Components: Falling blocks of different shapes, score and level info
Skills required / taught: Quick decision making, efficient stacking
Object: Complete rows of blocks to score points.


About the Game
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov. It was created on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. While versions of Tetris were sold for a range of 1980s home computer platforms, it was the hugely successful handheld version for the Game Boy launched in 1989 that established the reputation of the game as one of the most popular ever. Electronic Gaming Monthly's 100th issue had Tetris in first place as "Greatest Game of All Time". In 2007, Tetris came in second place in IGN's "100 Greatest Video Games of All Time". It has sold more than 70 million copies


How it Works
Random sequences of 4-block pieces fall down the playing field. The object of the game is to manipulate these pieces, by moving each one sideways and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of blocks without gaps. When such a line is created, it disappears, and any blocks above the deleted line will fall. As the game progresses, the pieces fall faster, and the game ends when the stack of blocks reaches the top of the playing field and no new pieces are able to enter.


Thought Bubble
Removal – When an objective is completed in a puzzle game, removing the completed objective awards the player points and allows for space to complete new objectives. What kind of objectives might your game have? Perhaps completing a solid row or column or blocks, connecting three or more blocks of the same color, or constructing a specific shape…

Interaction – Pieces combine to form complete rows in Tetris. How will the attributes of your game’s elements affect the way they interact? Two dice occasionally roll doubles which might produce an additional effect; opposing elements, such as fire and ice, might cancel each other out or combine to produce something new; an object’s nature or behavior might attract others of a particular nature or repulse those of another.