Show HN: Angularis – like Tetris, but based on triangles

[rufname]

Angularis is a game similar to Tetris, but based on triangles instead of squares. Which is why it also has diagonal movements. I had this idea about a month ago and built the game in my spare time.

I think it is a bit more difficult compared to Tetris. You kind of have to get used to "think diagonally".

Maybe it can be a nice little challenge for you.

I'd be happy to receive some feedback. Thanks!

[laumars]

Nice concept but there’s a few areas this can be refined to keep the difficulty the same while making the game much more charitable to players.

1. Given you have triangular blocks and diagonal movements, the board should probably be angled too instead of rectangular. Maybe experiment with having a tapered bottom to the screen.

2. In Tetris ever piece can connect with every other piece to form a new block. This isn’t true here. You have some blocks that are squares (orientated with a flat bottom). Some that are squares by diamond orientated (ie rotates 45 degrees). Some that are entirely diagonal. This means that a lot of the pieces do not work together. You’re also effectively creating 8 different orientations to match rather than 4 while still only allowing shapes to rotate in 4 different orientations. So you need to spend a lot more time deciding upon what pieces are available. I don’t think having more pieces is the solution here either because you just reduce the likelihood of a piece you need from dropping.

The controls work surprisingly well on mobile though the drop button is a little too Easy to accidentally hit. But that’s nit picking because it’s a pretty decent experience otherwise.

[stormbrew]

There was a game very much like this on the NES called Pyramid[1], and it is notoriously difficult/painful to play, though a lot of the pain is in the repetitive score.

It also had a very wide playfield though, which made clearing lines take for EVER. Playing well also involves making good use of bombs to fix mistakes, because a big problem with this as a concept vs. normal tetris is that it's possible to make unfixable gaps.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqacpzXY3Ns

[rufname]

Thanks a lot for the pointer to Pyramid. The „bomb concept“ is indeed interesting.

[emj]

I like your version better with the more complex pieces, but that is what makes it harder as well.

[vore]

Oh man, this hurts my brain! I still haven't managed to clear a row, but I'm trying!

Just a small quality of life request: could you add a little more delay when the block touches the bottom? I feel like when I try to fast drop the block it finishes dropping a little too quickly and I can't slot it into place easily without gently tapping the down arrow to adjust the speed.

[airstrike]

Very fun, but could use some polish. Controls need improvement. A single key for rotating would work better (arrow up is the most intuitive and indeed I keep hitting it and accidentally "storing" a piece for later, which is a great concept but should be bound to a different key since the arrow keys convey movement). Should show instructions in the same page as the actual game. In fact, the home page should be the game, with the other stuff tucked away (see e.g. the Wordle page for one potential UI/UX approach). Graphics could use some polish, typography / CSS too

[ralferoo]

The up arrow to store was the biggest problem for me. I ended up doing this about 10 times in about 40 pieces, just because it's muscle memory from Tetris.

[IYasha]

Same here. Also, such games would certainly benefit from single-hand operation in mind. I'd prefer UP for rotation, DOWN for drop, and, maybe, PgUP/DN for L/R rotation, END for hold. And similarly on the WASD side of the keyboard, so either hand may be used optionally. Or even for one-keyboard multiplayer. )

[emj]

Feels a bit too hard, I've only managed to clear one line. Building straight lines out of triangles seems hard, there are so many overhang pieces. Not saying it needs to be easier but I might need some help to get started.

[dukoid]

If the pieces could be rotated by 45° that would help I think?

[airstrike]

It needs a 2-piece triangle to make a lot more empty spaces viable, or even an occasional 1-piece to allow for fixing mistakes

[unfocussed_mike]

This is cute, but ultimately kind of unplayable.

The keyboard controls are non-intuitive as observed by others.

The playing "field" is plain and for me at least (possibly due to vision issues) this means I can never be confident of the position of the piece before it is very close to the surface.

And fundamentally the square base and horizontal clearing make it a question of being lucky enough to get at least one of the two door-wedge pieces at the right time; otherwise you get too many unfixable gaps.

What this means is that the initial difficulty is too maddening to make the game fun to play, and I feel you must hate me.

Make the base and row clearing a V shape and you might have a game, rather than a cognitive punishment beating!

It is much easier to play on a touch device -- great work here! -- but at the same time in Safari on a 2018 iPad Pro (no slouch) it suffers slowdowns and non-responsive moments as play continues. Which may be out of the developer's hands.

[throwamon]

Very cool, very hard. In fact I'm wondering if the shapes (when randomly chosen?) don't make it impossible for the player to keep the game going indefinitely (as you clearly can in Tetris). I wish I had the proof chops to examine this claim.

(I only managed to clear one row.)

[unfocussed_mike]

The worst state in Tetris is the endless stream of "zig zag" shapes, but at least with those you can alternately sacrifice and clear rows, usually.

With this, I am not convinced that the pieces are allocated in a way that remains playable. I have cleared a couple of rows (in different games!) but there just seems too much stacked against me for progress.

