I saw this last night, but I didn't reply, Real life is busy busy at the moment.

That situation is an interesting one.. part of me is thinking, if the player gets themselves into that situation, Sod 'em, that's their fault.. but then another part thinks that situation could be common.. and there needs to be a fluid way out of the situation without resorting to special powers like walk through walls or flying.. the mario idea is good, but not in keeping with the game mood.

The only way I could have a way out of that situation and keep it realistic* I'd have to change the game a little bit to give the player an additional skill, this skill would also need to be used in other situations.

Perhaps the player could drop a bomb and escape that way..

Player is trapped due to critical planning failure
Code:
OOO
 OO
 OO
 OO
 OO
POO
OOO
Player places a bomb (rick dangerous stylee) and climbs up the wall (don't be in the way of the bomb when it goes off)
Code:
OOO
 OO
POO
 OO
 OO
BOO
OOO
The bomb explodes, taking out all blocks in a 2 block radius.. destroyed blocks give no score.. perhaps give a penalty of their value to dissuade players from using bombs too much.
Code:
OOO
 OO
POO
XXO
XXX
XXXX
XXXX
Code:
OOO
 OO
POO
  O
If I made the bomb powerful enough, you'd be able to escape.. but there'd still be situations where the player is trapped.. at that point, I'd say, Game over.. don't get yourself trapped like that.

As settled blocks only fall if a line has been completed, it would carve a hold so you could escape. The score for blocks destroyed would be lost and any special scoring blocks would be destroyed also perhaps penalising the player by reducing their score by the amount the block was worth.. the only blocks to have an physical effect from the bomb would be bomb blocks.. they'd explode causing a chain reaction, affecting other bombs, if they were near by.

(bomb blocks do not go off if a line is completed, but instead, it adds the bomb to your count... or places them on the ground for collection (not decided yet).. If they are not collected and a bomb goes off near to them, they explode. Uncollected items prevent blocks from falling if a line is made.. perhaps a crawling mode needs to be added to collect stuff..

This adds a kind of boulderdash element to the game..


Needs more thought as there are too many variables opened up here.

Tonight, I'll be working on getting my Tetris arena set up and working. Hopefully, I'll have something to show for my efforts.