4 ms·

Futilitris

93 points by jmduke 13y ago

dragontamer 13y ago
Ehhh... I've played a lot of pointless games before. Can't say that this one was particularly inspiring, although it tricked me for about 10 minutes thinking that there was something worthwhile to play here.
ohazi 13y ago
I suppose it isn't that much more futile than normal tetris...
lordsheepy 13y ago
Well, I enjoyed it, but good tetris mechanics make it an exercise in how long until you get bored. Does at least make me remember the joy of finishing all the wonders in the New Tetris for n64 though.
funkyy 13y ago
Interesting concept and new take on Tetris. I liked it a lot. Keep it good work!
seouled-out 13y ago
This is not a game, it's interactive art posing as a game. The intention is not to provide an itch to scratch, but to lead the player towards contemplating compulsion itself. Brilliant.
- saurik 13y ago
  I am having a very difficult time dealing with the fact that playing this game feels exactly the same as the programming I normally find myself doing; like, I spent a lot of time last night improving the design of my website backend code, and today while playing Futilitris the state of my mind and what I'm experiencing as I slowly decrease my aspect ratio feels pretty much identical :/. (Uhh... I hadn't actually read the quote at the top yet; I'm now having a really horrible existential moment...)
- serjeem 13y ago
  Well, I mean, that depends on your definition of game: http://www.gamedefinitions.com/ http://www.gamedefinitions.com/.
l0c0b0x 13y ago
It needs 'something', other than that: Brilliant!
chrisballinger 13y ago
If you weren't aware, the guy who made this also made the very awesome Frog Fractions and recently funded its successor on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/475057068/frog-fractions-2 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/475057068/frog-fraction...
XaspR8d 13y ago
I really appreciated that the sound + music began to echo after several zooms... the vast, hopeless chamber effect really hammered home the futility.
tommydiaz 13y ago
Well...that was one of the darkest puzzlers I've ever played.
rangibaby 13y ago
Just playing this game me bad flashbacks to this: http://qntm.org/files/hatetris/hatetris.html http://qntm.org/files/hatetris/hatetris.html
- andrey-p 13y ago
  And I thought Hell Tetris [1] was bad enough. [1]: http://www.kongregate.com/games/banthar/hell-tetris http://www.kongregate.com/games/banthar/hell-tetris
  - PeterUstinox 13y ago
    Also http://xkcd.com/888/ http://xkcd.com/888/
lesingerouge 13y ago
A metaphor for life: impossible to win, impossible to lose. Just a game. Makes me wonder if there's an "easter egg" hidden somewhere.
sneak 13y ago
It's 2014. Stop using Flash.
- jkap 13y ago
  This game is from 2011.
- stevenh 13y ago
  Even today, HTML5 games won't function properly across all modern browsers without using Flash via soundmanager2.js as a crutch to get around unacceptably poor audio tag implementations. In particular, the audio tag implementation in Safari makes pure HTML5 games range from annoying to unplayable, because there is a completely unavoidable 500 +/- 1000 ms delay between calling play() and the audio actually playing through the speakers.
oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
Does it stop expanding when you get to the pixel level?
- sp332 13y ago
  According to the comments, it just goes gray and never stops. http://i.imgur.com/PQ9Ve.png http://i.imgur.com/PQ9Ve.png
oskarth 13y ago
Anti claustrophobic.
joshvm 13y ago
Wonderfully dark, the music (March Slav by Tchaikovsky) only makes it better..
cardamomo 13y ago
It strikes me that this might be incredibly useful in inducing a feeling of frustration in subjects of psychological studies.
humancontact 13y ago
There's something scary in this experience. You're conditioned by years of Tetris to expect that sweet gratification, but it never comes. All your errors will haunt you forever, and you will never get any reward for your achievements.
- tilde_tilde 13y ago
  See, I found myself realizing that my mistakes didn't matter. In the long run, you cannot see the mistakes.
pawelkomarnicki 13y ago
Oh this is brilliant, really puts a perspective :)
tilde_tilde 13y ago
My favorite comment: Jari, 2012-10-31 02:21:17 Hey I think I found a bug with your game. I managed to complete it. Turns out life isn’t futile – it’s just a matter of thinking outside the box and pursuing your definition of life’s goals, not those imposed by someone else. Here’s a screenshot of the end screen. [EDIT: NSFW] http://i.imgur.com/rGg77.png http://i.imgur.com/rGg77.png
krallja 13y ago
I got to a .1 aspect ratio and then decided I'd had enough and it was time to end the game. Turns out that the board expands upwards too. Truly futile.
VonGuard 13y ago
This is the same guy that did Frog Fractions, which if you haven't played it, is one of the most surprising games ever made about amphibians and scientific notation. http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions
djh_ 13y ago
The pedant in me has to point out that the tetromino sequence is generated randomly, which is not the correct way to do it. http://tetris.wikia.com/wiki/Random_Generator http://tetris.wikia.com/wiki/Random_Generator

