LudumData

DEFRAG by jdhollen

[raw]
made by jdhollen for LD 42 (COMPO)

by a cruel twist of fate, you have become defrag.exe--or at least the compaction part. i don't know.

compress files down to the bottom of the disk to create large, clear pastures for your user's endless stream of new files at the top. just like how computers work!

just to clarify this a little, the powerups are:

-snowflakes freeze new drops of pieces for ~5s

-the arrow compresses the six 6 pieces closest to the top together, which can be a lifesaver

-the bomb blows up 4 or 5 pieces nearest the top of the board, which is really only helpful if you're screwed.

ldjam3.gif

HTML5 (web) https://jdhollen.itch.io/defrag
Source code https://github.com/jdhollen/defrag-ld42
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/defrag

Ratings

Overall 397th 3.314⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Fun 387th 3.198⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 320th 3.256⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Theme 194th 3.884⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 552th 2.802⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Audio 401th 2.78⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Humor 466th 1.875⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 461th 2.721⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Given 44🗳️ 22🗨️

Feedback

cassowary
13. Aug 2018 · 08:11 UTC
Took me a little bit to get the hang of the controls (the meaning of the cursor changing shape had me confused), but once I'd figured it out, it was quite fun. There's a surprising amount going on in this game! It's a simple concept, but it works well, and the powerups add a little bit of extra depth to the mechanics.

I got to level 9 with 24370 points. I don't know if that's good or bad.
🎤 jdhollen
13. Aug 2018 · 08:15 UTC
@cassowary I don't know if it's good or bad either! I'm kind of excited to see what other people can do--I topped out at level 10.
Ephoria
13. Aug 2018 · 08:26 UTC
I did not understand how the game started but once understood, I like the originality of the game. I also found it strange that the lines could be cut between the edge of the screen.

Anyway, Good work !
Predominant
13. Aug 2018 · 08:50 UTC
Great twist on tetris, reminds me of being a kid watching defrag happen on early windows :)
Andrew Friedman
13. Aug 2018 · 17:03 UTC
Loved it! Very interesting take on Tetris. Audio was great and worked with the whole arcade aesthetic. gg
jchaplin
13. Aug 2018 · 19:37 UTC
Nice idea... took me a few times to get it, but i found it fun!
Frank Gevaerts
13. Aug 2018 · 20:07 UTC
Not bad at all.
EnchaeC
13. Aug 2018 · 23:39 UTC
Great audio feedback. Could be pretty neat with a fresh coat of paint and some animations.
🎤 jdhollen
13. Aug 2018 · 23:56 UTC
@enchaec thanks! i definitely waited too long to come back to art, and more or less ended up punting :) the background grid is... special. oh well! still pretty happy to have come up with something fairly playable.
Xwilarg
14. Aug 2018 · 01:17 UTC
The game really is interesting once you understand how it work (and the audio when you complete an objective is really satisfying)

However the game quickly become very hard since blocs are not subject to gravity, my games always more or less ends with only the upper part of my screen full of bloc and the middle part empty.
🎤 jdhollen
14. Aug 2018 · 01:20 UTC
@xwilarg thanks for the feedback! The idea is that the pieces can wrap around from the left side to the right side--i admittedly didn't spend enough time on graphics this time around, so i didn't end up representing that very well. basically, the pieces that don't fall on the right hand side are probably connected to something that started on the previous row on the left hand side.

thanks again for the feedback ! :)
Xwilarg
14. Aug 2018 · 01:24 UTC
@jdhollen I think that even knowing that, my main problem was that bloc were falling as fast as I was moving them, so for example if there was 2 bloc in the middle of the screen, I wasn't able to move them away fast enough and game over was coming quickly after.
🎤 jdhollen
14. Aug 2018 · 01:28 UTC
ah, yeah, the game gets into a runaway failure state pretty fast! i think i probably could have saved it a bit by having the powerups appear more often, but hey, it's done now :)
artbohr
14. Aug 2018 · 01:37 UTC
A bit though, but a nice idea with pleasant colors, well done.
crastinator
14. Aug 2018 · 01:38 UTC
A pretty fun game! That little vibrato from the effects and leveling-up was really satisfying to hear.

