4-Block Dungeon has an amazing yet simple concept: what if Tetris pieces were traversable dungeons? And what if the player needed to manage not only the layout of the Tetris piece dungeon, but also a tiny playable character inside?
That's the objective in this neat browser prototype, which indie developer SquareAnon uploaded following some very enthusiastic feedback on Twitter. Here's the initial Tweet, with an animated gif that sums it all up:
I haven't posted in a while. This is because I started a tiny side-project/prototype and wasn't ready to show it yet.Well, here it is! It's an idea I've had in my mind for some time: a mix of Tetris and roguelike/lite dungeon exploration.#gamedev #lowpoly #madewithunity pic.twitter.com/Q5ZhPRoF8QSeptember 3, 2019
"The goal of this prototype version of the game is to collect as much loot and level up by defeating the enemies before the map gets filled to the top," reads the description on SquareDev's itch.io page. "When that happens, a portal will appear. Reaching it will mean victory." Honestly though, just handling the game is a lot of fun.
The playable knight has an array of tools at their disposal which can prove handy if they become trapped: hammers can "create a tile of walkable ground", pickaxes break walls, and bombs can destroy tiles in order to combine those nearby.
While already fun, 4-Block Dungeon is still just an early prototype, and there's not any guarantee that it'll blossom into a fully fledged project. That said, there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for it. Check out the rest of SquareDev's itch.io stuff here.