pyBlocks - alpha-5

Early alpha release of a blocks/columns game. Used python 2.6.4 and pygame 1.9.1 for developing, but it may run on others. Tested on Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP, but I haven't had the chance to test any other platforms. The alpha release is buggy and has several routines pending rewriting. I've been slowly examining OpenGL and 3d graphics, and I'd like to use these in the game eventually. That's still a long way off, though.

Known bugs:

• Some visual problems with the floating texts.
• The block colors do some odd things between freefall and settling down on the playfield. I hoped using double buffer would fix this, but alas. I managed to patch it up a little bit for alpha-6, but it's still noticeable if you're paying attention to it.

Stuff already in alpha-6:

• Game classes got broken down to multiple files. Functionality is still a work-in-progress.
• Config file received a new variable.
• Blocks stay alive for a tiny bit after landing, so you can work with them if you're quick.

Things planned for the sixth alpha: Any functioning animation sequence to signal what blocks are being destroyed. Further enhancing of the scoring routine. Help the visual problems. Music and sound effects. Start to prepare for the first beta version and how the main systems of the game should be rewritten.

The sixth version is now in the middle of a pretty extensive reorganization and rewriting process. It's progressing quite slowly. 06/10: I thought for a moment that this was abandoned, but the new version started to work. There's still an uphill battle of gluing it all up together. Currently most of it works, and I think all the new game-breaking bugs have been fixed.

Renamed tilesets to Stringname_t0 to Stringname_t6 to avoid some of the messiness involved.

The collapse and scoring routines have been reworked, now the combo favoring really starts to show. I don't like how you can destroy many common shapes of 5-6 blocks at once and they'll be reverted to 3 and 4 block collapses for the scoring, but at least it works. More enhancing is on the way for this one later.

Score texts float up from their collapse positions now. There are some problems with it, but they're of the visual sort and they'll get fixed as a side-product as the animation system progresses. Easiest way to see the flaws in action is to remove an x-shaped or cross-shaped pile of blocks at once, and the floating texts will be piled so that only the top one remains visible. Or just erase a vertical shape from the rightmost or leftmost column.

A new panic text to have some kind of idea how fast the blocks are moving.