how to play fall line
Fall line is a free falling-block puzzle with its own board and its own pieces. Pieces of three, four and five squares drop into a board twelve squares wide and eighteen tall. Fill a row from wall to wall and it clears. Let the stack reach the top and the run is over.
- Move the falling piece left and right, and turn it, so it lands where you want it.
- Fill a whole row and it disappears; everything above drops down. The long plank can finish five rows at once.
- Every ten rows the level goes up and pieces fall faster.
- You can hold one piece for later, and you can always see what's coming next.
- On a phone: drag sideways to move, tap to turn, drag down to drop gently, flick down to drop at once, and flick up or tap the hold box to hold.
Keyboard: Left and right arrows (or A and D) move, up or X turns, Z turns back, down soft drops, Space drops, C or Shift holds. Esc goes back to the menu.
tips
- Keep the surface flat. Bumps and holes are what end runs.
- Leave one column open at the side and save the plank for it: five rows at once scores far more than five singles.
- Clearing rows on back-to-back pieces builds a chain bonus, and two big clears in a row pay half again.
- The little three-square stick and corner fix almost any awkward gap. Hold one if you see a mess coming.
faq
How are points scored?
One row is 100, two are 300, three 600, four 1,000 and five 1,600, all times your level. Two clears of four or more rows in a row pay half again. Clearing rows on back-to-back pieces adds 50 a link, also times your level. Hard drops add 2 points a row and soft drops 1.
Why does it look different from other block games?
Fall line is our own game: a wider, shorter board, eight pieces of our own from three to five squares, and our own colors.
What's a good score?
10,000 is a solid first run, 50,000 is very good, and 200,000 tops our scale.