A downloadable Playdate game

Buy Now$5.00 USD or more

Four Corners for Playdate


2023 Playdate Community Award Badge

Best Puzzle Game nominee for the 2023 Playdate Community Awards!

Also available on Catalog if you prefer!

Four Corners is an energetic puzzle game for your Playdate that asks you to do something simple - make rectangles.

That's it. Really!

Ok, not really. As the name implies, it's the corners that matter here. Each corner of your rectangle must be the same color, and there are three different colors and a hundred tiles to choose from.

Then there's the thirty second timer. And there's a square counter that demands a certain number of tiles. And every time you fill it up, it just wants even more. But you only ever have thirty seconds, which isn't a lot of time, so things get exciting pretty quickly.

Oh! And did we mention there are Bombs? Because there are bombs. And a bunch of bonuses to help you out along the way.

Rectangles. Bombs. Bonuses. Are you a Corner Master?

Be sure to check out this strategy thread to get yourself a head start in the game!

A bomb going off.
Boom!
“Its a pretty clever puzzle game. I don’t think I’ve played a game like this … it is a lot of fun, I really recommend you try it out.”

GoGameGo

“Clever gameplay! Unique and well-suited to the Playdate.”

noah

"Easy to learn but still addictive and constantly generates that desire to do just a little bit better next time. One of those solid, go-to games that never gets old."

ritalinhum

“I don't know how you keep making games I absolutely love, but there you go.”

Ledbetter

Features

  • Thrilling rectangle creating action!
  • An Original Soundtrack featuring Five great songs that slap.
  • Never before heard sound effects.
  • The Voice of the Grid, cheering you on.
  • As many as three shades of gray!
  • Three difficulty levels, each with a slightly more forgiving time requirement.
  • Local high scores for each difficulty level.
  • Bombs that blow up whatever tile color has the most representation on the board.
  • Special Bonuses like the Instabomb and the Quad Clear to make your job easier. And they stack to become even more powerful!
The game
See? Rectangle!

How to Play

A diagram labeling important things.
A diagram labeling important things in the game.

Use the D-Pad to move the selection markers across the grid. Hold the buttons to move quickly.

Press the A Button to turn on Selection Mode to expand the selection markers. When each marker is over a tile of the same color, it will fill in with the color of those tiles.

Press the A Button again to clear these tiles and collect points.

While in Selection Mode, press the B Button to cancel and return to Navigation Mode.

When not in Selection Mode, pressing the B Button will use a Bomb, if you have any.

Fill the Square Counter to complete a level before time runs out.

Each time you complete a level, you'll be granted another Bomb. You can also get a Bonus Bomb by making a rectangle that contains all of the tiles on the grid.

The Square Counter will reset, and grow by two rows (38 additional tiles). Any overage from your last clear will be included when it resets.

Make rectangles that have bonus tiles in their corners to take advantage of their benefits. Bonuses will stack with one another.

The game defaults to a normal difficulty setting (45 seconds), but if you're having a tough time, or want a more relaxed experience, try switching to easy (60 seconds) via the system menu. If you're up for a real challenge, try it on hard with only 30 seconds!

Making a rectangle.
Making a rectangle and advancing to level 3

Bonus Tiles

BONUS TILES ONLY APPLY WHEN THEY ARE IN THE CORNERS!

Double Clears multiply the number of tiles in your clear by two.
Quad Clears multiply the number of tiles in your clear by four.
Instabombs immediately remove all tiles of the color of the clear from the grid. Two or more in a match will blow up the entire grid.
Time Warps add an additional five seconds to the clock for each one in a corner.

As mentioned, bonuses will stack. So, for example, if your rectangle has two Quad Clears, you are effectively getting an 8x clear.

A double-double combo
Two double clears turning 30 tiles into 120.

Ignoring bonus tiles and combo opportunities will ensure a very quick presentation of the Game Over Screen.

Game Over

The Game Over screen.
Game Over

The game will end if the Timer runs out before you are able to satisfy the Square Counter's requirements.

Controls

The A Button Use the A Button to turn on Selection Mode, and press it again to confirm a selection.
The B Button The B Button can be used to Cancel Selection Mode and return to Navigation Mode. When in Navigation Mode, pressing the B Button will fire off a Bomb.
Use the D-Pad to move the Selection Markers while in Navigation Mode, and to expand them while in Selection Mode. Hold the buttons down to move quickly.
An insta-bomb.
An Instabomb

How to Install the Game

Not sure how to sideload games onto your Playdate? Panic has you covered with easy to follow instructions. Or check out this great how-to video that @Ledbetter created.

