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Octoblocks's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #1014 | 3.228 | 3.228 |
| Overall | #1267 | 3.228 | 3.228 |
| Presentation | #1282 | 3.392 | 3.392 |
| Originality | #1523 | 3.316 | 3.316 |
Ranked from 79 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Tetris but you cannot control the spin
Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
Yes
We created all art during the game jam
Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
Yes
We created all audio during the game jam
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Comments
Very fun game and I love the happy octopus
Ahah love the octopus!
I was a bit lost as to what was the objective during the game and when I finally decided to build higher instead of larger, the AI won... But I wasn't let down and I proceeded to block all his falling pieces with my special cement ones, creating a big jam over his island... :D
I think the game is missing some polishing but other than that, great game!
It was an interesting idea but very unpolished so you can't have a good idea of whats going on and i think that skill isnt involved so much in the game, but a had a little fun with your game!
Cool game! Such a fun and unique idea!
Some things that I think could make it better - make it clearer which block was the players, increase fall speed, maybe over time? :)
I played with someone and it was very fun! Maybe to confirm the victory, put a delay can be better (like Tricky Towers).
Love the octopus by the way :D
Really fun, really polished, pretty creative, the goofy octopus is cute, great job!
Wow! Very nice use of the theme! Playing with friends certainly is very funny!
It's certainly a novel spin on Tetris, though I'm not sure I would actually consider it a Tetris variant outside of the piece shapes. The goal to stack things high rather than form complete & gapless lines kind of runs counter to the core concept of Tetris. Perhaps it would be more fitting to push the ridiculousness further and go full throttle in the parody direction, throwing in occasional non-block prop items like fish, seaweed, and chili peppers (that may roughly resemble Tetris block shapes but are slap-stick obviously not).
As others have also mentioned, the pace feels too slow. Either increasing the speed or the size of the pieces would probably remedy (or at least mitigate) this, though. The cement block is an interesting idea, and perhaps the game could add some other variant blocks to mix it up further if development continues.
Presentation-wise, the game is quite polished and has a good number of assets at that level of polish. Sound effects and BGM are actually nice but grow irritating due to the length of a round and its slow pace. That said, the lack of interactive diversity makes it feel rather bland and somewhat like a physics demo in a way. Despite the production value being there, I did not really "feel" much of anything while playing (apart from "physics is working"). If only it felt like more was happening, I would probably have liked to give the presentation 4 stars.
That said, it certainly is a very solid implementation of a novel idea. I didn't really "have fun" playing, but credit is due to the willingness to explore eccentric gameplay avenues. So kudos to that.
Overall, quite forgettable but also equally novel. Good show!
Thank you for this! We completely agree with the critisisms and love the idea of throwing in some random objects. I wish we could have made it feel a bit more skill based but we'll work on it. Cheers!
I see. In that case, you might want to consider ways to make the consequence of actions more deterministic and consistent. Skill-based games need to reward mastery, and mastery is generally accumulated via the degree of comprehension and amount of practice. So more often than not, precision of execution is demanded of the player in such games. To make that feel fair (yes, even in single-player experiences), the game’s action->consequence outcomes need to also be precise and predictable.
If you were to add a “straighten out” action with a cooldown, where all resting blocks would be snapped into the nearest orthogonal grid alignment, then it could produce a mix of “creation is messy” and “refactor!” combo. Or auto-snap upon the block settling (post physics) could also work, just to list a couple options. If piling high is kept as the goal, then gapless lines can be rewarded with either a perk (i.e. get a special piece next, charge up grid-snap meter faster, prevent interference, etc.) or an interference to the opponent (i.e. raise water level, knock out a random piece on opponent’s side, stop time only on opponent’s side, etc.). Some of these could create emergent gameplay scenarios where moving your own block to the other player’s side might be (rarely) beneficial as well, if you decide to continue to allow cross-side placement.
The key is probably how to make player intention translate well to consequences. Execution precision is important in skill-based games, yes, but player intent still has to have more agency than external factors that feel outside of player control. The reason why games like Gang Beasts works well is because they deliberately parody this aspect for hilarity. And yet, even so, they actually sustain a very fine balance between what is in control (player controls) and what is out of control (ragdoll physics) in that game. Similar things can be said of Getting Over It (@#$% ^&*, Bennet Foddy) as well.
I do believe you can take it either way between skill-driven physics game vs. parodic party game, or maybe even a sort of balance like Gang Beasts. Good luck with whichever direction you decide on.
P.S. Credit where it’s due. The random objects idea isn’t mine but rather from having seen this legendary video: https://youtu.be/gZmnLe0EcXM
Very cool, for sure if it is more polished it can become a great game, as it is already quite fun! Congratulations for the good work!
Thank you very much :)
Really original! Good work
Thank you!
It was too slow, also the artificial intelligence is kinda not intelligent at all... but it was somewhat cool especially the music... also the long version shouldn't exist (the single player mode should be short as well) especially that the game is slow paced
Thank you and yeah, we agree it was a bit too slow :)
Nice game!! Very original idea, an unpredictable tetris is pretty cool and original! Great job!
Thank you!
Not bad, I think it was an interesting take on Tetris, a bit too slow paced, and when I had to go afk and came back I saw that I won, but that was probably because I was in single player. I really dig the octopus model.
Haha! Yeah we wish we could have made it more skill and timing based and not completely random physics based. Glad you liked the octopus too, thanks!
Interesting spin on tetris, at first I was trying to play traditionally but then I realized i just need to stack blocks to win, haha. I think this game would benefit from a faster pace. It felt a little too slow.
Good job overall.
Thanks! Yeah we agree, it needs to feel faster
I think this one is pretty fun!
I like the way the simple loss of control completely change the way to play the game. Really nicely done!
This is one addictive and fun game. The randomness of it all combined with the sabotaging your opponent makes for good times. Great work ^_^
Thanks very much, glad you liked it!
That's a bit too much like Tricky Towers to my taste! Some design choices are different though : Being able to sabotage your opponent is pretty fun.
That was a magic moment when I realised I could sabotage my opponent, thank you for thattt