I feel it may be worthwhile to investigate whether mouse would be a better control for this, since my main frustration was with trying to target the blocks into where I want them to go, which would be a lot easier with mouse than with keyboard.
🎤 jdhollen
14. Aug 2018 · 01:46 UTC
@crastinator yeah, totally! mouse controls were on my todo list but got chopped at about 3am saturday night / sunday morning :)
Luis Giron
14. Aug 2018 · 02:01 UTC
It tooks me a bit to understand the controlls, but once i got it, the game was very interesting, it's like a kind of tetris but with a twist, and it's true, the sound when you complete a level is so satisfying. Great entry! :smile:
aplite
14. Aug 2018 · 02:08 UTC
Really fun game. I initially did not understand, but after watching the GIF for a couple of loops the game mechanic "clicked". If there was some way to make it more intuitive it would probably help.

Overall I really liked the audio and the mechanic. Great entry!
Tattomoosa
14. Aug 2018 · 02:29 UTC
Great idea! I agree with some of the earlier comments that the failure state comes on too fast after only a mistake or two. Maybe if it started out a little slower for new players? Would be nice if there was some indicator for when the next block will drop, since it just suddenly shows up on top of your stack.
🎤 jdhollen
14. Aug 2018 · 02:38 UTC
@tattomoosa thanks for the feedback! i totally have the code for a little ghost piece all written--i actually took it out and forgot to add it back in because i originally had the player's piece as a little ghost of the piece being moved as well--should have put it back when i made the outline green instead. oh well!
crazi456
14. Aug 2018 · 05:50 UTC
Took me a sec to figure out, but once I did it was loads of fun! :D
arcadonauts
14. Aug 2018 · 06:30 UTC
The idea of playing as defrag.exe is certainly charming. Great idea for a game. you should think about fleshing it out in to a full-fledged game.
candlesan
14. Aug 2018 · 06:54 UTC
Nice twist on tetris Found the game very challenging.
Ossi
14. Aug 2018 · 07:04 UTC
Really neat idea and a good take on the theme. I found the game pretty difficult and did really poorly ahah!
karlipoppins
14. Aug 2018 · 07:30 UTC
Love the tetris twist with this take on the theme. Really clever idea, and I felt like the game was fun and challenging! Loved the added powerups, and felt pretty good when clearing a bunch of lines at the same time. Overall it was really cool! Would have loved a defrag-tetris music theme!
Truc_e
14. Aug 2018 · 09:06 UTC
Very nice game well polished and good sound. The gameplay didn't have much depth and was pretty straight forward but it was done very well
NickTheSic
14. Aug 2018 · 16:54 UTC
Good game, I was taking my time and I didn't notice that I ran out of space. Really cool way to move the blocks around too, it would be cool to see how shapes that take up more than one line would move and if you took this mechanic to a new level different shapes would be something to try. Overall it is a good game and I had some fun!
andreymust19
14. Aug 2018 · 18:18 UTC
Interest idea, but webGl not works in my browser.
Could you make win32-build?
Corbak
14. Aug 2018 · 18:36 UTC
Interesting. Easily addicted but also easily lost.
it was a nice take on the genre, good work :)
Suchista
14. Aug 2018 · 19:28 UTC
That's clever! Kinda oldschool game and it's nice. And it fits the theme. It looks complete, good job!
Sentmoraap
14. Aug 2018 · 19:49 UTC
It is more about optimizing your moves and go as fast as possible than really puzzley. The controls feels like Panel de Pon. Without deletions, you just have to tidy up everything at the top. Maybe more deletions would make the game more fun.
devharts
15. Aug 2018 · 01:17 UTC
Wow, very fun! I really enjoyed this twist on Tetris type mechanics and the way the blocks wrapped around the edges of the screen (once I finally figured it out after a minute or two, haha). Nicely done :)
Rahim_Pxr
27. Aug 2018 · 17:10 UTC
Nice game, Love how everything is balanced!
Good luck, Don't forget to take a look at ours if you don't mind and see what it's like when we just focused on graphics in this game jam!
Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42a
LastLeaf
03. Sep 2018 · 08:45 UTC
Really challenging! I felt it hard to pass lv4 but super fun! There was much difference with Tetris, very innovative and interesting! Great job!

I think it is too difficult for new players (considering practicing mode?)