CRASHBLOCK

Cerebral-Bicycle Company entry for
the 2007 Multiplexity Competition



The Game |
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Crashblock is a game of game of skill, planning, timing, climbing, running, jumping and squashing... with bombs.

Based on the familiar games of Tetris and Flashback, the player attempts to prevent a never ending 
supply of blocks from filling the arena, however unlike Tetris, the player has no control
over the falling blocks, all decisions must be made before the blocks fall... and fall they do. 
The very heavy tetris blocks are attached to a crane which iscontrolled by a Player Avatar confined to the Tetris Arena.
The player must climb, leap, run over the tetris blocks already in play to direct the crane to the location for the next block
then get out of the way before the block arrives. Tetris blocks are very heavy and the chain supporting them cannot hold their
weight for long. After a period of time, the chain snaps and the block will fall from its current location whereever that is.

This presents several challengers to the player...

1: the player must play Tetris to remove the lines, thus keeping the arena free from blocks

2: the player exists within the tetris arena and has to scramble around over the blocks and avoid getting squashed.

3: the player must collect the bonus items which appear after being released from special tetris blocks. 
These items appear on top of the current highest blocks.

4: the player must try to refrain from becomming trapped, if the player has collected any bombs, He/She may use them to aid their escape however
bombs are extremely dangerous and will kill the player if they are caught inside the blast area. 
If a player wants to collect a bomb they have planted, they merely have to walk away from it and walk back over it.

5: the player must collect bombs released from special blocks before they explode. Collecting a bomb, makes the bomb available for use. 
If the player does not collect the bomb, it will explode, destroying any blocks around it. 
Any bonus blocks destroyed by bombs will result in a score penalty equivalent to the value of the blocks. 
If a bomb explodes near to a bomb square, the bomb contained in will be released, and may explode. This can cause a chain reaction.

6: the player must clear enough blocks to clear the level, once this happens, all blocks are cleared from the arena. 
The next level starts with slightly weaker chains.

7: the player must survive for a number of levels to complete a Stage.




Competition Stage2 | - completed 02 March 2007
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Tetris is implemented.
The player can play a game of tetris using the in-game tetris engine, 
although the player has no control over the rotation and falling speed of blocks once they fall.

The controls are:

Mouse XY: Move the camera around. This version of Crashblock uses a free camera, 
this is to allow you to move quickly between the current block and the blocks already in play.

Cursor Keys:
Left: Move crane Left
Right: Move crane Right
Up: Rotate Clockwise
Down: Rotate Counter Clockwise
Space: Drop block.
ESC: Back to Menu. (Currently there is no option to resume the game)

Instructions for Stage 2

The game starts, you can see a rickety Tetris Arena complete with crane, this crane will fly away and return with a Tetris Shape.
Once it has returned, you are free to position it using the Left-Right cursor keys and Rotate using the Up-Down cursor keys. 
Pressing Space causes the block to drop. It will drop until it hits the bottom of the arena or another Tetris block. 
As soon as the block has been released, the crane will go and fetch another block.

The game ends when a block cannot be placed into the arena because it is too full.

To keep the level of the blocks low, you must fill rows with blocks. 
This will cause the blocks to be removed from play and for the blocks above to fall into their place.


What is implemented:

Tetris game.
Falling blocks.
Wood Stage.
Music


What is not implemented:

Platform game.
Player Sprite.

Collectable bonuses.
Scoring.
Levels.
Metal Stage.
Ice Stage.
Stone Stage.


09 March 2007 |
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Fixed some Bugs, some bugs remain, altered some graphics, changed the Music (Now using music by William Christiansen with kind permission)
Added Bombs - a bug remains in the general positioning system against the Tetris Block Matrix.
Added Bonus items which are generated when blocks are removed from play.

Competition Stage3 | - completed 24 March 2007
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Platform game is implemented (mostly)
The player controls the sprite using the Arrow keys, attempting to guid the avatar safely through the tetris arena.
The aim of the game is to survive, being hit by a falling tetris block is Fatal. If this happens, you will lose a life. Once all of your lives have gone, it's game over.

Controls:
Left: Run Left - vault single block
Right: Run Right - vault single block
Up: Climb up
Down: Climb Down
Space: Jump
Enter: call Crane

Additional Debug controls:
A: Crane Left
D: Crane Right
W: Rotate Clockwise
S: Rotate Counter Clockwise
Q: Drop Block

The Mouse controls the Camera, although the focus is fixed on the player sprite. This focus can be shifted by holding the right mouse button. 
To switch the focus back to the sprite, release the mouse button.

