Games · Intermediate
Build Tetris
Build a playable Tetris with a fixed-timestep game loop, all seven tetrominoes, rotation and collision detection, line clears, leveling, and scoring.
You build the classic falling-block game Tetris from scratch, including the grid playfield, the seven standard tetromino shapes, gravity that drops pieces on a timer, player rotation and movement with collision checks, line clears, increasing speed by level, and a score. The heart of the project is a fixed-timestep game loop that advances simulation independently of render rate, plus a clean representation of pieces and the board that makes collision and rotation tractable. It is worth building because a real game forces you to model state, separate update from render, and handle timing and input, which are transferable to simulations, animation, and any interactive system. It is resume-worthy because a finished, playable game is concrete proof you can carry a non-trivial stateful system to completion.
What you build
- Fixed-timestep game loop decoupled from frame rate
- All seven tetromino shapes with distinct colors
- Player movement, soft drop, hard drop, and rotation
- Collision detection against walls, floor, and settled blocks
- Line clearing with row collapse and shifting
- Level progression that increases gravity speed
- Scoring tied to lines cleared and a game-over state
What it teaches
- Fixed-timestep game loop and update/render separation
- Grid-based collision detection and rotation math
- Modeling game state and transitions
- Real-time input handling
- Frame timing and gravity stepping
- Carrying an interactive system to a finished, playable state
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Take it further
- Add a next-piece preview and a hold slot.
- Implement wall kicks via the Super Rotation System.
- Add sound effects, a high-score table, and pause.
