theme selector

light blue screenshot grey screenshot navy screenshot dark green screenshot red and black screenshot
 

by Tony Chang
tony@ponderer.org

All opinions on this site are my own and do not represent those of my employer.

Creative Commons Attribution License

drop factor (aka drop 7)

Jan 02, 2010, 09:28pm EST

 

 

Over the winter break, my brother and step-sister were playing a the iPhone game Drop7[1] a lot. Since I own an Android phone, I wasn’t able to play the game on my phone.

So I decided to write the game myself. It’s just a webpage, so you can play if from Safari, Mobile Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or the Android browser. I call it Drop Factor. The game play is based on the hardcore mode of Drop 7.

It’s build using Javascript and canvas (the platform of the future, I’m told). You can grab the source on github.

[1] I think it’s based on the flash game chain factor.

Glen Murphy at Jan 02, 2010, 10:30pm EST

The thing I couldn’t quite like about Drop7 was that it seemed like* you were mostly fighting chance; an unlucky combination of numbers can make a line nearly impossible to clear, resulting in your eventual death. Tetris at least is playable for practically forever.

* Is this true, or am I missing some major part of the game?


tony at Jan 03, 2010, 04:49am EST

I think you can mitigate having an unclearable line. Most games end with low numbers making a row you can’t clear near the top of the board. Since that’s the configuration that causes problems, the strategy I use is to be very aggressive in clearing low numbers (never have 1’s on the board), especially when they start to clump.


ramona at Jan 03, 2010, 11:45am EST

you are such a nerd tony! :)


Peter Kasting at Jan 03, 2010, 07:49pm EST

Any chance of throwing a paragraph of instructions (or link thereto) below/above/beside the game?


Joel F at Jan 07, 2010, 08:56pm EST

Dear lord this is addictive.


emafral at Apr 09, 2010, 09:19pm EDT

Nice coding :)

What about the message? Taken offline as requested by Area/Code (authors of Drop 7 and Chain Factor).

Some kind of pleasing request?


tony at Apr 10, 2010, 08:04pm EDT

The game is now available on the android market for free by Area/Code.


mani at Jan 20, 2011, 12:51pm EST

Is there a license on it that you had to shut it down?


Tony Robinson at Dec 19, 2012, 11:06am EST

Hey man…could you possibly release your Twitter username so that I may have it? I’d be happy to pay you for it.

Thanks much! Tony


tony at Dec 19, 2012, 11:19am EST

Sorry, my twitter name is not for sale.