Our first foray into the world of game development will involve the creation of a Tetris clone, which we''ll call Blocks ''n Lines. The articles in this series will concentrate on an evolutionary approach to designing and implementing the game, which means we''re going to tackle it in mental and developmental stages. Remember folks, we''re not here just to make a Tetris clone -- we''re here to gain some game development knowledge and skills. This means that it''s not the implementation of the algorithms themselves that we''ll be concentrating on, but rather the exploration of the tools available to us and how they might be applied. You''ll soon see that a Tetris clone is a good choice for a first game project as it introduces some concepts and techniques that are cornerstones for developing any type of game. There are some of you who were around when this forum first began (Nov 2000), and will recall this project from then. While much of the game''s intestines are similar, all of the material and much of the code is rewritten to provide a better, more thorough learning process. For instance, I more or less uncovered the entire game in short order, and without any interaction on your part. Well, ''hindsight is 20/20'', so consider this an improvement, and your call to ''step-up'' and do some of the work along with me. All in all, I suspect that this project is ground-breaking for many of you as this will be your firt actual game that you''ve developed. Keep in mind that there are two different levels that you''re learning on: one is the attainment of skills and methods, and the other is a tightening grasp of what game development really is all about. After a few simple projects, many of you will start saying to yourself, "You know, I bet I could go ahead and write my own little game now!", and better yet some of you will actually go out of your way and make some extra time to start delving into game projects on your own -- You shall be the ones who inherit the Earth... ...so to speak.

Hey Teej,

Is that last bit a reference to the passage in the Bible where it says that ''the geek shall inherit the Earth'' :>