So you're a webdesigner, and you decide to make a cool
puzzle game in
flash/
shockwave/
java/etc for your site. Or, you're a
developer for the
palmpilot or a similar
portable device. You decide on the rules - You have a screen full of stacked tiles, and you have to click on similarly colored or shaped groups in order to remove them until the screen is empty.
STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU AREN'T BEING ORIGINAL.
This idea has been the basis for countless
Palm OS and
flash games already. SameGame was originally written in by Eiji Fukumoto for some flavor of
*nix in 1992, and since then has been ported to pretty much every other platform capable of running it. By using this
basic game structure, you're just contributing to the hundreds of
uninspired SameGame clones already out there. Most of the time, adding one or two
special features to a game won't make it seem completely
new and interesting (the only exception I can think of here is
Bombliss/
Tetris Blast). Take a few minutes (or a few days) and think up
something original, and code that instead. You'll be doing everyone who relies on
web games for entertainment while at work a big favor, and
you might become famous.
Some popular SameGame clones and their 'special features':
Collapse : Collapse has
bombs and adds new rows of tiles from the bottom periodically, making it play something like
Tetris Attack.
Q-Beez : Block animations reminiscent of
Homestar Runner.
Big Money : Falling objects from the top of the screen that award points if they can make it through to the bottom.
Please, don't flood
the net with more SameGame clones, unless they involve
PantyCat. If you're desperate to clone a puzzle game, I'd recommend
Puyo Puyo.
update : fixed the history of SameGame. This s what happens when I try to write
php and node at the same time while listening to music with 6 hours sleep while at work.
my bad.