Gnometris comes from the classic falling-block game, Tetris. The goal of the game is to create complete horizontal lines of blocks, which will disappear. The blocks come in seven different shapes made from four blocks each: one straight, two L-shaped, one square, and two S-shaped. The blocks fall from the top center of the screen in a random order. You rotate the blocks and move them across the screen to drop them in complete lines. You score by dropping blocks fast and completing lines. As your score gets higher, you level up and the blocks fall faster.
To run Gnometris, select Applications ▸ Games ▸ Gnometris, or type gnometris in the command line.
Gnometris is included in the gnome-games package, which is part of the GNOME desktop environment. This document describes version 2.8 of Gnometris.
You can score through two actions: completing lines and dropping blocks quickly.
To play the game, you only need the four arrow keys.
To begin a new game, go to Game ▸ New Game. The game will begin dropping blocks from the center of the top of the window. The default start-up of the game has no blocks in the game window and shows the next block that will fall in the upper right hand corner. Score shows the number of points you have earned. Lines shows the number of lines you have completed. Level shows the level of difficulty you are on.
To pause your game, go to Game ▸ Pause Game. You can only pause a game when you are playing. The time limit on pausing your game is unlimited. To unpause the game, go back to Game ▸ Pause Game.
To completely quit Gnometris go to Game ▸ Quit. If you are in the middle of a game when you quit, you will end your game without saving your score.
You score points through two methods: dropping blocks faster and deleting complete lines of blocks. When you delete lines, you get more points, but dropping blocks faster will quickly add up. As you level up, the blocks will begin falling faster. The highest level is 10, at which point you will only have just over a second to manipulate each block.
By going to Settings ▸ Preferences, you can customize a variety of features for the start-up of each Gnometris game: number and density of pre-filled rows, and starting level. "Pre-filled rows" refers to how many rows will already have blocks in them when you start each new game.
You can change the number of rows that already have blocks at the start-up of each new game by using the spin box. You can start with up to 19 rows pre-filled at the start-up of your game. The default number of pre-filled rows is zero.
From Settings ▸ Preferences, you can customize a variety of features related to the blocks: previewing the next block, block colors, and block rotation.
Turn the sound effects on and off using this option. If you are playing this game in any area which you share with other people, you should probably select off.
Choose this option if you want to see the next block that is going to fall. This feature helps you plan the placement of your blocks.
Choose if you want the various block configurations to be color coded or randomly colored. If you use the colors to help you identify blocks, random colors will make the game more difficult.
Under Settings ▸ Preferences, you can customize the look of Gnometris: images for the blocks.
Klotski was written by J. Marcin Gorycki (<janusz.gorycki@intel.com>). This manual was written by Angela Boyle. To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, follow the directions in this document.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the gnome-help:gpl as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to