Lard, I cringe every time you say that. To call everything that isn't cloning "innovation" is to cheapen the meaning of the word. I know you like crazy ideas and whatnot... But I wouldn't call such things innovations unless they were truly groundbreaking, with the innovating games played for significantly more than 5 minutes before being discarded. I would describe something like herc's game as "creative", with mandatory quotes, but not innovative. I'd call something like Gavin Ward's game different, but not innovative. The only innovative games in recent memory have been TGM3 and TDS. Even then, TDS is innovative for it's VS implementation and not for any of its disposable gimmick modes. I know you're a big fan of piling crazy ideas on top of crazy ideas on top of each other, but I really do think that at the end of it all you get what is at best a curiosity and at worst a pile of shit.
I'll agree with colour_thief in that it takes a HELL of a lot of effort to make something (for the sake of arguement, let's assume this "something" is a new game type) that's not quite "cloning" but is also fun to play. you have to somehow introduce something new while at the same time balancing that new with the old. let's take an example: those insanely difficult quirky mod-ridden courses you see for StepMania are not made by the StepMania devs (including the unofficial branches' devs). they're actually made by some of the end-users that have enough knowhow and patience to put the things together. some of the people here would fall under that category relative to Heboris UE Mini (I know I do at this point). the people that are probably gonna have to be innovative are the end-users that have some basic programming skills.
HOnestly there just isn't that much more to innovate in tetris left without making it no longer tetris.
agreement. are you after productive tweaks of the current game, or a new game? i'd say jewelry master is a pretty good example of an "innovation" that is awesome, but totally not tetris. actual gameplay changes are really really hard to come by. multiple piece previews, bag randomizer, history reroll randomizer, hold, 20g, initial rotation, maybe SRS. it's really hard to add things and keep them from being distracting--multiple hold boxes would be a good example of what i would consider the "busy" type of progress.
I also agree with the notion that true innovation is really hard to come by. However, I myself am a little tired of all the cloning that goes on. It would be nice to have something new to look forward to when trying something new...I feel things like the speedcurve and performance grading/ranking have great potential for innovation. Now if people would only experiment.
In terms of difficulty, grading, there is scope for innovation. In terms of gameplay, Tetris is perfection. Innovation will only be a backwards step...
what about 20G instant sideways movement with gravity? what about O pieces shifting 1 column when rotated? what about little tiny previews in the center of the well that let you see more with less eye movement, all against an invisible stack with borders that don't distract you from seeing the previews? what about the original idea of previews above the active piece in Lockjaw? i'm afraid we're not willing to give new ideas a chance. if someone had put a hold box in a clone game 5 years ago they would've been laughed at. is this a bad thing? not necessarily, not if you've devoted some time to a particular version of tetris and you want to keep improving at that game. some people like to experiment, but i get the feeling most people want to play whatever's mainstream.
sadly, jujube pretty much nailed the point: most people will play what's mainstream, even if what's mainstream genuinely sucks (see also: Halo 2/3 and Gears of War). I, personally, tend to favor new things over old. I want something different, something unusual, something that hasn't been done 200 times or more before. (as such, when my script gets released, please don't complain after you guys hit level 2000 about pieces spawning out of place. it is intentional. also, level 3000 will start screwing you over for a reason I won't quite reveal just yet.)
That was stolen from Quadra. And my post wasn't intended to be taken entirely seriously. Tengen Tetris is Tetris, but compared to the gameplay in Terror Instinct I would hardly call it perfection.
sure, if you're clone is designed to mimic official games. but last time i checked there was no guideline for fan games
