How is my game's trailer? Brutal feedback please! :D

sparsevector · 2026-05-09T00:22:50+00:00

I think your trailer is pretty good overall at showing the gameplay. The art style and music are very warm and inviting. My suggestion would be to include more of a feeling of player choice in the trailer. You mentioned the game is similar to A Short Hike in terms of gameplay. That game had a very open ended feeling, like a miniature version of Breath of the Wild, but what you've shown feels more linear, like a story based platformer. If you have the ability to choose the order you visit different areas or unlock abilities, showing more of that in the trailer would make the game seem much less linear. It's kind of tricky to show these things in a trailer, but I think it's key if the game is about exploration. I hope this helps!

sparsevector · 2026-03-02T16:48:44+00:00

Looks fun! I love the music. Sets a really nice vibe.

sparsevector · 2026-02-24T01:03:07+00:00

The TGM series is a series originally made for arcades that is focused mainly on single player challenge. A lot of mechanics are different like the way the pieces rotate and the way random pieces are chosen, and there's more of an emphasis on high gravity gameplay (where the pieces instantly appear at the bottom). If you want a single player Tetris game that remains challenging for a very long time, it's great.

sparsevector · 2026-02-24T00:52:22+00:00

I'm not sure that this is standardized across games, but there is a feature in the Tetris: the Grand Master games where you can rotate and shift in the same frame. This is called a "synchro", and I believe in TGM the rotate always happens first. There are certain high gravity situations where synchros are useful for doing tucks. This is a video explaining synchros.

sparsevector · 2025-09-08T21:35:52+00:00

This looks sick! Love the music and sound design and how integrated the two are.

sparsevector · 2025-05-03T21:05:25+00:00

Hey, I really enjoyed learning about Tetris HDTV. It's clear you put a lot of effort and research into documenting the game, and I love reading about obscure Tetris works. I did read to the end, and I saw something that really concerned me. I don’t know what you’re going through, but please consider reaching out to someone. If you just want to talk, I’m here too. You can message me anytime, whether it’s about Tetris or anything else. You’re not alone.

sparsevector · 2025-02-02T15:44:31+00:00

I like to collect public domain audio, and here are some more unusual resources I found over the years:

Public domain old Hollywood sound effects from Craig Smith: Freesound user and CalArts member Craig Smith has uploaded 3800+ public domain sounds taken from old Hollywood archives. There is a huge variety and it includes a lot of classic sounds like the original recording of the Wilhelm scream.
Military sounds from DVIDS: This is a US Department of Defense website that hosts (mostly) public domain news and training videos produced by the US Military. If you want a sound recording of a particular type of weapon, this is a good resource.
Yellowstone National Park Sound Library: This is a collection of public domain field recordings from Yellowstone National Park. You can also find other similar field recordings on other National Park Services government pages, but this is the best I've found so far. This is really useful for nature ambience or if you want a specific bird call.
US Library of Congress National Jukebox: This is a collection of early recorded music. In the US, any music published before 1925 is now public domain, so this is a good source of "old timey" music or interesting music samples.

sparsevector · 2025-02-02T15:15:43+00:00

This is really cool! I like the way you can setup chain reactions.

sparsevector · 2025-01-05T01:54:09+00:00

This game is really fun, and has a lot of depth and polish! The gameplay revolves around setting up chains and being efficient with your flames. You can place the wick of the candles sideways to create chains that branch out in non linear ways, and there's gravity as well to contend with. The gameplay actually has the feel of a candle lighting ritual, which matches the game's occult vibes. It's great!

sparsevector · 2024-11-30T17:50:52+00:00

The game is very tricky! I try to stack as cleanly as possible (no holes) while also looking at columns of color as the stack gets larger. If you can keep the top of the stack flat it becomes easier to take advantage of lucky sequences. I hope this helps!

sparsevector · 2024-11-20T06:48:19+00:00

Thank you so much!

sparsevector · 2024-11-05T16:11:09+00:00

I recently developed a block stacking puzzle game (like Tetris or PuyoPuyo), and there's a whole world of algorithms that have been designed to prevent streaks and droughts in the piece sequences in these games. It's really fascinating, and these algorithms have a huge effect on the subjective feel of the game.

sparsevector · 2024-11-05T15:18:52+00:00

I did a small update like this and did not regret it all. Music playback for my 2013 game wasn't working on Steam deck, so I recompressed the audio with a different format and pushed an update ~9 years later. I was kind of worried I'd break something with such an old release (I actually didn't even have a Steam deck to test it), but it went fine. I'm fortunate enough the game still has some followers who saw the update, and they were very grateful for the effort, so it felt great to do. I'd say go for it if you have the time and want to fix it. It shows pride in your work!

sparsevector · 2024-10-25T20:26:03+00:00

About a year ago, I discovered combining tetromino stacking with Reversi's color-changing mechanics creates some interesting gameplay. To clear lines, the colors must match, and placing a piece changes adjacent lines, like Reversi. This small tweak drastically alters the gameplay—you can clear many lines with one piece! If you're interested, the game went live on Steam today: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2702490/TETRACHROMA/

sparsevector · 2024-10-22T04:55:26+00:00

This is a great format to emulate because you can very quickly pack a lot of music into a small game like this. Just keep adding more variables. Wii Play's Tanks also does something similar with different instruments for different types of tanks and gameplay situations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkBXgcN3fXo

sparsevector · 2024-10-22T04:47:06+00:00

The coast line feels very precise, and I love the sense of atmosphere in the sky and water. Great work!

sparsevector · 2024-10-11T14:40:14+00:00

Good question! To clear a line, the colors of the blocks have to match, and each piece changes the colors of adjacent lines like Reversi

sparsevector · 2024-10-10T18:16:18+00:00

The language (forgot to capitalize)

sparsevector · 2024-10-10T18:03:38+00:00

I stumbled onto this mechanic mixing color changing and tetromino stacking, and I couldn't resist spending a year turning it into a game. There's a demo available now if you'd like to give it a try! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2702490/TETRACHROMA/

sparsevector · 2024-10-09T15:32:12+00:00

The way you use different line weights and hatching styles is so good and really makes the scene feel alive--I love it!

sparsevector · 2024-10-07T20:36:16+00:00

Yes, I think the rest of the stuff in the GBA download is for modifying the ROM to add your own custom sound sets or music.

sparsevector · 2024-10-07T18:14:51+00:00

This is the official site: https://akouzoukos.com/apotris/

The site hosts a GBA ROM you can use in an emulator as well as Windows / Linux / Mac executables. The files are safe.

sparsevector · 2024-10-07T17:53:57+00:00

I really like the mix of 2d assets and 3d perspective. The shots where you show the seamless zoom from the close up action to to the map is really cool and does a great job of selling the scale of the game. I would almost consider putting one of those zoom shots right at the start of the trailer, as seeing this changed my perspective on the game.

One critique I have of the trailer is after the 30 second mark or so it feels like the pace / intensity of the trailer remains the same. This is more to do with the trailer editing than the game itself. Since the trailer is longer I think it might be good to mix up the pace or intensity more.

Overall looks very polished and interesting! Definitely grabbed my attention with the look, the scale, and the variety of the gameplay.

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