GPTris

I decided to vibe-code a Quickbasic falling blocks game on a Wednesday evening; the game design was mine, but GPT 5.4 Sol wrote every line of the code.

I had a lot of fun making this, breaking the overall project of coding this into segments without having to write any code myself. I also had a lot of fun actually playing it when it was finished, and as far as I'm aware there's not a game quite like this out there yet.

I even let GPT write the rest of the readme file:

GPTRIS
======

GPTRIS is a falling-block puzzle game for QuickBASIC.
Instead of clearing lines, you build the tetromino shown under TARGET.
The upcoming targets are displayed below it.

HOW TO PLAY
-----------
LEFT ARROW    Move the falling piece left
RIGHT ARROW   Move the falling piece right
UP ARROW      Rotate the falling piece
DOWN ARROW    Hard-drop and lock the piece
P             Pause or resume the game
ESCAPE        End the current game
Press any non-Escape key on the title screen to start.
Press Escape on the title screen to exit.
The game ends when a new piece cannot enter the playfield.

TARGETS
-------
The target queue contains every normal tetromino in every rotation.
Build the shape shown at the top of the queue to clear it.
Matches must have the occupied and empty cells shown by the target.
Overlapping copies do not count as separate matches. If several non-overlapping copies exist, they are evaluated from left to right.
After a target clears, the next target advances immediately. If that shape already exists on the board, it clears as a combo.
Square targets appear four times as often as a normal orientation.
Each straight-bar orientation appears twice as often.

GRAY BLOCKS
-----------
Some falling pieces have one gray half.
A mixed yellow-and-gray match scores normally, but its gray blocks remain behind. A target made entirely from gray blocks clears all of its blocks.

The chance of receiving a gray half starts at 5 percent. It increases by 0.5 percentage points per landed piece, up to a maximum of 75 percent.

SCORING
-------
Clearing one target is worth 100 points.
Multiple simultaneous targets multiply the award:
    1 target  = 100 points
    2 targets = 200 points
    3 targets = 300 points

Each level of a combo chain doubles the base award:
    First clear  = 100 points per target
    Second clear = 200 points per target
    Third clear  = 400 points per target
    Fourth clear = 800 points per target

A single award is capped at 1,000,000 points.

HIGH SCORES
-----------
The three best scores are saved in GPTRIS.HI.
If the file does not exist, the game creates it with three zeroes.
A score that reaches the top three flashes on the title screen.
Otherwise, the final score is displayed below the table.

RUNNING THE GAME
----------------
QuickBASIC / QBasic:
    Open GPTRIS.BAS and run it normally. QuickBASIC can also compile it
    into a standalone DOS executable.

QB64:
    Open GPTRIS.BAS in QB64 and build or run it normally.
    Press Alt+Enter while playing to toggle fullscreen mode.

For a resizable, crisp pixel-art window in QB64, add this line above
DEFINT A-Z before compiling:
    $RESIZE:STRETCH

Resize the window to 640x400 for an exact 2x scale. Keep the window at
an 8:5 aspect ratio to avoid stretching the image.

FILES
-----
GPTRIS.BAS    Game source code
GPTRIS.HI   Automatically generated high-score data

Have fun making weird shapes.