Rotatris was one of my two final-year projects for my degree in Physics and Computer Science. I achieved a First for the project submission, and the submission was used as an example project for prospective students in later years. I’ve summarised my experiences making Rotatris into a pair of blog posts Here and Here, or you can read my full dissertation submission here.

Rotatris is a game similar to Tetris with falling tetrominos, however instead of building rows, players have to build “shells” of squares around a central block. This central block can be rotated in the same way as the individual tetrominos. The shells fill and fall like rows, but each is of course longer than the last, meaning that each takes more squares to fill, and an incomplete shell may be full after falling. These aspects make Rotatris an intense and tactical puzzle game, where players can dramatically increase their score with clever play, and forward planning is rewarded over quick reflexes.

Rotatris was created using Swift and SpriteKit for Apple iPad. I don’t have access to an Apple machine now so am no longer actively working on it.