Extra lives and score can now be collected.

Known Issues:
Lots. 
Animation is terrible, this is placeholder art until I can arrange better animations.
Still impossible to lose Tetris game by over stacking.
Tile Placement bug under certain circumstances.

Actions not implemented:
leaping from a wall
Climbing over walls
Blocks do not drop automatically yet.

26 April 2007 |
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Fixed lots of bugs,
Implemented real video footage, it needs a bit of tidying up, but I'm basically happy with it.
The state machine has a couple of bugs though.
Fixed preview window.

New Controls:
Left: Run Left - vault single block
Right: Run Right - vault single block
Up: Climb up
Down: Climb Down
Space: Jump
Enter: call Crane
Shift: Rotate Clockwise
CTRL: Rotate Counter Clockwise
BackSpace: Drop Block

Competition Stage 4|
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All main aspects of the game are now included. Some aspect have not been completed as yet.

What's implemented.
Player can be killed by falling blocks.
Blocks drop automatically once time runs out.
Game over if the blocks reach the top of the arena.
Game over if the player runs out of lives.
If the player collects enough stars, the level is complete.
Player can collect and drop bombs.
Scoring.
In game menu.


What's not implemented.
Timeout.
Death by bomb.
Meanie Creatures have not been implemented yet.
The GUI needs to inform the player of how many stars to collect to finish the level.
Game completed screen.
Video and Sound config screens. (current version runs only in windowed mode)

Known Issues:
There are still some issues with the grid where blocks will sometimes not fall.
Animation states can be a little odd sometimes, there are some missing states for certain circumstances, this produces odd behaviour sometimes.
The crane attempts to centre itself on the player, it sometimes gets this wrong.

Controls:
Left: Run Left - vault single block
Right: Run Right - vault single block
Up: Climb up
Down: Climb Down
Space: Jump
Enter: call Crane
Shift: Rotate Clockwise
CTRL: Rotate Counter Clockwise
BackSpace: Drop Block
B: Drop Bomb.

Competition Stage 5|
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Now contains a tutorial page which describes how to play the game including the controls and the basic game structure.
COnfigurable options now included. Screen Mode (Windowed, Full Screen) Note: Game restart is required and user requires permission to write to C:\ in order to create the Crashblock folder.

Many bug fixes, including the spurious block on the left of the arena stopping 2 blocks from the floor error which has plagued the game from day one.
The state system has undergone improvement so the character is less prone to jumping around when it's not suppsed to.

Added the timeout ability, pressing 'T' invokes the timeout (if the player has one) which stops the chain from disintigrating.. this is not really an issue on low levels, but vital as the game gets faster. Unused Timeouts are taken from one level to the next. Bombs are not.

Sound has been added.. in game effects for various things.
Bombs kill players now.

A new control system has been put in place.

Left - Right: control all moving and climbing including vaulting.
SPace - Jump
Up - Down: rotate the block clockwise and counter clockwise.
Enter: Call Crane
Backspace: Drop Block
B: Drop Bomb
T: Use Timeout 

Controls are mirrored with:
A-D : Left - Right
W-S : Rotate Clockwise - Counter Clockwise
Q : Jump
E : Drop Block.


Known Issues:
There are still issues with the state system although not as bad as before.
Player can still climb walls, Considering allowing this with an additional jump from wall feature.
Video Option screen does not remember previous select between reboots although previous request is actioned as normal so it does work.. it just doesn't display on the options screen correctly when the game starts.
The level start screen still only displays the text "About this here level" and doesn't describe the number of stars to collect or anything else.

Competition Stage 6|
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Now includes a Credits screen.
Includes 16 levels, hosted within 4 different environments
Wood
Metal
Stone
Ice

Each level has its own set of graphics and music.

The Control system has not changed apart from the addition of
DELETE: Forfeit life.

Additional items have been added, Extra fruit as everyone needs more fruit in their diet.
Diamonds, these appear when you complete multiple lines.
2 Lines: Diamond
3 Lines: Emerald
4 Lines: Sapphire
Each are worth different amounts of points.

Extra lives can only be earned every 10000 points
Timeouts can only be earned every 5000 points.

Many bug fixes.
Added sounds, play with the volume turned up on your subwoofer for best results.

Enjoy.



Credits:

Graphics,  
Code : Jason Farmer

Music: William Christiansen of Symphonic Chronicles


Thanks to:

My Wife, Jenny, for her support and participation
Alexey Pajitnov, for creating originally Tetris in 1984




(c)2007 Cerebral Bicycle Company
http://www.cerebral-bicycle.co.uk



