In TetRLs you play an unidentified character who is apparently trapped in the laboratory of a mad soviet scientist, forced to participate in some sort of bizarre mind-game experiment that involves a lot of arranging of oddly shaped crates. However, you must balance this task with battling dozens of highly aggressive lab rats that apparently escaped (or were released…).

TetRLs’ gameplay is relatively simple for a roguelike, movement keys supported (on Standard US QWERTY keyboards) are: “vi-keys”, “wasd”, “arrow keys” and “numpad”. You may choose to use whichever scheme you wish at any time though use of the arrow keys is discouraged because that scheme does not provide easy access to diagonal movement keys.

To clear each level the player must place a certain number of tetrominos on the board while trying not to get killed by some lab-rats that appear over time. The player may attack and kill the lab rats with a wrench by “bumping” into them, otherwise the level may eventually become to cluttered by rats to be playable.

Should the player get too close to a rat for too long, the rat may bite and injure the player, reducing their HP level. The only way to increase HP after being attacked is to place more tetrominos. Particularly, the player receives a bonus amount of hit points if they complete an entire line with the tetrominos.

Once the player has placed the proper number of tetrominos, the door on the right of the room will open up and upon reaching it the player will enter the next level (and be unable to return). As levels progress the required tetrominos need to advance increases, as does the rate of lab rat generation.

The game is complete when the player finishes 5 levels (75 tetrominos total).

In addition to the movement keys, you’ll need to use a few other keys:

Use the period or the number 5 key to take a turn without moving.

To return a tetromino to it’s original location and rotate it use ‘R’ (That’s shift-’r', as just normal ‘r’ is already used for movement) or ‘x’.

To fix a tetromino in place and drop another onto the board use ‘D’ (That’s shift-’d') or the space key.

Press ‘Q’ to quit

TetRLs was written by John L. Greco for the 2009 7DRL competition.