Read me / Tutorial
Stack, match, break down and rebuild in this incrementally challenging web-based strategy arcade game.
This tutorial contains necessary information to get a better understanding of the game, as well as some tips to help you along the way. Don't forget to check out the
CONTROLS section of the menu as well!
Pre-Introduction Disclaimer
As many will notice, Linegem is somewhat inspired by Tetris, but is overall a much different game.
These differences include visual elements, the size of the gamespace, overall mechanics of the game, a different overall range of game pieces (referred to as "sequences" in Linegem - including malformed sequences), "anomalies", how "pieces" rotate around their axis (which is deliberately off-center in some cases), the overall control scheme, how the scoring and progression systems work, and many intricacies in between, resulting in a game of a different overall look, feel, challenge, and complexity.
Before beginning the introduction, it is important to emphasize that Linegem and/or Linegem Labs is in no way affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with the creators of Tetris, nor does it seek to appeal to the same audience, but rather anyone who wishes to enjoy a free brain exercise.
Introduction / The Basics
1 - The reactor is out of control. Mysterious round gems are drifting downward in various sequences, prompting you to maintain them to prevent an overflow and save the city from chaos.
2 - Some sequences are malformed and may drift apart upon landing, causing the separated gems to continue drifting downward until they land (other than when an overflow occurs).
3 - As an administrator of the reactor's software, you can control their sequences.
4 - Each sequence has an axis upon which it rotates.
5 - You can guide the sequences by rotating them, moving them left, right, or down, or placing them (causing them to land instantly).
6 - You can also regenerate drifting sequences to form new sequences. Regenerating sequences requires and consumes energy, and will cause other gems in the current drift path to vanish, more specifically, gems surrounding your guide circles (all gems up to two spaces above, to the right, below, and to the left of each guide circle).
Please note that guide circles will not be visible if one of the gems in the current drifting sequence is in the same position as where one of the guide circles would normally be visible, though vanishing still behaves in the same way as if the guide circles are visible.
7 - Over time, random gems may also vanish for no apparent reason, but in specific intervals (at a high chance). The higher the drift speed, the more often random gems will vanish.
8 - You can convert gems into energy by lining them up in rows of 15, which is best achieved by stacking sequences timely and efficiently as the drift speed will increase for every line converted to energy until 20X speed is reached. You will start with 40/40 energy and gain 10 energy per line converted.
9 - You can use this energy to help you break down and rebuild lines by taking advantage of the fact that other gems in the current drift path will vanish upon manual sequence regeneration.
10 - You will earn an incremental score based on the total number of lines you've converted to energy and the total number of gems that have vanished (either naturally or during manual sequence regeneration). Additionally, the more lines converted in a single landing, the greater the score bonus.
Match bonus - For every line you convert to energy that contains at least 4 gems of a kind, you will gain a 4% score bonus on top of your total added score for every occurence of that same kind of gem on that line. Matches will be highlighted by rounded half-borders.
By this logic, if you have only 4 matching gems on a single line upon conversion, that adds a 16% increase to your total added score. Since you can convert multiple lines to energy at the same time, this bonus percentage will encompass all of them.
Clearance - After converting 15 lines to energy, the "genesis gem" at the top of the gamespace above the boundary line will become activated and have an animated border.
Tapping or clicking anywhere in the gamespace above the boundary line (or pressing the enter key) while the genesis gem has an animated border will generate a new sequence and cause ALL gems in the gamespace to vanish.
Please note that these vanished gems will not be counted toward your stats or score.
Clearance can be used to your advantage in different scenarios, including getting a fresh start at higher drift speeds.
After the genesis gem is used and loses its power, you will need to convert an additional 15 lines to energy in order to power it up and use it again. The genesis gem's current power is indicated by how many red-ish circles there are on the boundary line.
Anomalies - Every 10th sequence generation, an "anomaly" (or color-changing gem that glows) may appear (at a high chance) in a random empty location below the boundary line and above all other gems, and will be counted as and behave identically to a regular gem that has already landed. If there are any gems directly below the boundary line, an anomaly will not appear.
Anomalies will naturally vanish upon the next sequence generation or may vanish as a result of manual sequence regeneration or during the vanish interval. The vanishing of these gems will only be counted toward your stats or score if they vanish as a result of manual sequence regeneration (in the current drift path) or during the vanish interval.
Upon using clearance, anomalies will reset so that one will not appear for another 9 sequence generations.
