Cool games from Falling Block Jam
A while back, I floated the idea of running a game jam (an event where developers make an entire game from scratch in a limited amount of time based on a theme) where everybody makes falling block games in the vein of Tetris/Puyo Puyo/Dr. Mario, and a few online friends seemed really excited for it! Adam Saltsman was so jazzed, he jumped the gun and came out with the excellent Wizard’s Folly before I had even organized anything.
So I set up Falling Block Jam with the expectation that a small number of arcade puzzle sickos would join, and to my amazement, over 1200 people signed up. It was a featured jam on Itch and one of the largest jams on the site that month.
I wrote a long post over on my blog Extremely Specific about the challenges that came with running an unexpectedly big jam on itch, in case you’d like to hear more about that. Right now, though, I’d like to highlight some of the really cool games that came out of the event.
Jelly Well
Walaber is known for the JellyCar games and a personal favorite of mine, Parking Garage Rally Circuit. Jelly Well takes the idea of falling blocks and makes ‘em squishy. The a cappella sound effects really make this one a delight.
Paranatural: Spirit Stackers
You might know T. Ashley Jenkins, who brought the world the excellent Petal Crash. I was absolutely floored by the concept and polish of Paranatural: Spirit Stackers. The mechanics have some interesting quirks that take a little getting used to, but reward observation and experimentation with really cool strategic possibilities.
mini pharma
Rémy of PUNKCAKE Délicieux, who are collectively responsible for more bangers than is reasonable for two people, made mini pharma, a cute and clever game that trades gravity for a set of conveyor belts and challenges you to sort and triage ingredients for various concoctions.
Chunkster
Chunkster by Tim Romero is a puzzle platformer for people who do triple t-spins in Tetris. Some of the trickier moves required feel both arcane and somehow perfectly natural. The squash-n-stretch animations really help sell these weird little blocks as characters just trying to roll and scootch through their geometric world.
Professor Gambler’s Bone Scrambler
Professor Gambler’s Bone Scrambler from datagoblin scratches the itch I get to dump the entirety of my wallet into one of those flashy coin pusher games, except this is free. I’ll be honest, I don’t quite understand the goal or the stakes, but the presentation is so good, I still have a fun time.
Recycled Blocks
Recycled Blocks by Werxzy has you playing the role of a little scrap welding robot zipping around the workshop to fulfill orders for specific shapes. In a genre that tends towards being fairly abstract, I’m always impressed when someone successfully puts a little guy in there.
DOCTORvsVIRUS
NPCKC, creator of many cute narrative games including Marron’s Day, opted to create a tabletop game called DOCTORvsVIRUS that turns a standard deck of cards into a falling block game. How cool is that??
…and 200+ more????
There were over 230 submissions to Falling Block Jam, so it’s definitely worth exploring them if you like this genre. I’m so happy to have helped organize an event for this scene that I think is often overlooked in the indie games space. It was a challenge and an adventure, but who knows, maybe we’ll do it again sometime?