Kevtris (Free Tetris Clone) Updated for WM5/Square-Screen Devices

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.angelfire.com/indie/caywen/' target='_blank'>http://www.angelfire.com/indie/caywen/</a><br /><br /></div>Kevtris 1.1 has been released. New features include WM5 support (including soft menus and square-screen device support), better graphics, and more. Best of all, it's still free.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20060228-Kevtris1.1.jpg" /><br /><br />Treo 700w/HP iPAQ 65xx users, here's another game for your Pocket PC. Do what I did and download it now. ;) The game works without a hitch and looks quite good on my Treo.

[jalex]

Wow! That's just how we like it! The game just works, no glitches, right out of the gate ... and it's free! I guess it'd be too much to ask that all software worked like this. :wink:

[caywen]

Janak - thanks for the news post! pocketpcthoughts.com (and smartphonethoughts.com) always takes care of me :-)

Jalex - thanks for the comment!

[Mr. PPC]

This game rocks!

The interface is extremely well designed and simple to use. The graphics are superb and make the game that much more enjoyable. The controls are easy to do, although I wish I could assign other buttons besides the d-pad (may be possible on other PPC, I have a K-jam).

I don't mind using the d-pad, but I know some people will.

The options are well thought out. You can turn off sounds, for those late night games in bed (once you are addicted, which you will be). You can choose between being able to press the drop button and the piece completely drops to bottom or just moves down a level. There is a cool feature that shows you a preview of how the piece will drop, can be turned off. You can speed up or slow down the speed of the game. The backgrounds change at each level, can be turned off. There is a 'wacky pieces' option, pretty self explanitory. These are just some of the features I like, there are a few others I haven't mentioned.

You can choose different skill levels; easy, medium and hard. You can then choose to start a specific level in that skill level.

Did I mention that it is free. I've paid for games that aren't even close to the quality of this game.

If I had any recommendations for the next version, the ability to choose your own backgrounds would be it. Have the game read images from a directory you assign etc.

This game isn't huge and it runs superbly on the K-jam. A lot of games have gotten large and require a lot of processing power lately, this one is perfect the way it is.

Dave

[msafi]

This is a very good game, except it doesn't play very well on the HTC Wizard because you cannot use the softkey buttons or phone buttons to rotate the peices.

as for the game play it self, it is one of the best. i just hope the peices were able to rotate when they are near the borders. it pisses me off that i have to wait for the peice to descend a little before i can rotate it. also, the inserted lines colors isn't contrasted enough with some backgrounds, which makes them difficult to see.

thanks for making this great tetris game and offer it for free.

[Janak Parekh]

This is a very good game, except it doesn't play very well on the HTC Wizard because you cannot use the softkey buttons or phone buttons to rotate the peices.
Just use the up arrow on the d-pad?

as for the game play it self, it is one of the best. i just hope the peices were able to rotate when they are near the borders. it pisses me off that i have to wait for the peice to descend a little before i can rotate it.
Actually, this is my one nit too. caywen, do you know if you can fix this without too much difficulty? I love this game except that I'm always trying to rotate 5 times before you can. Not that this is critical -- it's a great game and has a permanent spot on my device. :-D

--janak

[caywen]

Everyone - thanks for the feedback.

For the soft buttons - I'm not sure overriding them would be that useful as I wanted to reserve them for the menu and pause items. As for the other phone buttons, I probably have some kind of bug somewhere. By "phone buttons" do you mean the Send/End (green/red) buttons?

For the border rotation stuff - Yeah I totally hear you on that. I wasn't sure what the right way to do it is, but given this feedback, I'll see what I can do. I think the side wall rotation should remain the same, but perhaps one needs to be able to rotate the piece when it's at the very top...

I'd like to refine the gameplay more, so keep the feedback coming!

[JonnoB]

Here is something worth money: Multiplayer Tetris (Kevtris) via Bluetooth/WiFi in LAN mode or over the internet with a central lobby. I think that with more and more converged devices, simple games like Tetris would do well in multi-player scenarios.

[Mr. PPC]

Everyone - thanks for the feedback.

For the soft buttons - I'm not sure overriding them would be that useful as I wanted to reserve them for the menu and pause items. As for the other phone buttons, I probably have some kind of bug somewhere. By "phone buttons" do you mean the Send/End (green/red) buttons?

I'd like to refine the gameplay more, so keep the feedback coming!

Caywen,

I think the option to use the other buttons would be nice. I personaly use the d-pad and have no issues what-so-ever in doing so. As for being able to rotate at the top, this would be a nice fix. Not a big deal at the early stages of a game, but later it makes a difference.

Your app has become an instant hit in our corporate environment. It is the only third-party game I will allow to be installed on our devices, of which IT has done 53 so far. We don't allow users to install additional apps on their devices, IT Department has to do it. So far only K-jam's and SP5's have had it installed. No problems so far with any of them using it.

Monday is the SWMUG meeting and I'll make sure it gets installed on most of the devices there. :-) I'm sure some of the attendees will already have it by then anyway.

Dave

[msafi]

hi Caywen,

thanks for the response. i personally would like to be able to rotate the peices whether they are near the top or the sides. by phone buttons, yes, i mean send/end (green/red) buttons.

thanks again,

msafi,

[caywen]

All,

Thanks for the replies, and I apologize for not posting for a while. Kevtris 1.2 is in the works, and it will address some user feedback. One of the things that will work better is piece rotation as they appear at the top of the board. There's a lot more than that, but for now, thanks for the support, and I hope you will download the new version when it comes out (probably within 2 months - hey, I got a day job doncha know :-) ).

-Kevin

[Janak Parekh]

Thanks for the update, Kevin! Be sure to submit Kevtris 1.2 to the news team when it comes out. I'm looking forward to it, because that rotation quirk is the only nit I have with the game. ;)

--janak

[ogier-the-dane]

The movement of the falling piece is very, very slow. Is there a tweak that will fix this? Please fix Kevin if you can :)
thanks
HTD