Idea for Game - opinions wanted.

[Bluecat]

I was hoping to get some opinions on the marketability of a game idea that I am thinking about.

The concept is to cross a tetris style game with a word game. The mechanics would be similar to tetris. Different shapes would be released from the top of the screen and fall to the bottom as is normal for this type of game. However, each block in the shape would contain a random letter, possibly weighted to prevent some letters being too common. The player would move and rotate the blocks, not only to finish a row, but to complete words in the row. Longer words would give bonuses, as would multiple word combos.

There would be several modes available: A standard falling blocks game. A standard row completion with word checking, and a 'collapse' mode where only completed words disappear. A few other modes may also be possible but I haven't considered that yet.

I guess you could call this my first stage of market research. I'm interested in hearing your opinions on this idea. I'd like to determine if it would be worth pursuing, before I take some time off my other ideas and dump a lot of time into it.

[MirekCz]

well, you might do a test, but I guess getting a word in a row from blocks might be extremely difficult. I mean something more then 2-3 letter words. And also when you make a "cat" word then maybe many letters around should dissapear as well (as it will be hard to create a word from all letters)

It might be nice if done right... but it also could be a total failure if you don't find a good way to really put those words in to game.

One thought... what about the ultra-speed at the end when you practically play to minimize casualties instead really getting anywhere? I guess completing words at this stage is kinda out of question ;-)

Like I said, you could try with very small test to see if this idea is possible to evaluate into good gameplay. Once you do it you will know if you should spend the time to create a true game/polish gameplay/add graphics etc or simply drop the idea.

[mahlzeit]

As long as you don't call it Wordtris:

http://www.jeku.com/automatongames/wordtris/
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/review/R66641.html
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Wordtris
http://www.arkmay.com/tetris/articles/wordtris.html

[Mark Sheeky]

There are quite a few similar(-ish) sort of games and I suspect that you'd have to be really clever to play it, but it sounds like a good enough idea to me.

Mark
Sound Effects For Game Developers
http://www.indiesfx.co.uk

[Bluecat]

Thanks guys,

So, what I'll do is make a prototype and play with it for a while. I'll probably put it up for download just to get some more opinions. Hopefully, I'll have something together in a few weeks.

Oh, and no, it's not going to be called Wordtris, *tris, or tet*. I've got an idea for another name.