1.0 changes/additions

• Re-jigged the title screen once more
• Added obstacle blocks option
• More tweaks and adjustments to the menu system
• Tidied up some bugs related to dropping/quick dropping jewels.

0.9 changes/additions

• Made a proper high score system that uses cartdata (had to learn how cartdata worked, first!) -More adjustments to the menus -Added some more music for title and high score screens -Made a game over transition before going to the high score screen. -Added particles! (probably more to come, particles are fun) -Added screen shake! (I'm not a massive fan of screen shake, I think it's often overused, however it seems to work here) -Added options to disable particles or screen shake -Squashed a few miscellaneous bugs
• Known issues -The game won't end if you are holding insta-drop and constantly dropping blocks -Some interaction with multi-blocks and holding quick/insta drop can get the game stuck in a loop
• It is with disappointment, but also relief that I've kicked two player mode into 'stretch' (i.e. not likely-to-see-the-light-of-day) goals. It would be a ridiculous amount of work to include, and probably rarely ever get used. My goal to create a two-player game still seems far off.
• The goal now is to iron out bugs and hopefully add some more polish (i.e. particles) before going 1.0.
• I love the idea of having fragments of gems along with the current particles but it might get a bit too busy. Particles are like seasoning in cooking.

0.5 changes/additions

• Overhauled the title screen menu. -Different game mode presets, e.g. Classic, Modern, Arcade. You can still adjust the options manually, this will change the game mode to Custom. When I finally implement a highscore screen, there'll probably need to be different tables for different modes, since some presets are harder than others. -Graphics swaps. Like the Game Gear version of the game, the player can choose which tileset to use. This might help make the game more colourblind-friendly.

0.4 changes/additions

• Completely rewrote gem removal code to cover a couple of edge cases with wildcards, saved 400 tokens in the process :)
• Added pause menu options for muting music or all sound
• Added a combo display to show your biggest combo
• Until I put in a proper menu system, removed option for shuffle/reverse on the Z key and instead let players toggle multi-gems
• Added a basic level/speed increase mechanic, called this 'classic' mode. There isn't much difference between the levels at the moment and it can mess up the animation sometimes, so this will need more work.

0.3 changes/additions

• Remixed in-game music so it cuts out less.
• Added 'wildcard' gems
• Add 'multi' gems
• Made score display clearer
• Tidied up the game screen
• Minor tweaks to gem graphics
• Fixed a bug with quick drop

0.21 changes/additions

• Game didn't reset properly
• Fixed collision issue when quick dropping

0.2 changes/additions

• Added a simple title screen
• Added the song 'Clotho' from the Megadrive/Genesis version of Columns.
• Added quick drop and insta-drop when you press up.
• Added shuffle and reverse when you press Z
• Added a 'next trio' display
• Attempted to get around the music cutting out randomly by making a new sfx function, this did not really work all that well.

0.1 changes/additions

Here's my demake/adaptation/whatever of Columns.

I wanted to make a falling-block puzzle game, but seemingly every gamedev and their dog has made Tetris so I went to my favourite Megadrive/Genesis puzzle game: Columns.

I realised afterwards that Columns probably has much more complex rules than Tetris. Oh well. :)

There's a list of things I want to add on the game over screen. v0.1 represents about three days/sessions of work. It's basically playable at this point so I thought I'd put it on here as a WIP to hopefully keep me motivated to get it finished.

So it's playable, and being that Columns is a great game, it's already pretty fun. :)