It's weird to see tetrominoes - the boxy shapes we usually associate with Tetris - outside of their natural habitat. That's exactly what Tetropolis is about, though: a world obsessed with puzzle games, and the pieces that just aren't good enough. Tetropolis stars a defective tetromino (composed of only three squares instead of four) who joins forces with another defective piece (a single square) to avoid being destroyed.

Working together, they can combine into various familiar tetrominos, each with different abilities. The line piece, for example, can scrunch its body like a spring and fling itself great distances. You use these abilities in an open world platforming game, which NextGen Pants lead Bob Webb describes as "Tetroidvania." In an interesting (and literal) twist, the map is composed of tetrominoes, which players can rotate to reshape the world and access new areas.

We tried Tetropolis at GDC and, if nothing else, it's definitely novel. Tetropolis is currently planned for PC and Mac, and NextGen Pants is considering console ports as well.