Tetris

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Tetris: a building block for videogame design

Monday, 17 April, 2023

This month, a new film was released about the video game, Tetris. But why has this classic game remained popular 40 years after it was first released? 

We chatted with Course Leader in Games Development, Professor James Newman, to find out more.

Set in the 1980s, the film Tetris is not a "Tetris movie", more a geopolitical thriller in which Tetris is a plot point. It's nevertheless a reminder of the global impact of a game, which sits among a rare group (including Super Mario Bros - which also has recent movie release) that continues to captivate audiences and gamers alike, generations on from its inception.

On paper, Tetris doesn’t sound anywhere near as immersive a gaming experience as some of the modern day equivalents, such as the likes of the cinematic Red Dead series. Yet Tetris is the most ‘ported’ game of all time. This means it's the game which has been most converted for use onto different devices and platforms – and one of gaming's most commercially successful ventures, with 520 million copies sold globally.

So, just what makes Tetris so popular? And is it really the “perfect video game”?

Course Leader in Games Development and co-director of the Playable Media Lab at Bath Spa University, Professor James Newman thinks the secret to its success comes down to a few factors:

1. The concept of Tetris is remarkably simple: a series of tetronimoes (geometric shapes made from four squares) fall one-by-one from the top of the screen. The player has to rearrange these shapes so they form horizontal lines, which subsequently clear blocks and free up additional space. However, as simple as that sounds, in practice, it’s hard to just keep clearing lines because the game has an irritating habit of not providing the player with the shapes they need to fit the gaps they have carefully created. To make things worse, as play progresses, the tetrominoes fall faster making it ever more likely that a block ends up being dropped in the wrong place.
2. But, another part of the genius of Tetris’ design is that the player can recover from their mistakes. With careful play, past errors and unplanned constructions can be erased line-by-line to create a new, firmer foundation upon which to build afresh. And so, even though Tetris generally only shows the results of the player’s errors of judgement, like towering monuments to their mistakes, it also offers the seductive potential of redemption, agency and control in a sea of apparent chaos.
3. Tetris was the perfect game for the device that many people played it on, (namely, the Nintendo Gameboy) and you didn’t need a rule book or to understand the strategy or have any special gameplay techniques. Professor Newman said: "Playing Tetris is about responding to the never-ending supply of blocks, organising them, tactically parking some to worry about later while strategically adding and combining others into shapes and structures ripe with the potential for future removal. And it was so well-suited to the Game Boy that it’s hard to believe it wasn’t created for the system. Because Tetris doesn’t rely on complex controls or elaborate graphics, , the the Game Boy’s simple interface and two-colour screen ability to display just four shades of grey weren’t limitations – they were all you needed.
4. It could be played by all ages and abilities -"it changed who played video games,” said Newman. “You could see a toddler, a teenager, a city exec, and a grandma all playing Tetris on the same bus or train. It transcended the traditional audience of video games. And that simplicity and accessibility is why the game still holds up today.”

The ‘Tetris effect’ means the game has become a part of modern culture, even appearing in an episode of The Simpsons and a range of merchandising was released which included a traditional ‘puzzle’ and ‘building block’ range of physical toys.

Professor Newman adds, “Our students learn about the history of gaming as part of our BA (Hons) Games Development, and although the significance of Tetris cannot be underestimated, whether it is a perfect video game should remain up for debate. However, it is certainly one of the ‘building block’ games upon which countless others have been built.

Tetris was released on Apple TV+ internationally on 31 March.