RubyTet Release and Future Directions
Rubytet 0.0.3 has been released. This version further polishes the execution of games with lot of minor changes. You can download it here.
From the CHANGES file:
==0.0.3==
-You can now rotate using the up arrow key instead of the space key
-Playfield location can now change
-Down key goes down faster not instant. Use space instead to do instant drop.
-Resize the screen down to 800 by 600.
-A game automatically start when you press play button or enter to start the game.
-Under the hood, the codebase has been modernized to use the newer Rubygame::EventQueue style.
Also, be sure to file bug reports and feature requests in RubyTet’s bugtracker. This will allows me to better keep track of what sort of problems and what features you guys would like to see in the game.
Some bug report and feature requests, such as improving the UI or the game being resolution independent cannot be implemented at this time because these changes required hacking outside libraries. However, I’ll be working on them so that these changes can be one day implemented in rubytet itself. Two things I need to work on is SVG support and improving the rbgooey library.
Rbgooey is straightforward since all I have to do is finish writing the internal data structures and then knitting it back together with some improved functionality for texts.
SVG support is more hardcore since I’ll have to hack two projects. One is svg_sdl which requires me to fork project and then eventually update it to meet the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Specification. After updating the code, I’ll have to work on the SVG featureset for rubygame. It will requires me to venture into C territory, which is outside of my comfort zone. Not only rubygame users will gain SVG support but the SDL userbase will gain a solid SVG library. That’s an exciting prospect!
These projects are long-term so the benefit probably won’t appear until several version later into rubytet’s development.
The next version of RubyTet will undoubtely introduce a new gameplay element mentioned in Redesigng RubyTet : Competition versus Cooperation. This element will vastly improves the difficulty of the game. Further polishing of Rubytet will continues.
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