Setrixtui

A terminal puzzle game: falling blocks that turn into sand. Clear lines by connecting one colour from edge to edge.

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Overview

Setrixtui is a Setris/Sandtrix-style game in the terminal. Place coloured blocks; when they lock, they turn into sand. Clear lines by making a single colour connect the left edge to the right edge (8-neighbour, path can be diagonal). Matching piece colours and completing those spans scores points; remaining sand falls under gravity.

Requirements

• Rust 1.86+ (ratatui 0.30)
• Edition 2024

Installation

cargo install setrixtui

Or build from source:

cargo build --release
./target/release/setrixtui

Quick start

./target/release/setrixtui

setrix.mp4

By default you get the main menu (difficulty, mode), then play. Endless mode and easy difficulty are selected by default. Use --theme ./onedark.theme for the One Dark theme (otherwise the built-in One Dark is used).

Start without the menu:

./target/release/setrixtui --no-menu

Custom playfield and options:

./target/release/setrixtui --width 10 --height 24 --theme ./onedark.theme
./target/release/setrixtui -m timed --time-limit 180 -d hard --no-animation

Playfield size is in grid cells (columns × rows). Default is 10×24. The game sizes the board to fit your terminal: in the menu, zooming out gives a larger playfield (up to 12×28); during play, the size is fixed. If the terminal is small, the board is reduced so everything fits.

Game over: R restart, Q quit.

Layout

• Playfield (left, bordered): each block is 6×6 “grains”; the board uses half-blocks (▀) so two grain rows map to one terminal row.
• Sidebar (24 cols): next-piece preview (number depends on difficulty), six sand colours, score, level, and in timed mode the remaining time.

Rough size: playfield needs (width×6 + 2) columns and (height×3 + 2) rows including border, plus 24 columns for the sidebar.

Modes

Mode	Description
Endless (default)	Play until stack overflow. R restart, Q quit.
Timed (-m timed, --time-limit SECS)	Score as much as you can before time runs out. R or Q when time’s up.
Clear40 (-m clear40, --clear-lines N)	Goal: clear N lines (default 40) in as little time as possible. Once you reach N you keep playing until stack overflow; your best is the most lines cleared in a run. Time to N and total time are shown.

Controls

Movement keys repeat when held. Normal and vim-style bindings are supported.

Action	Normal	Vim
Left	←	h
Right	→	l
Rotate CW	↑	k / i
Rotate CCW	(see --help)	u
Soft drop	↓	j
Hard drop	Enter / Space	Space
Pause	p	p
Quit	q / Esc	q

P toggles pause. On game over or win: R restart, Q quit.

Theme and colours

Themes are btop-style: theme[key]="value" with hex colours. See onedark.theme in the repo.

• --theme FILE: load colours from the file. Sand colours use keys such as mem_box, title, cpu_end, cpu_box, net_box, hi_fg; UI uses meter_bg, div_line, main_fg, title, inactive_fg. Hex values are used as-is.
• No theme file: built-in One Dark is used (same hex values as in onedark.theme).

--palette high-contrast or --palette colorblind overrides only the sand colours; the rest of the theme is unchanged.

CLI summary

• Playfield: --width COLS, --height ROWS (default 10×24). Sized to fit the terminal.
• Mode: -m endless | timed | clear40. Timed: --time-limit SECS. Clear40: --clear-lines N (default 40).
• Difficulty: -d easy | medium | hard (gravity and next-piece preview count).
• Theme: --theme FILE (btop-style). --palette normal | high-contrast | colorblind for sand only.
• Tuning: --tick-rate, --frame-rate, --spawn-delay-ms, --lock-delay-ms, --initial-level, --relaxed, --sand-settle, --no-animation, --no-menu, --high-color.

Full list: setrixtui --help.

bit of help from gemini flash from antigravity and zeditor (struggled with codex still learning how to use AI)