Questions? Comments?

Leave a comment here, or contact us at scenicroutegames@gmail.com

Our Other Playdate Titles

StatusReleased
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(2 total ratings)
AuthorScenic Route Software
GenrePuzzle
TagsPlaydate
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish

Purchase

Buy Now$5.00 USD or more

In order to download this Playdate game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Four Corners v1.5.0 6 MB

Development log

Comments

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I just bought the catalog version, I already bought the itch.io one in the past and upon my 1st game and improving my score (>24K) the game is glitching to the point it is unplayable.

I did copy my json score files to the catalog one but, i didn't expect the game to under perform like this

Sorry to hear that you're running into issues with it! Did you encounter these issues with the Itch version? When you say you copied files over, which ones were they exactly?  Could you describe the glitches you're seeing? It would help me track down what the issue could be.

I'll admit I've not built this game on the latest Playdate SDK, so it's possible that might be the culprit. I'll do that today and see if I can reproduce any weirdness on the device.

I deleted the files that i copied before and started the game clean. After a while, around 10K points or more, the tiles start to glitch, appear on top of each other, some corners don't render, things like that.

If i leave the game and enter the game, the screen glitches disappear but they come back after a couple of seconds

You can see here how artifacts start appearing, but the problem is more acute when moving around the screen. It is impossible to find combinations like this

Thank you! I'll get this fixed asap!

I think I've found the culprit here. I've made some adjustments and have played a game up to level 34 on both a revA and a revB units, and was not able to reproduce this any longer. 

If you're willing, I'd like to send you a build to side load to see if it fixes it for you. Drop me an email at scenicroutegames@gmail.com if you have some time to to try it out.

Great game, but it seems to glitch late into a game. Tiles will overlap, lagging the system and making everything very slow and unresponsive.

Are you on the latest version of the game (1.5.0)? I was pretty sure I'd fixed what you're describing in that version after another player brought it up the same issue.

The version is displayed in the bottom right corner of the credits menu.

(2 edits)

I bought the one on Catalog a few days. Not sure what version that is. Edit - Playdate says it's 1.5.0

(+1)

This game is incredible!! I went from frustrated in the first two games to totally addicted. I can't stop playing, it makes me enter in some kind of flow state.

This and your other game "Generations" are definitely the best two Playdate's puzzle games. This kind of games makes this console truly exciting, thanks a lot and keep going!

Hey thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying both! If you have a sec, and wouldn't mind, drop a rating on them!

https://scenicroutesoftware.itch.io/four-corners-for-playdate/rate

https://scenicroutesoftware.itch.io/generations-for-playdate/rate

(+1)

Absolutely amazing :) Lovely, unique puzzle game that has me super addicted :) Thank you!

(1 edit) (+1)

This game is phenomenal. Probably the best puzzle game I’ve found on playdate. It’s super hard at first, but once you get the hang of the general strategy it’s challenging and addicting

(+1)

I'm so happy to hear you're having fun with it! Thanks for playing the game!

(+1)

Love the game. Are there any chances of adding an endless mode (no timer)?

(+1)

Glad you like it!

I had an iteration of the game early on that was turn based with no timer. You'd get X (never quite landed on the right number) turns to clear as many tiles as possible. A full screen clear would give you a bonus turn, and finishing a level would add two more turns. Then I decided to be more faithful to the original game (this is a port of an  iOS game I wrote 10 years ago) and maybe add different modes in a follow up release. Also considering a "very hard" mode with 4 colors which would add other types of specials like "simplifiers" from the original game that would reduce the board to two colors for a turn or two.


If you have any specific ideas for what you'd like to see, please let me know!

I like the turn based idea. That would be a great addition to the game.

(+1)

I was trying to match all four initial corners and getting no where, then it finally clicked for me and I focused on the top left corner.  Much easier, but still quite a challenge with the timer talking to me!   Is a worthwhile 'protip' to use up all 3 bombs on each run?

(+1)

You get a bomb each time you finish a level, so you have to get to at least level two before you can use a bomb.

I tend to use them when nothing is jumping out at me. Whatever color appears the most on the grid will be removed, making it a lot easier to see four tiles that will line up to create a rectangle.

I'm going to post a strategy thread on twitter this afternoon!

(+1)

Strategy thread! https://twitter.com/ScenicSoftware/status/1602730781343875072