Blocksworld - TV Tropes

"The game that isn't really a game, or is it?

Blocksworld was a 2012 sandbox video game and platform originally developed by BoldaiAB and later bought out by Linden Lab (the creators of Second Life). In a fashion similar to Roblox, Blocksworld was not only a tool to create video games, but also a platform that hosted games created by other players (albeit on a much smaller scale). In fact, many recounted Blocksworld as their first foray into coding, which was a feature implemented in the app.

Blocksworld also had an adventure-themed series of games called "Heroes of Aero" which contained an overarching story involving the main trio Sergio, Turq, and Captain Jules fighting against the Murkles, who sought to destory Aero. The games also functioned as tutorials for using the in-game "tag" function.

The game stayed online for seven years, until mid-2020 when Linden Lab deactivated the servers hosting the game after a wave of exploiters, errors, and glitches appeared during 2019-2020. While the game is no longer officially available, a group of dedicated fans created new, unofficial servers to host the game on, which is still available to this day, named "Blocksworld 2: The Secondary Server". However, in November 2023, it was confirmed that the Kyiv-based company Fortell Games bought the Blocksworld property from Linden Labs, and are planning to bring back the game, set for late 2024.

Check out the website and Kickstarter page if you want to make a late pledge here.

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Let's go!

• Achievement System: It's actually one of the ways to earn coins in-game. Completing achievements (called "badges") rewards you free coins.
• Allegedly Free Game: If you don't have any blocks, you have to buy them with "coins", the in-game currency that you pay for with real money (although free alternatives to earning them are available).
• Amusing Injuries: You can make Blocksters explode into pieces! While this remains permanent during play, the redo button at the top corner can undo everything.
• Art Evolution: Multiple examples took place throughout the game's 2012-2020 lifespan.
  • The earliest known example of the game was created by Swedish studio BoldaiAB. The game's graphics were incredibly simplistic, highlights including faces akin to those on a LEGO minifigure. When Linden bought the game for international distribution, the face textures were changed to a slightly more complex and expressive style.
    • A 2016 update gave the eyes lighting on the pupils.
  • Before 2017, the game's shading made everything look more like plastic, but when 2017 came, shaders were made more realistic.
    • This can also be attributed to the sky, which also looked cartoonish. When the 2017 update rolled in, it was changed to look more like a real sky. The update came at the cost of being able to change the sky's colors.
• Boss Battle: One of the most popular types of worlds to make and play on Blocksworld.
• Butt-Monkey: During the height of his game's popularity, Baldi of Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning was the subject of numerous games forcing the player to use barbaric means on him such as kicking/torturing/killing.
• Camera Lock-On: The camera is always fixed onto the model or character you are playing with. While adjusting the camera at first to not focus on said model/character allows you to move the camera freely, when a model enters the frame, the camera permanently locks onto it.
• Context-Sensitive Button: You can program buttons to act out a desired action, such as shooting a lazer blaster or running, so this can be enforced.
• Cut and Paste Environments: A lot of older worlds back in the early days of the game involved the player giving a character a flu shot.
  • It used to be enforced during the BoldaiAB days of the game. The game gave you the option to copy someone else's world and modify it to their own liking. This feature was axed in the Linden releases.
• Fan Remake: Another popular type of world to create on the platform. Numerous examples include Five Nights at Freddy's, Super Mario Bros., and arguably one of the more infamous examples to the community, episodes of Thomas & Friends.
• Lethal Lava Land: One of Blocksworld: The Secondary Server"'s world templates is called "Volcano Revolving." It is simply a sea of lava with a volcanic island in the middle of it. This map was not present in the official Blocksworld'' release.
• Level Editor: This is the entire point of Blocksworld, in which anybody can create games to be shared on the platform.
• Photo Mode: A button on the top left corner allows you to tap it to take a screenshot, which is automatically saved to your camera roll.
• Product Placement: Before 2017, Hasbro made a deal with Linden to have its My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Transformers, and G.I. Joe properties featured in Blocksworld. Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return also appeared in the game as two add-on packs, too.
• Road Runner PC: You can program a character or vehicle to run VERY FAST when you stack certain maxed out actions onto each other.
• Skybox: Before 2017, a solid blue color skybox was used in the game, and could be recolored into any color the player chose. From 2017 onwards, it was replaced with more realistic textures that can be inserted into the world. Many players were against this change because you could no longer change the color of the sky anymore, only the accompanying fog.
• Spring Jump: Ditto with Road Runner PC, but with the "Jump" action. Stacking it in the same string of code causes the Blockster to jump to an enormous height.
• A Winner Is You: It's not possible to win win a game unless you insert the "Win" action into your game, which is just a string of text on a bubble that says "you win!" Anticlimatic. ^note