PRO TIPS - The incremental score you earn for the total number of lines you've converted to energy is 10 times greater than the incremental score you earn for the total number of gems that have vanished (either naturally or during manual sequence regeneration).
If you use regeneration wisely to vanish more gems at a time and/or rebuild lines to have more matches, as well as fix lines where gems have vanished naturally, you should earn a greater overall score, though matching becomes more difficult at higher speed.
Try not to forget about the "super-left" and "super-right"
CONTROLS. It takes time to become efficient at higher speed, but the more you practice using all of the controls at your disposal, the easier it becomes.
Preventing an overflow
1 - Vanish gems too close to the boundary line whenever possible (if necessary).
2 - If you're running low on space and energy, take the opportunity to convert lines whenever possible, even if it means a lower score.
3 - If the genesis gem is activated, keep clearance in mind for when you feel like your stacks just aren't adding up. Vanishing all gems is better than an overflow or too many poorly matched lines.
4 - If you're feeling overwhelmed or frustrated from overflows (or any other reason) - pause the game, take a break, and come back after a good breather.
Important things to note
1 - All gems from malformed sequences will always finish landing before converting lines to energy (if any complete lines).
2 - Rotating a sequence while it is too close to other gems may result in the sequence being moved above those gems (if one of the gems in the rotating sequence interferes with a gem that has already landed), with very little time left to move the sequence again before it lands.
In rare cases, malformed sequences may cross through gems on rotation if they do not have gems to the left or right of them since malformed sequences have missing gems. Though this is a rare case, it is by design, and gems will never replace other gems on rotation.
3 - Manually moving a sequence downward will pause drifting for a short amount of time, allowing you to move it left or right before it continues drifting. This short pause may also be used to your advantage at higher drift speeds.
4 - Drifting will also pause temporarily after every new sequence generation, every time a sequence lands or the last gem from a malformed sequence lands, as well as every time a gem from the current drifting sequence interferes with a gem that has already landed (or any edge of the gamespace) upon rotation.
5 - The vanish interval will also pause any time drifting is temporarily paused (other than when gems above converted lines or gems from malformed sequences are still drifting), saving you some time before another random gem vanishes.
Drift pausing is much more noticeable at higher drift speeds.
6 - The same sequence will never be generated twice in a row.
7 - There are a total of 9 different types of gems (colors) and 21 possible sequences, 10 of them being malformed versions of other sequences.
8 - Sequence rolls are not completely random, though random enough to keep the game challenging with room for strategy building while ensuring no two playthroughs will ever be the same.
There will never be more than 15 sequences generated without a "blue bar" being generated (a line sequence of 4 sapphire gems). Additionally, if a specific gem type (color) isn't generated within 15 sequences, that color will be placed into a queue so that a sequence of that color will be generated soon.
9 - If you are inactive for 6 seconds, the game will pause and the menu will be displayed.
10 - The highest possible score is 99,999,999. If ever achieved, the game will continue until an overflow, though the score will not increase any further.
Progress bars
Score - This progress bar shows how close you are to reaching the current highscore. If you're watching the last game replay or the highscore replay, it shows how close the replay is to the current highscore. However, if you're watching the "preview" replay, it shows how close the preview is to ending.
Speed - This progress bar shows how close you are to reaching the highest drift speed (20X).
Interval - This progress bar shows how close a random gem is to vanishing. This progress bar fills up faster at higher drift speeds.
Energy - This progress bar shows how close you are to reaching 40 unused energy. Once this progress bar is full, you won't be able to save any more energy until you use energy.
Replays
Every time you open the menu (pause manually), or you get an overflow (game over), or you reach the highscore, a replay will be automatically saved (if the score condition is met).
Last game replays will only be saved if you have a score greater than 0, otherwise replaying the last game will replay the most recent game in which a score greater than 0 was achieved.
Please note that due to timing inaccuracies on certain browsers, devices, or systems, replays may not always be shown accurately. Replays will be optimized over time to increase accuracy.
If the game detects an error during a replay, the replay will end instantly. If a replay finishes without any errors being detected, it will automatically restart.
The "preview" is not a guide
The sole purpose of the preview replay is to showcase the mechanics of the game in a high-speed fashion while navigating various scenarios that came about by chance during gameplay (it is not scripted), and
does not attempt to be a strategy guide.
Players are encouraged to learn as they play (with the help of the "read me") and develop their own strategies over time.
Thank you
This "read me" / tutorial may be updated from time-to-time.
Linegem Labs sends a sincere thank you for showing interest in Linegem, and hopes you'll enjoy playing!
