Tetris today is – still – one of the most popular and relevant game franchises on the planet. Just recently, its latest iteration, Tetris Forever, was confirmed, adding to the building blocks of its reputation
The latest games follow the 2023 biopic “Tetris”; a movie inspired by the true story of how American businessman Henk Rogers discovered Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov and, together, brought the game to Nintendo’s Game Boy – and the world. All this happened while navigating the complex political backdrop between the USA and Soviet Russia in the late 1980s, of course.
While Henk and Pajitnov were forced to endure complex political landscapes to bring Tetris to the masses, game developers undoubtedly have it a lot easier in 2024. However, the developers believe gaming has simply gone in the wrong direction.
Speaking to press including Express.co.uk at Lucca Comics and Games 2024, Pajitnov said: “[Gaming has] definitely changed. It comes in quantities, because much more people try to get to the market. Unfortunately, it really drops in quality.”
Pajitnov added that developers are “rushing” their games too much, critiquing the act of releasing products that have not been bug-checked. Instead, developers opt to patch out issues after gamers have made their purchases.
“This is awful practice,” Pajitnov went on. “Sometimes the game is so underdeveloped that they just drop it because nobody cares. And if it is doing pretty good, why bother to improve it? So we have [a] whole bunch of unbalanced game, which is shame to watch.”
Rogers jumped in: “For me, you know, I was there in the heyday. My first game came out on cassette tape. Okay? And 64k… so what programmers and developer game designers have available to them today are like, gosh… I was working with a shovel. They’re working with bulldozers.
“So, you know, I think in that way the industry has evolved. I think it’s gone a little bit backwards on the mobile side. People used to buy a game and then own it and then play it as much as they want, and now they’re giving it [for] quote-unquote free, and then we bug them for donations during the gameplay, which is really annoying.”
Of course, some of the most popular mobile games of all time include the likes of Candy Crush, Beweled, and more – both of which have some similarities to Tetris.
And, over the decades, other games have been released which have very closely mimicked Tetris’ gameplay. “I’m flattered by the fact that so many people think it’s a great game [that] they want to make one too,” Rogers posited. “But there’s a difference between an artist and a craftsman.
“An artist creates something that nobody has done before, and a craftsman copies that art. So there’s a lot of craftsmen out there, and if they want to become artists, they’re going to have to learn how to make original stuff, and then learn how to protect their own IP [intellectual property].”
Lucca Comics and Games 2024 took place in Lucca, Italy, from October 20 – November 3, 2024.