I’ve played a lot of Tetris variants, but never one quite like this

digitaltrends.com:

I’ll admit it: I’m a bit of a Tetris fiend. As a puzzle game enthusiast, I can’t get enough of the classic block-dropping series. I still regularly play Tetris 99 to this day. I got a kick out of seeing its history retold in Digital Eclipse’s Tetris Forever. I even had a period where I got into the Apple Arcade exclusive Tetris Beat. Most of all, I love seeing indie developers T-spin the format on its head in ways that The Tetris Company never would dare to.

That’s exactly what I got when I tried a new demo for Drop Duchy, an upcoming puzzle roguelite that takes Tetris in a new direction. While I’m dropping pieces and filling lines as you’d expect, that’s only one small piece of the puzzle. How many Tetris variants have you building a serene countryside, harvesting crops, and going to war with other troops — all within a well? Even if it might take players some time to wrap their head around, Drop Duchy is shaping up to be the kind of oddball hidden gem puzzle fans should have on their radar.

While Tetris is the central inspiration here, Drop Duchy takes some immediate notes from a much different game:Slay the Spire. When I start a round, I have to navigate a mission select board full of puzzle scenarios, shops, and opportunities to add cards to my hand. Yes, surprise, Drop Duchy is a deckbuilder too. The idea is that players amass a collection of buildings, military units, and passive effects that change what happens once they start dropping pieces. Before actually jumping into a well, I have to select my card loadout and even unlock more slots with gathered resources.

Once that’s set, the Tetris hook kicks in. I have to manage a well by placing falling pieces. Some of them are tetromino land pieces, decorated with forest and plain tiles. I can quick-drop pieces into place or hold one for later, just as I can in Tetris. That’s all easy enough to understand, but the mechanical similarities mostly end there. My