Falling Blocks

The controls for the game are simple. Use the Left arrow and the Right arrow to move the block left or right. Up arrow or R to rotate the block. Down arrow to move the block down faster and the center key (5) to drop the block.

The objective is to get continuous blocks in a row. A row filled with blocks are removed and points are given.

Sample Image

Software required to build the project:

Visual C++ 6.0
DirectX 8.0 SDK (DirectX 7.0 SDK should also work but I have not tried it)

Software required to run the game:

DirectX 7.0
Windows 2000 or Win9x

This code should help you create small games using DirectX. I have sprinkled comments all over the code so it should help you with understanding the code.

The Code

The project consists of the following classes:

CBlockList
CDisplay
CFlooredBlocks
CShape
CSurface

The classes CDisplay and CSurface are created by Microsoft and are shipped along with the DirectX SDK. I developed this game using DirectX 8 SDK. It should work fine with DirectX 7 but I have not tried it. To run the game, DirectX 7 is all that is required. You will have to adjust the project setting to reflect your DirectX SDK paths.

The game creates two shapes when the game starts. One is the shape currently falling and the other is the next shape. When a shape hits the bottom, it is added to the Floored Block list and a new Next shape is created.

For each line of blocks removed, 10* NumberOfLinesRemoved* NumberOfLinesRemoved * GameSpeed points are given.

Game is over when a shape hits the bottom and some of the blocks are above the grey line. You can start a new game from the menu.

Under the level menu, you can select the game speed. If you set the game to crazy mode, you will get weird shapes. It is easy to add your own shapes in this game. All you have to do is add the shape to the array and update the array information.

m_pStockShapes array holds the shape definitions.

const short CShape::m_pStockShapes[] = { 
     11,   // No Of shapes in the array
     2 /*No of orientation shapes */, 4 /*No Of blocks for this shape*/,
     2,1, 2,2, 3,2, 3,3,     //  O
     1,2, 2,2, 2,1, 3,1,     //  OO 
                             //   O 
     0,   // Each shape ends with a 0
}

SBlock structure holds the block coordinates and the color.

struct SBlock {
  Short nX,nY,nColor;
};

CBlockList will be the parent class for the CShape class and the CFlooredBlocks class. It contains the methods to maintain the linked list.

class CBlockList {
public:
    // Return true if the given location is already occupied
    bool IsOccupied(short nX, short ,nY) ;
    //Inserts the block based on the value in linked list.
    bool Insert(Sblock Block);
    // Adds the block to the end of the list.
    bool Add (const Sblock Block) ;
    // Displays the block on the screen offsetting it by nX and nY.
    void Display(short nX=0; short nY);
    //Deletes the block from the list.
    bool Delete(Sblock Block);
    // Empties the linked list.
    void Destroy();
   
};

The CFlooredBlocks maintains the list of blocks that have been placed on the floor. All the shapes that fall down are added to this list.

class CFlooredBlocks: public CBlockList {
   RECT m_rcBoundary;   // Holds the playing area
public:
   void Display();
   short CheckAndRemoveContinuousBlocks(); 
     // Returns the number of lines removed. 
     // This can be used to calculate the score. 
     
   IncrementYabove(short nY); 
     // Helper function for CheckAndRemoveContinuousBlocks 
     // used to drop the blocks above the removed line.
     
   bool IsOccupied(nX,nY);
   // Returns true if the coordinates are occupied.
   
   bool Insert(Sblock Block);
};

CShape class creates the shapes from the given array. It helps with moving the shape and checks if it had gone outside the boundary or hit any other blocks.

class CShape:public CBlockList {
     CFlooredBlocks* m_pFlooredBlocks;
public:
     bool CreateRandShape(); 
       // Creates a shape from the build in shapes at random. 
       // This function creates the blocks and gives it the color;

     bool MoveTo(x1,y1);  //Moves the shape to the given coordinates.
     bool MoveRight(); // Moves the shape right. Returns true if successful.
     bool MoveLeft();
     bool MoveDown(); // Moves the shape down. 
     bool Rotate();   // Rotates based on the shape.
     void Display();  // Displays the shape
     
     void ConvertToSpaceCoord(); 
       // Converts the internal SBlock to contain the actual 
       // coordinates so that it can be added to the floored list.
       
     bool SetMaxNoOfShapesAllowed(short nMac); 
       // Sets the maximum number of shapes that 
       // will be used from the array. This way you 
       // can added new shapes to the array and active
       // it by changing this value.
};