser with no changes to the game. The author's own tagline on the project page is "Definitely a 100% original game!", and he is joking.

Seven shapes made of four squares each drop one at a time into a narrow well. You slide them sideways, turn them, and try to complete full rows, which break apart in a little burst of blocks and make everything above them fall. The well never changes and the pieces never stop coming. The game is over when a new piece has no room to appear.

Playing it here

Click Play and the game opens on its title screen, where a computer-controlled player stacks pieces by itself to show you how it goes. Press Z (the console's A button) to start. The panel on the right shows your score, the number of lines you have cleared and the piece that comes next.

Clearing several rows at once pays much better than one at a time: four at once, the biggest clear possible, doubles the score for the clear, and doing it twice in a row triples it. Clearing lines on consecutive pieces builds a combo that multiplies the score further. The fall speed is fixed, so the challenge is keeping the stack tidy rather than keeping up.

When a game ends with a score good enough for the table, you can enter a three-letter name with the arrow keys and press Z. The high scores are stored in your browser, on this device only. If you play on a phone or tablet, a direction pad and buttons appear below the screen.

Controls

Tips

Keep one column free. Leave a deep gap at the side for the long straight piece: filling it clears four rows in one go, the best score in the game.

Look at the next piece. The preview shows what comes after the current one, so you can decide where the current piece is going to stay.

Rotation pushes you off the wall. If you rotate a piece next to the side of the well, it is moved back inside when it fits, so you do not have to step away first.

FAQ

Is it a copy of a famous game? It follows the well-known idea of dropping four-square pieces and clearing rows, a style of game that many programmers have written since the 1980s. The pictures, the code and the scoring here are the author's own, and the game has its own name.

Does it save my progress? Only the high score table and the last name you typed. A game in progress is not saved.

What is a 32blit? A small open-source handheld with a 320×240 screen, a D-pad and four buttons that anyone can write games for. The games run on the device or, as here, on a computer.