Build your own Tetris.
A complete AI build prompt for an original falling-block game with seeded pieces, row clearing, fixed-step timing, and pause saves. Your own code, identity, and workflow.
What your Tetris-inspired game will do
Build an original falling-block puzzle called Stackfall, using Tetris as a genre reference. Create a distinct board presentation, piece artwork, sound, scoring, and identity. Use a documented original piece set and a 10-by-18 playfield rather than copying a branded game interface or assets. The core is moving and rotating falling pieces, clearing completed rows, and surviving increasing speed.
- Piece engine: represent each original piece as integer cell offsets with defined rotations. Spawn from a seeded shuffled queue and reject any move or rotation intersecting locked cells or the playfield boundary.
- Movement: implement left/right, soft drop, hard drop, and clockwise/counterclockwise rotation. Define a simple explicit wall-kick table, lock delay, and a bounded lock-reset count so input cannot suspend a piece forever.
- Line clearing: lock the piece once, find all fully occupied rows, remove them simultaneously, and compact the rows above. Apply an original documented score table and speed progression; end when a new piece cannot spawn.
- Timing and controls: use a fixed simulation step with a bounded accumulator, pause on focus loss, and resume by explicit action. Keyboard repeat and touch input feed the same commands. Restart must reset every timer and held-input state.
- Save and replay: persist board, active piece, queue, score, speed, seed, and timing state when paused or after a lock. Restore paused, validate save imports, and support an input-command replay for deterministic debugging.
Is a DIY Tetris alternative right for you?
A falling-block game gives a manageable real-time engine project when piece definitions, rotation rules, scoring, and presentation are explicitly original and bounded.
A useful first project: An original arcade puzzle built around movement, rotation, gravity, and increasing difficulty.
Start with a smaller version
Lock a piece that completes multiple rows, verify all rows clear together, and replay the same seeded commands at two render rates.
Know the tradeoffs
Lock delay, rotation near walls, and simultaneous line clearing need defined rules. This is an original genre project; official branding, music, trade dress, and tournament-rule parity are excluded.
Understand the build-vs-buy tradeoffsBuilding your own Tetris: useful answers
Is this a ready-to-use Tetris alternative?
This page provides a customizable build brief for an original falling-block game with seeded pieces, row clearing, fixed-step timing, and pause saves. It is not a hosted app. Your AI coding agent implements the software; you then need to test, run, and maintain it.
Can I customize the Tetris clone prompt?
Yes. Choose Product & audience, Design, Features, Tech stack, or Data & behavior in the editor. Save and copy the complete assembled prompt, or download it as Markdown. Edits are saved in this browser.
What does the starting version leave out?
Test rotation at both walls, blocked rotation, four simultaneous cleared rows, lock-delay limits, hard drop applied once, spawn collision, focus-loss pause, and replay at different render rates. Confirm a restored run remains paused until requested. Exclude copied trade dress, official music/artwork, multiplayer battles, and full tournament-rule parity.
Original software. Familiar inspiration.
Use your own brand, code, layout, and assets. Clone4.me is independent and is not affiliated with Tetris. Read our approach.
Curated by Clone4.me · AI-assisted build briefs · Scope reviewed October 14, 2026
More games to build
StarterBuild an original daily word-guessing game with accurate letter feedback and saved progress.
IntermediateBuild a word-grouping puzzle with original sets, limited mistakes, and an authoring validator.
StarterBuild a deterministic sliding-number puzzle with correct merges, undo, and resumable runs.
The complete Tetris clone prompt
# Build an original game inspired by Tetris
You are an experienced game designer and gameplay engineer. Build a working, polished MVP from the brief below. Implement the core journeys end to end; a static mockup is not sufficient. Inspect the current environment, make sensible implementation decisions, and get started. Ask a question only if a missing answer genuinely blocks implementation.
Starting platform: Web. Explicit customized Product & audience and Tech stack requirements take precedence over this starting target.
## Product & audience
Build an original falling-block puzzle called Stackfall, using Tetris as a genre reference. Create a distinct board presentation, piece artwork, sound, scoring, and identity. Use a documented original piece set and a 10-by-18 playfield rather than copying a branded game interface or assets. The core is moving and rotating falling pieces, clearing completed rows, and surviving increasing speed.
## Design
Use an original geometric theme with a clearly bounded board, next-piece preview, score, level, pause, and restart. Show a ghost placement only when enabled. Provide keyboard controls plus large touch buttons; keep the active piece visually distinct from locked cells and avoid relying solely on colors.
## Features
1. Piece engine: represent each original piece as integer cell offsets with defined rotations. Spawn from a seeded shuffled queue and reject any move or rotation intersecting locked cells or the playfield boundary.
2. Movement: implement left/right, soft drop, hard drop, and clockwise/counterclockwise rotation. Define a simple explicit wall-kick table, lock delay, and a bounded lock-reset count so input cannot suspend a piece forever.
3. Line clearing: lock the piece once, find all fully occupied rows, remove them simultaneously, and compact the rows above. Apply an original documented score table and speed progression; end when a new piece cannot spawn.
4. Timing and controls: use a fixed simulation step with a bounded accumulator, pause on focus loss, and resume by explicit action. Keyboard repeat and touch input feed the same commands. Restart must reset every timer and held-input state.
5. Save and replay: persist board, active piece, queue, score, speed, seed, and timing state when paused or after a lock. Restore paused, validate save imports, and support an input-command replay for deterministic debugging.
## Tech stack
Use TypeScript with Canvas or a small DOM renderer and a deterministic engine independent of rendering. Fixed simulation steps must govern gravity and lock timing; animation frames only draw. Store a versioned local snapshot and bounded command log. Use generated original visuals and permitted audio. Do not claim official Tetris rules, branding, theme music, or licensed product compatibility.
## Data & behavior
Run {board, pieceDefinitionVersion, activePiece, position, rotation, queue, rngState, score, lines, level, gravityTicks, lockTicks, lockResets, status}; Command {tick, action}; Settings; HighScore. Import validates piece definitions and legal placements before resuming.
Acceptance checks and scope:
Test rotation at both walls, blocked rotation, four simultaneous cleared rows, lock-delay limits, hard drop applied once, spawn collision, focus-loss pause, and replay at different render rates. Confirm a restored run remains paused until requested. Exclude copied trade dress, official music/artwork, multiplayer battles, and full tournament-rule parity.
## Originality and assets
The named product is a reference for general workflows only. Use an original product name, visual identity, wording, layout, and assets. Do not copy proprietary code, branded logos, distinctive screens, private APIs, paid templates, or protected media. Use original or appropriately licensed sample data and assets. Build from this brief rather than scraping the reference service. Do not imply affiliation with the referenced company.
## Implementation quality
- Make every visible control work, with clear loading, success, empty, validation, and failure states. Remove controls for unimplemented features.
- Support the target platform and responsive or resizable layouts where appropriate. Use platform-appropriate accessibility semantics, labels, keyboard operation, visible focus, sufficient contrast, and reduced-motion preferences. Provide alternatives for drag-only interactions.
- Validate inputs at the relevant boundary. Treat imported or user-generated content as untrusted; render it safely. Confirm destructive actions or offer undo.
- Keep state changes reliable across navigation and reloads. Never silently lose edits. Handle persistence and network errors with an actionable message.
- Keep the scope realistic. Prioritize the complete primary journey. If a custom Features section differs from the baseline, update the data model, design, and acceptance checks to match it; explicit custom requirements take precedence over baseline assumptions.
- Provide realistic original sample content and a useful empty state. Keep sample data clearly separate from user-created data.
## Delivery and verification
1. Inspect the repository and outline the implementation in a few sentences.
2. Implement the app and connect its actual data flow. Continue until the primary journey works.
3. Run appropriate checks and test the acceptance cases above on the target platform. Verify responsive layouts and keyboard navigation when browser tools are available. For native projects, build with the available SDK and test an emulator or device when possible; report any missing native verification honestly. For games, verify the rules and gameplay loop, not only the menus.
4. Fix observed failures, then provide the runnable result, setup/run instructions, a brief explanation of what is implemented, and any specific configuration or verification limits.
This is a focused MVP. Do not add billing, AI services, or unrelated features unless explicitly requested in the brief. Start building now.
Change just what matters. Customize a section and keep the rest of the brief included.