Dive Into Podvodsk: How Loop Hero's Devs Are Stacking Tetris-like Cities Under The Sea (For Free, Mate!)
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
From the brilliant minds behind Loop Hero comes Podvodsk, a free game jam experiment that mashes up Tetris with underwater city-building, challenging players to strategically construct a deep-sea metropolis block by block as the screen relentlessly scrolls downward.
Right, so you know that feeling when you're messing about with an old spell book, try a new incantation, and suddenly you've not just summoned a familiar, but you’ve accidentally conjured a whole new dimension where Tetris pieces are building underwater cities? No? Just me then. Well, that's pretty much what Four Quarters, the brilliant minds behind *Loop Hero*, seem to have done with their latest creation: *Podvodsk*.
Now, before you go thinking this is some massive, new triple-A endeavour from them, hold your seahorses. *Podvodsk* is a free game jam experiment, a little side quest they cooked up, and fair dinkum, it’s wilder than a kraken in a teacup. The core concept? Imagine *Tetris*, but you're not just clearing lines – you're building a whole blooming, tapering underwater metropolis out of those familiar, blocky shapes, all while sinking deeper and deeper into a bottomless ocean shaft. It’s like *Tetris* got a degree in deep-sea architecture and decided to set up shop at 20,000 leagues under.
For those of you who've somehow managed to avoid *Tetris* (and seriously, where have you been, mate? Under a barnacle-encrusted rock?), let me paint a clearer picture. You’re dangling building blocks, those iconic L, J, T, S, Z, I, and O shapes, from the bottom of some miraculously unsinkable surface platform. Each block you place isn't just about fitting; it’s about strategically building. Every piece costs points, but also earns them based on a charmingly intricate set of rules. And here’s the kicker – every time you plonk down a piece, the screen scrolls down, relentlessly, irreversibly. It’s less a gentle descent and more a determined plunge into the deep unknown.
The real magic, or perhaps the chaotic wizardry, comes from the variety of building types and their peculiar scoring criteria. You've got your standard **Residential blocks**, which are the social butterflies of the deep, scoring big when they're snuggled up close to other types of buildings. Then there are the **Factory blocks**, the industrialists of the abyss, who reckon they do their best work when positioned snugly against the chasm walls, presumably mining for fantastical sub-aquatic ores. **Business centres**, bless their cotton socks, are a bit more discerning. They prefer a bit of personal space, scoring better when they're a few squares away from other structures. Turns out, financial analysts, even 300 fathoms down, enjoy their elbow room.
My personal favourites? The **Bunkers**. These aren’t just buildings; they’re structures you can literally drill into the rock face. They score points based on how many other bunkers they’re linked to on screen. Getting a lovely vertical streak of these bad boys feels less like building a city and more like transforming a humble Aquarius Reef Base into something truly akin to the fabled Rapture. Bloody brilliant, that.
And it doesn't stop there. **Seaweed farms**, logically, want to be near seaweed (obviously). **Scaffolding** earns you precisely nothing, but it's cheap as chips, which means it’s perfect for those desperate moments when you just need to bridge a gap or create some breathing room. **Science centres** are the long-game players; they earn points every single time the screen scrolls, as long as they’re still visible. So, you'll want to park those clever clogs as far down as possible, squeezing every last point out of them before they disappear into the inky blackness. And finally, the veritable crown jewels: **City centres**. Drop one of these, and boom – your next three building pieces are on the house. Talk about a freebie!
You might look at that list and think, 'Hang on, are there really enough building types here to make it interesting?' And that’s a fair question, mate. But Four Quarters have squeezed some genuinely decent intricacy out of these variations. The pixel art, by the way, is absolutely tasty – it perfectly captures that submerged, slightly mysterious vibe. The biggest challenge, I reckon, is the luck of the draw. Sometimes the pieces just don't align with your grand architectural vision, and you're left flailing like a fish out of water (or rather, a fish *in* water, but with the wrong fin).
This is where **Tactical Mode** comes in, a little quality-of-life spell that genuinely transforms the experience. It lets you store any building piece you don't play for one turn, giving you that precious moment to strategise. Suddenly, you're not just reacting; you're planning, setting up scaffolding to nudge that seaweed farm closer to a bountiful kelp forest, or holding onto that crucial bunker for a future vertical streak. It adds a delicious layer of 'what if' to the 'what is'. The way these scoring criteria interact even reminds me a bit of a wooden token game called *Seaside*, though that one prefers to stay firmly on dry land.
It's a fantastic little dive into how a game can be both simple in concept and surprisingly deep in execution. For a free game jam project, *Podvodsk* truly showcases the creative spirit that often bubbles up from these experimental spaces. It's a reminder that not every brilliant idea needs a massive budget or a complex monetization scheme; sometimes, it just needs a curious mind and some digital building blocks.
Oh, and on a slightly more serious note, given the ongoing global situation, it's worth a quick mention that Four Quarters, being a Russian developer, have publicly and explicitly opposed the war in Ukraine. It’s always good to know where the people behind the magic stand, isn’t it?
So, if you fancy a bit of a strategic mind-bender that feels like *Tetris* got shipwrecked and decided to build an aquatic kingdom, go give *Podvodsk* a whirl. It's free, it's intriguing, and it's proof that sometimes, the best adventures are the ones you just stumble upon.
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun