The Look of the Game, and Why It Stays Readable

Neon and particle effects are only acceptable if the board stays legible underneath them.

TETERI is deliberately loud: glowing blocks, particle bursts, screen shake, drifting nebulae. All of that is in tension with the one thing that actually matters, which is being able to read the board instantly.

Several decisions exist to resolve that tension.

Blocks read by shape as well as colour

Every block has a light top edge, a mid-tone face and a darker base, plus a specular highlight. That means the grid reads as a set of distinct objects even if you cannot distinguish two of the hues, and it keeps the stack legible when the background is busy.

The active piece is the brightest thing on screen

It carries a glow that nothing else has, and it pulses faster as its lock timer runs down. Whatever else is happening, your eye finds the piece you are controlling.

Effects are transient and off the board

Particles and shards fly outward, away from the playfield. The screen flash decays within a fraction of a second. Callouts drift upward and fade. None of it occupies the space where you are trying to read the stack for more than a moment.

Callouts also carry a dark outline, because they land on top of the white line-clear flash, and white text on a white flash is nothing at all.

The danger line

A dashed line six rows from the top, reddening as your stack approaches it. The actual failure condition, a piece with nowhere to spawn, is invisible until it happens, so the line converts an abstract risk into something you can see at a glance.

The background is quiet where it matters

The nebula, grid and stars are all low-contrast and concentrated away from the centre. The well itself sits on a near-black panel with a faint grid, because the busiest part of the screen should be the part with the least going on.

The setting that turns it off

Screen shake and scanlines are both switchable, and both default to off if your system asks for reduced motion. If the effects get in the way of reading the board, the effects are wrong and should go.

Read next

• Why Play TETERIFree, instant, offline-capable, and it asks nothing of you before you can start. A straight account of what it offers.
• The Four Game ModesMarathon, versus CPU, split-screen and online duels, and what each is actually for.
• Every Control in TETERIThe complete list for keyboard, touch and gamepad, including the ones that are not obvious.
• Playing on a PhoneTwo layouts, two control schemes, and the specific problems that had to be solved to make touch work properly.
• Reading Your Opponent's BoardTheir well depth, their stack height and the shared queue tell you when their attack is coming.
• How the CPU Opponent SearchesEnumerate every placement, score the resulting board on four weighted features, take the best.