Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 38 Four Recommendations!

Chapter 38: Chapter 38 Four Recommendations!

At this moment, Jonas’s game screen just triggered "Angel’s Descent".

Just like what he had seen before, a six-winged angel appeared, swung its sword, and a few more rows of garbage blocks appeared on the screen.

However, the next second, Jonas skillfully controlled the falling blocks and neatly completed two "Triple Rotation Clears".

In less than two seconds, he wiped out all the newly appeared garbage blocks in one fell swoop!

And his score, naturally, soared once again.

Everyone was stunned again, "What’s happening?"

Just a second ago, they were annoying garbage blocks, but the next second they turned into free points.

Clearly, if this maneuver were used in multiplayer mode, the more garbage blocks that appeared, the faster one’s score would increase!

In this situation, the garbage blocks really turned into a kind of "benefit".

This obviously completely overturned everyone’s preconceived notions about "garbage blocks".

Jonas explained, "You all can notice that the garbage blocks generated during ’Angel’s Descent’ follow some patterns.

"There is only one clear gap, which is often made up of one to two empty spaces, and this gap always appears adjacent to the gap of the previous layer.

"That is to say, the new rows of garbage blocks can definitely be cleared using this ’Rotating Elimination’ method!

"So after mastering this technique, ’Angel’s Descent’ is actually doling out benefits, because no matter how many garbage blocks are given, it’s just tantamount to giving away points."

Liang Chun was the first to catch on and said with a sudden understanding, "So that’s how it is! Then the effects in ’Network Mode’ can also be explained.

"The Network Mode supports up to 10 people playing together, so this game acts as a sort of filter.

"The ’Angel’s Descent’ mechanism is a benefit for players who have mastered ’Rotating Elimination’, but for those who haven’t grasped this mechanic, it’s a punishment.

"This helps to quickly filter out and eliminate those players of lower skill level."

Everyone subconsciously thought of what it would be like to compete with Jonas.

Clearly, it would be a brutal massacre.

But this also truly proved that Against Heaven Blocks, compared to the original Rotating Blocks, had made great progress in competitiveness and diversity of gameplay.

And these changes, after all, were achieved with a simple and even rudimentary game mechanic.

It wasn’t even clear whether it was intentional or a bug inadvertently written during the coding process.

Liang Chun reflected emotionally, "So that’s it... I never realized I was blinded by my own arrogance and missed the bigger picture.

"Looking back now, this game is intricately connected, whether it’s the ’Angel’s Descent’ mechanic or the special design of ’Network Mode’, all reminding me that the fundamental mechanics of this game are significantly different from those of the original Rotating Blocks.

"I was too arrogant to notice this, mistakenly thinking it was just a trash game designed to disgust players.

"I stand corrected!

"This game definitely deserves a ’recommendation’, and it’s even fair to say it completely revolutionizes Rotating Block’s classic gameplay, making this timeless classic shine even brighter!"

Cheng Anhua also said, "I give it a ’recommendation’ too."

Li Wenhao scratched his head, instinctively wanting to give a "recommendation" as well, but suddenly he thought of a question, "Hey? Wait, there seems to be a question that hasn’t been resolved.

"Does the game’s deliberate withholding of long bars also have some special significance?"

Liang Chun nodded, "Of course, isn’t that easy to guess?

"Clearly, ’Using long bars to clear four lines’ and ’Rotating Elimination’ are two different strategies. If everyone keeps waiting for long bars to clear lines in the traditional way, then it’s very likely they won’t value or even discover the new ’Rotating Elimination’ gameplay.

"Without limiting the ’waiting for long bars’ strategy, ’Rotating Elimination’ wouldn’t have a clear advantage in combat.

"Moreover, the official rules don’t completely ban ’Using long bars to clear four lines’; what’s prohibited is ’mindlessly waiting for long bars to clear four lines’.

