Gravico
In this falling block puzzle game, position your pieces wisely to make clusters of 4+ blocks of the same color. The bigger the cluster, the more points you'll get. Most importantly, if you manage to chain cluster destructions with the fall of the blocks, you'll multiply your points.
Three different modes are available (after being unlocked), each one having a different rhythm.
Controls
Arrow keys - move left/right/down
Up arrow - hard drop
(X)/(O) - swap current pair's colors
Dev notes
This is my first complete game using Pico8. My previous attempts suffered from unreasonable scopes, but this was super fun to do, and I definitely am motivated to make some more Pico8 games in the future!
Really cool game! The graphics are very simple but there are a lot of nice little details that have been added like the different effects when you clear blocks and background animations on the menus. I really liked how you unlock the different game modes, and you even included a quick tutorial to help get started. The gameplay is very familiar, and similar to Puyo Puyo, but with the a little twist of not allowing you to rotate blocks but just swap colours, simple and effective. That's a star from me :)
This is so nice to hear, thanks ! ^^
Yeah, the moment I added the unlock system was when I felt like I had a completed game. The feeling of progression does a lot I think.
What's funny is that for this game, I did not take a specific game as an inspiration, but I was sure while doing it that the concept was close to an existing one. So yeah, while I don't think I've played Puyo Puyo before today (but I'm sure I have played a similar game at some point), it is indeed basically the same mechanic! So the lack of rotation isn't an intentional twist. I'm glad gravico has it's own vibe though!
This is great! Any chance of adding a hard drop button for the Up key? I'm so used to it in other falling block games.
Finally managed to unlock puzzle mode; very satisfying. This is a really cute little match-four/puzzle game. Check out my playthrough from 5:07 onwards:
Wow, thank you so much for featuring gravico in one of your videos @extar!
Nice job on unlocking puzzle mode, it is indeed tricky to do! I guess it isn't super clear, but puzzle mode also gives you blocks of random color, but as you have all the time you want to place the blocks, you can really think ahead to create big combos, which I find an interesting way to play. I also agree for the speed increase in arcade mode, it is quite brutal ^^
I could put the game on itch as you suggested, why not!
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