93 points by jmduke 13y ago

Ehhh... I've played a lot of pointless games before. Can't say that this one was particularly inspiring, although it tricked me for about 10 minutes thinking that there was something worthwhile to play here.

ohazi 13y ago

I suppose it isn't that much more futile than normal tetris...

lordsheepy 13y ago

Well, I enjoyed it, but good tetris mechanics make it an exercise in how long until you get bored. Does at least make me remember the joy of finishing all the wonders in the New Tetris for n64 though.

funkyy 13y ago

Interesting concept and new take on Tetris. I liked it a lot. Keep it good work!

seouled-out 13y ago

This is not a game, it's interactive art posing as a game. The intention is not to provide an itch to scratch, but to lead the player towards contemplating compulsion itself. Brilliant.

saurik 13y ago
I am having a very difficult time dealing with the fact that playing this game feels exactly the same as the programming I normally find myself doing; like, I spent a lot of time last night improving the design of my website backend code, and today while playing Futilitris the state of my mind and what I'm experiencing as I slowly decrease my aspect ratio feels pretty much identical :/. (Uhh... I hadn't actually read the quote at the top yet; I'm now having a really horrible existential moment...)
serjeem 13y ago
Well, I mean, that depends on your definition of game: http://www.gamedefinitions.com/ http://www.gamedefinitions.com/.

l0c0b0x 13y ago

It needs 'something', other than that: Brilliant!

chrisballinger 13y ago

If you weren't aware, the guy who made this also made the very awesome Frog Fractions and recently funded its successor on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/475057068/frog-fractions-2 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/475057068/frog-fraction...

XaspR8d 13y ago

I really appreciated that the sound + music began to echo after several zooms... the vast, hopeless chamber effect really hammered home the futility.

tommydiaz 13y ago

Well...that was one of the darkest puzzlers I've ever played.

rangibaby 13y ago

Just playing this game me bad flashbacks to this: http://qntm.org/files/hatetris/hatetris.html http://qntm.org/files/hatetris/hatetris.html

andrey-p 13y ago
And I thought Hell Tetris [1] was bad enough. [1]: http://www.kongregate.com/games/banthar/hell-tetris http://www.kongregate.com/games/banthar/hell-tetris
- PeterUstinox 13y ago
  Also http://xkcd.com/888/ http://xkcd.com/888/

lesingerouge 13y ago

A metaphor for life: impossible to win, impossible to lose. Just a game. Makes me wonder if there's an "easter egg" hidden somewhere.

sneak 13y ago

It's 2014. Stop using Flash.

jkap 13y ago
This game is from 2011.
stevenh 13y ago
Even today, HTML5 games won't function properly across all modern browsers without using Flash via soundmanager2.js as a crutch to get around unacceptably poor audio tag implementations. In particular, the audio tag implementation in Safari makes pure HTML5 games range from annoying to unplayable, because there is a completely unavoidable 500 +/- 1000 ms delay between calling play() and the audio actually playing through the speakers.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago

Does it stop expanding when you get to the pixel level?

sp332 13y ago
According to the comments, it just goes gray and never stops. http://i.imgur.com/PQ9Ve.png http://i.imgur.com/PQ9Ve.png

oskarth 13y ago

Anti claustrophobic.

joshvm 13y ago

Wonderfully dark, the music (March Slav by Tchaikovsky) only makes it better..

cardamomo 13y ago

It strikes me that this might be incredibly useful in inducing a feeling of frustration in subjects of psychological studies.

humancontact 13y ago

There's something scary in this experience. You're conditioned by years of Tetris to expect that sweet gratification, but it never comes. All your errors will haunt you forever, and you will never get any reward for your achievements.

tilde_tilde 13y ago
See, I found myself realizing that my mistakes didn't matter. In the long run, you cannot see the mistakes.

pawelkomarnicki 13y ago

Oh this is brilliant, really puts a perspective :)

tilde_tilde 13y ago

My favorite comment: Jari, 2012-10-31 02:21:17 Hey I think I found a bug with your game. I managed to complete it. Turns out life isn’t futile – it’s just a matter of thinking outside the box and pursuing your definition of life’s goals, not those imposed by someone else. Here’s a screenshot of the end screen. [EDIT: NSFW] http://i.imgur.com/rGg77.png http://i.imgur.com/rGg77.png

krallja 13y ago

I got to a .1 aspect ratio and then decided I'd had enough and it was time to end the game. Turns out that the board expands upwards too. Truly futile.

VonGuard 13y ago

This is the same guy that did Frog Fractions, which if you haven't played it, is one of the most surprising games ever made about amphibians and scientific notation. http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions

djh_ 13y ago

The pedant in me has to point out that the tetromino sequence is generated randomly, which is not the correct way to do it. http://tetris.wikia.com/wiki/Random_Generator http://tetris.wikia.com/wiki/Random_Generator