"The appearance rate of long bars decreases as the number of blocks stacked on the field increases. That means, if you only have five or six rows of blocks, you could still wait for a long bar, which doesn’t prevent you from using it to score the maximum."

"After all, the long bar can only clear up to four lines, and stacking more rows is utterly pointless.

"In ’Against Heaven Blocks’ this game, keeping the number of lines on the field to around four to six rows is the optimal solution.

"If you just mindlessly wait for the long piece, then the game will ’punish’ you, which essentially encourages the player to adopt a more diversified strategy and to master a variety of techniques."

Li Wenhao’s face was filled with shock as he carefully recalled the game mechanics discussed by everyone, and then he came to an astonishing conclusion.

"They all matched up?

"All the aspects of this game that seemed unreasonable, in fact, all serve to support the ’Rotating Elimination’ gameplay?

"How high must the designer’s skills be?"

Liang Chun said seriously, "Quite high, probably as high as several floors!"

Everyone sighed in admiration.

To laypeople, what’s the big deal? Isn’t it just changing the rotation rules for the blocks? Isn’t it just making it so that they can fit into tight spaces?

But for professionals, this is nothing short of a masterstroke!

In fact, there’s an unwritten rule in the mini-game design competition.

That is: "The fewer the changes to the original game, the better!"

This rule has never been explicitly stated, but all the judges are well aware of it and consider it an important criterion.

Because game design should follow the principle of Occam’s razor, meaning ’Entities should not be multiplied without necessity.’ It’s not difficult to design an extremely complicated gameplay, but the challenge lies in designing something very simple that remains popular over time.

The games selected for the mini-game design competition are essentially classic games.

They themselves were the optimal designs under the technical conditions of that era, painstakingly discovered by top designers of the time.

Therefore, further improving upon these classic designs for the mini-game design competition is no easy feat!

If you simply ’graft’ more complicated gameplay onto these old games using higher technology, it doesn’t really reflect skill level, as many designers could do this.

But what if a simple design changed the entire underlying logic of the game?

Then it would be terrifying!

’Against Heaven Blocks’ is even more counterintuitive, as the changes it made would have been completely feasible even with the technology of that time, and even less work than the original methods.

Yet, these changes tangibly made the game more enjoyable.

Therefore, the judges found the designer’s skill level to be unfathomable!

As for whether it’s a game mechanic or a BUG? The answer to this question has also become clear.

Of course, it’s a game mechanic!

If it were a BUG, it would mean the designer themselves hadn’t thought of it, so how could they have designed ’Angel’s Descent’ and ’Reducing the Probability of the Long Piece’?’

After a moment of silence, Li Wenhao said, "I see, I need to revise my judgment then. This game deserves a ’strong recommendation.’"

All four judges strongly recommended it, meaning ’Against Heaven Blocks’ would be tagged as ’Overwhelmingly Positive,’ which would provide great momentum for its player base ratings in the future.

Or to put it more confidently, the game has essentially secured the special prize already.

Because compared to it, all other entries in the mini-game design competition paled in significance!

...

Obviously, all of this was engineered by Gu Fan. The reason he didn’t use a ready-made template but rewrote the code himself was to change the block rotation rules.

In fact, the ’fitting blocks into tight spaces’ gameplay discovered by Jonas was a default game mechanic in ’Tetris’ from Gu Fan’s previous life, to be precise, a BUG that emerged due to the limited performance of game machines at the time, but it greatly enriched the playability of the game, winning the affection of both casual gamers and professional players. Thus, the official version continued to adopt this mechanic.

This was the renowned ’T-Spin.’

However, on this world, either because the technology level at the game’s inception was higher, or because the designer of ’Rotating Blocks’ had a momentary lapse, they did not adopt this mechanism, and instead, made every single block have collision.

This resulted in none of the gameplay related to the ’T-Spin’ ever emerging.

So, when ’Against Heaven Blocks’ reintroduced this mechanic, it caused such a sensation!

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