It could be due to my eyesight; the board area needs visual hints. It could also be due to the controls, which seem like deliberate hardship.

It is cool, but it's too difficult to be fun; there's almost no recovery possible from accidents and there are too many ways to have accidents.

[tiborsaas]

I love it and hate it at the same time, I couldn't clear a single line :) Those green blocks are evil.

I like your sound design choices to use drum machine samples.

[tkzed49]

It would be cool if you rendered the (triangular) grid, and showed a drop preview. In its current state, I never have enough confidence to hard drop.

[luisegr]

yeah that would be a cool feature to start understanding this new shapes

[re]

Because it's so different, and takes some time to get used to the different ways that you can move pieces and slot them together, I think that it would be helpful if there were a practice mode that disabled the auto-falling, to remove the time pressure element.

[re]

In my browser (Firefox on macOS), the buttons to the left of the game (pause, music, etc) don't work when I click on them directly--it just makes pieces rotate. It seems that I have to click just to their left in order to use them.

[city41]

My brain really wants/expects 45 degree rotation. Not saying you should add that though, it might make the game too easy.

edit: and playing some more I see 45 degrees wouldn't even really work.

[pyjarrett]

Fantastic! You should be very proud.

Took a while to get used to it, but I was very satisfied to clear a few lines.

I was curious what effect it would have to change or add to the concept of "row" to be not horizontal, but instead a "strip of contiguous triangles from the bottom to one of the sides." I might also try instead of a flat bottom, one shaped like an inverted triangle.

[Arcorann]

This isn't the first polyabolo version of Tetris I've seen, though I think it is the first one with diagonal movement in addition to horizontal. I find it playable enough for my liking. Comments on the game:

* Configurable controls would be nice. Most (modern serious) Tetris players would be more used to Z/X for left/right rotate and Shift or C for hold. (Don't listen to the people who want only one rotate button; two are essential nowadays.)

* Ghost piece would be nice as well (I think someone mentioned it elsewhere). Even grid lines would help.

* Pause doesn't work, at least on desktop.

* Line counter is missing.

* The title mentions a version 0.7. Is there a corresponding changelog?

[IYasha]

Interesting concept ) // BUGBUG: there's no screenshot on the main page; in the game there's no "exit" or "main menu", "back" or even "help" button; the whole game screen sometimes moves instead of the shape; sometimes ASD buttons don't work (can't figure out why); default controls feel awkward for me, as a Tetris player, because UP used to be for rotating shapes and DOWN for faster dropping. // TODO: maybe add a "slide" option? When shapes slide in diagonal gaps to the very bottom? tested on Firefox 50

[omoyoto]

Like the idea. Can’t get even one row to complete after playing for far too long.

[eatonphil]

Nice idea! Only two annoyances are the vertical scroll that up-down keys mess with and that the up key doesn't the thing like it does on normal tetris.

[rufname]

Thank you for your nice and constructive feedback so far. I plan to keep polishing the game and to implement some of the suggestions.

The approach for the project so far was to use only „VanillaJS“ (so no frameworks, except for CSS) and to keep it as lightweight as possible. I think I might deviate a bit from this strict approach in the future.

[theraoulduke42]

good company!

https://www.hextris.com/

[rufname]

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

[FpUser]

I played it a little bit and I felt like murdering someone ;) Simple reason. I am very decent Tetris player as to me it is a form of meditation. And hot key to rotate that shape is hardwired by now. So to me this has completely spoiled what could be a decent game.

[dalmo3]

Fun game. Cleared two lines! Green blocks are evil indeed.

An annoying thing is that the apparent buttons on the left don't work since a mouse click rotates the block instead. I needed to mute the browser tab because I couldn't click on the sound button.

[bondarchuk]

Nice. 1000 points. The diagonal drop is very satisfying once you pull it off. Could be a bit more smooth as others say. There's more overhangs, but it's also more forgiving in terms of letting you fix those, I think.

[winrid]

Am I the only one that keeps reading the name as AngularJS? oh the memories...

[camdenreslink]

I got up to 4 cleared. I think with some more time I could find some patterns to reuse. Where to place pieces is really unintuitive and requires some thought (but of course there is no time to think).

[dom111]

Fun, but definitely hard! Love that fact it has touch friendly controls, of note though, I needed to two finger tap to rotate which wasn't clear to me from the help text!

[bowmessage]

Nice, looking forward to the NYT acquisition.

[tartoran]

Couldnt clear one row but am loving it!!

[chrisma0]

Uff.. I'm struggling over here. This feels like knots in my brain. Fun!

[legerdemain]

Surely "Tritris," by analogy with "Tetris."

[rufname]

Actually that was the original name I had in mind. But I found it to hard to pronounce.

[bl0b]

Cool game! Super simple and I like the added challenge.

[industriousthou]

I guess I’m not a shape rotator after all.

[KaoruAoiShiho]

Ahh yes shape rotators assemble.

[ngvrnd]

controls unintuitive