ArticlesI propose the following draft rules for Live Action Tetris, for your joy, refinement and refined enjoyment.
At this stage there are a lot of open questions – generally marked like so: ??. Feel free to jump in and suggest solutions.
This is intended to be a fun game for a large group of older kids and immature adults at a festival, school, BBQ, camp etc.
Each player represents one square in the traditional four-square tetrominoes. Their goal is to get onto the board, and then cleared as rapidly as possible. The winner is the player who completes the cycle the most times within 15 minutes.
The playing area is outdoors ?? marked out with 2 foot squares, in an 8 x ?? grid.
Players start by waiting in a queue to enter the play area.
Players enter the grid in groups of four, where they will find a tetromino template, placed by a marshall. The template is a large sheet of cardboard (?? wooden frame? pool-noodle sculpture?) with four human-width holes cut into it. Players need to stand over the holes in the template and lift it up around their bodies, so that it enforces a configuration. Ideally, the template should be a little awkward to wear, (especially when players are rushing) and strong enough to resist players pulling in different directions, but soft enough not to be a safety risk.
Once the template is in place, the players can proceed at their fastest pace to the “bottom” of the grid. There is no official leader of the group; players are autonomous, and must “negotiate” with each other to get into the best position.
The level of shoving throughout the game should be monitored by the marshalls to ensure it doesn’t exceed a level appropriate to the age, strength, blood-alcohol, wussiness and gropeability of the players involved.
(Is it possible that other players could be incented to physically grab nearby players that are “above” them? ?? That would represent the stickiness of gravity in Tetris once your piece is placed; otherwise, players could move laterally once they hit the bottom.)
Once a piece is in place, the template is removed, and returned to a marshall. Players are no longer constrained to stick with their tetromino-mates. Instead, they are constrained to remain with the row-mates. (Is there some physical way of enforcing this? ?? A comb-shaped frame that can be wheeled in from the sides? Linking arms? I can’t see how we will will prevent players from slipping down when there is a gap underneath them, or even slipping left to right? Perhaps the rules should just be changed to permit that? ?? Or lots of marshalls enforcing the rules that might be beyond the younger and drunker players. Are players required to sit, to aid the marshalls in preventing cheating, or is that too awkward/dangerous???)
If a marshall sees that a row is complete, the cleared players can proceed at their own pace (e.g. run) to the back of the queue, where they will receive a stamp or token (or otherwise be tallied) for their achievement. Players left in the grid should move down in formation. (Yeah, right! More marshalls? Linked arms would help here.)
The marshall responsible for laying out the next template, should slowly increase the rate at which they become available. By the end of the game, each group of four should see a choice of templates to take, and if they are fast and coordinated, should be able to rig up and beat the previous, slower, group to a prime spot.
Any thoughts?
Comment by configurator on November 7, 2009
Sounds like a really cool game.
Comment by David on November 7, 2009
Sounds like a brilliant idea. We’ve got our internal staff games coming up. I’m keen to try it out.
Comment by John Y. on November 7, 2009
Reminds me very much of this, though for whatever reason they chose pentominoes.
I am wondering about your abandonment of the tetromino templates once they’ve reached the bottom. If you want to be faithful to Tetris, it’s not quite right to say a player doesn’t have to stick to her or his tetromino-mates.
If you can rely on “grabbing” (because you have a very cooperative set of players who are inclined to abide by the rules) to maintain some semblance of form once settled at the bottom, then you don’t need templates (row or tetromino) for landed players, but you may need auxiliary grabbers (more marshals!) on one side, outside the board. This is to simplify the grabbing rules (for example, always grab the players directly above and directly to the right; only grab immediately adjacent players, as gaps are part of the game).
I haven’t worked it out rigorously, but I think it is possible to eschew the auxiliary grabbers if the players are extremely cooperative and can work out how to distribute their grabs (of which each player has at most two). In some configurations, it might be quite the mental puzzle, which would probably make this whole endeavor even more appealing to the right set of players. (I’m imagining how to bill this as not just Tetris but also a Julian-style cell-based game/problem-solving engine.)
Hmm… it occurs to me that there can be islands. Players can be alone or in a clump at the bottom with gaps on both sides. So if you are proceeding under the premise that there needs to be some kind of linkage, even if only symbolic, I guess you need auxiliary grabbers at the bottom to prevent these islands from sliding around left and right.
All in all, an intriguing idea, Julian.
Comment by Julian on November 11, 2009
John,
The way I see it, in regular Tetris, once you hit the bottom you continue to be coloured the same as your tetromino-mates, but your life-cycle becomes different. Your neighbours above and below may be cleared while you remain, and vice-versa.
Your neighbours left and right have the same life-cycle as you. That’s independent of whether they were part of the original tetromino or not. It’s also independent of whether you are directly adjacent to them or separated by a gap.
None of you are cleared unless all of you are cleared, when rows are cleared below you, none may move down unless all can move down.
This is a bit tricky to enforce, which is why it may be easier to change the rule.
I saw the grabbing as a mechanism to stop moving players, rather than to hold stationary players. Moving players should only be grabbed from underneath. A player is permitted to slide paste you on the left and right.
Once they are stationary, then the rules described above apply. Grabbing left/right becomes most important (hence my suggestion to “linking arms” with the rest of the row) but, as you suggest, the islands won’t be covered, and it may be difficult, as an island player, to understand why you may not fall into gaps below you.
I imagined a comb device, shaped like so
to prevent the players from sliding down or sideways. Indeed, such a device could be placed on the bottom row successfully. However, it is difficult to see how having that set up on higher rows that wouldn’t obstruct moving players who are permitted to slide past.
Movable rods, lying on the ground, with handcuffs at specific intervals, might be frowned upon at a sports day.
Comment by John Y. on November 11, 2009
Yes, of course once you have landed, you are supposed to stick with your row, but I hadn’t correctly imagined your comb device (you said it could be wheeled in from the side, so I imagined something more like
.______________
|______________
|______________
|______________
which keeps members of a given row on the same row, but doesn’t restrict side-to-side movement). In any case, it seems extremely difficult to have any kind of external device (in the price range I think you’re aiming for) that can be engaged and disengaged quickly enough to have a lively attempt to drop pieces into deep gaps.
The more I think about this, the more I am inclined to just draw the grid on the ground and let the players follow the post-landing rules themselves, possibly with marshals serving as spotters and facilitators.
If you insist on some measure of enforcement, I do think it’s probably better to come up with new rules, and have a Tetris-like game, rather than Tetris. (Especially if you find game design more fun than engineering.)
There are already some Tetris-like games that might be easier to implement in live-action format. For example, if there is enough grid spacing so that players can escape from arbitrary interior cells of the landed section (granted, this may be a very big if), you could have color-based clearing rather than row-based. All the falling pieces could be, say, straight 3×1 with up to 3 different colors. No need to keep rows held together or maintain gaps; just keep falling. As soon as you get (at least) three in a column, row, or diagonal of the same color, those escape and any players above them fall into the vacated places.