OrmBlok
A game by Mike Leisz (technofantasy) and Ben Jelter
Ormblok is an arcade style falling block game with a twist. Use your blocks to create pellets in the playfield and then use the worm to eat the pellets!
Each round the target goal increases dramatically. Can you make it to round 9?
The game focuses on risk/reward with the things that can earn you the most points also being the riskiest things to try to do. You can learn optimal strategies for playing the game and get scores that are exponentially higher.
Controls
| Gameboy | Keyboard | Function |
| D-pad | Up/Down/Left/Right | Move Piece/Menu Cursor |
| A | X | Confirm / Rotate Piece CW |
| B | Z | Back / Rotate Piece CCW |
| START | Enter/Return | Pause / Start |
| SELECT | L Shift | Mostly unused / Advance Menu Option |
This game features a hard drop which allows you to press up on the dpad to teleport your piece to the bottom of the playfield. This can be enabled or disabled by pressing left/right on the start game menu where you can see the option at the top of the screen.
Gameplay
The game features in-game tutorials to help you learn the rules of the game but this video of an experienced player playing the game may help you to understand the game flow faster:
Credits
Game by Ben Jelter + Mike Leisz
Original music by Robotmeadows
Original SFX by Beatscribe
Created in GB Studio 4.2 for GB Compo 2025
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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As a Tetris player, this dealt psychological damage to me.
10/10
Lol thanks for playing!
this game is VERY cool. it makes you look at tetrimonos in a compeltely new way.
Pretty cool game. A bit of a major difficulty curve, and controls are hard to understand until you read the instructions, but a well-made game nonetheless. I really liked the music.
6
The first time I played it, I was really impressed by the UI, the polishedness, and the design of the game. But I didn't fully grasp the gameplay.
But now that I understand it better and that I am able to anticipate certain tactics, I find that it's a game with a lot of depth and strategy. It's a perfect example pf turning familiar mechanics into a competely new experience, by creating a new synergy between them!
Show post...
wonderful game!
thanks for playing!
Why would you make this. Do you not know how precious little free time I have???
Haha thanks for giving it a try!
I'm sure I'm being stupid, but...I can't figure out how to rotate? I checked the tutorial, but literally no buttons other than the arrow keys seem to affect the blocks. B and A do nothing
If you are playing in the browser with a keyboard, see the key in the game description to translate the buttons to keyboard. You are looking for the z/x buttons.
It's like this because it's designed as a Gameboy game and is just emulated in the browser for your convenience.
so looks like someone got a round 9 clear on a video
this particular Japanese individual has been playing a lot of random indie/doujin freebies off the internet and looks like yours was cool enough to warrant a full clear video (1st attempt video got 832282pts)
That’s awesome, thanks for letting us know!
Hi, for noobs like me, how does the *.gbc file gets unzipped on my comp?
Thanks! ;-)
it's not zipped. You need a gameboy emulator to open it.
very cool! I came for the worms, but I stayed for the addicting game play
Really fun game! I got super addicted to this!
neat game! the controls for both modes are a lil clunky tho, especially in orm mode
this is the highest score I can get.
OR IS IT?
Eyy nice work! So glad you’re enjoying the game!
so close
wow nice work!
the kind of game that'll make me lie to myself about "just one last try" 10/10
I tried this game once, then gave up because I didn't understand the concept. Then I watched the tutorial and BOOM I love it!
While the game seems simple, the gameplay is complex and rich.
I have played it a lot and I will play it a lot more.
let's see if i can improve my high score
very addictive
So glad to hear you took the time to learn it! I think it's easy for us to forget that we even had to learn our favorites once long ago.
It is a great idea to mix two kinds of game in one. Genius!
Really great graphic design and color choices. Also everything feels so snappy, I was convinced this was coded by hand before I saw GBStudio pop up in the credits!
Thanks! There are a couple thousand lines of engine code added to make it all happen!
Well that explains it then!
Amazing art style and UI! I love the different take on tetris. It feels really nice to play and happy you included the fast drop, I instinctively went to use it right away XD Great job :)
Thanks so much! Your game is really pretty. I have it downloaded but haven't had time to play it much yet. Hopefully tonight.
tysm that means a lot :D yay gameboy games!
Gameboy games for life haha
Hello there. Are you interested in getting "The Machine" translated into Portuguese? I'm an English/Portuguese interpreter, I've also worked on a few translation projects. I could do it for free, just would like to be credit in the game, thanks.
I am trying to lay the groundwork to make this possible. I have had a lot of offers to translate it to Portuguese and I want to make it happen but I am just one person working on a lot of things so it is going slowly.
Unique idea, great art direction and attention to details... I love it, good job! 👍
so glad you enjoyed the game :) thanks for playing
Mawww this is one of the best puzzle games for the platform I have ever played. I love how you brought the aesthetics over to the non-backlit screen. Thanks so so much. <3
Really glad you enjoyed it!
i loveee the pallete!!!
This game really had me rewiring my brain not to play it the Tetris way! Anyway, the gameplay feels refreshing and it was fun to play. And the graphics are outstanding too!
Thanks for playing!
Cool way to subvert Tetris-related expectations. I have to keep reminding myself it’s not Tetris!
That's a lot of muscle memory to rewire haha
decades!!
Okay. I don't know when I last saw such a well-designed and good game. Extreme respect.
Really appreciate it!