Clean That Garbage! by robert18

[raw]
made by robert18 for Ludum Dare 58 (COMPO)

After a decade of spaghetti code being pushed to the main branch you were assigned to fix the memory situation. It is your job to upgrade the server specs as well as manually fix the memory issues.

Your goal is to collect the garbage to prevent it from filling up the RAM.

Controls: - Click memory bits to clean them up - Buy upgrades to speed up your CPU's (turrets), buy more RAM (health) and increase your own cleaning power - Buy more CPU's and NPU's (turrets) to help you clean the memory bits - Items occasionally spawn which you can click to pickup - Escape: Pause game

cover.png 3.png

Ratings

Overall 125th 3.318⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 78th 3.478⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 109th 3.261⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 162th 3.261⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 116th 3.37⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 76th 3.159⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 149th 3⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 31🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

Paroxysmal
Oct 06th · 00:17 UTC
Good entry...not a fan of having to do so much clicking, but I do like the concept. Well done.
John Gabriel
Oct 06th · 00:27 UTC
This isn't too far removed from what I occasionally do at work, so on that level, this was rather gratifying. At first, I thought you'd actually managed to make some sort of "refactor bad code" game - now _that,_ I would like to see!
🎤 robert18
Oct 06th · 18:36 UTC
Thanks, i was unfortunately unable to get the balancing right in time. It wasn't meant to rely so much on clicking but more on the turrets. Definitely would have been cool too having to refactor code ;)
LDJam user 336676
Oct 06th · 20:03 UTC
as said, not a fan of all that clicking, would have been good to have an "auto clicker" as one of the first upgrades, otherwise very good.
02FC
Oct 06th · 20:04 UTC
Wow, you've made a game about my job :D Was thinking about garbage collector game too during brainstorming
Maytch
Oct 06th · 20:20 UTC
That's actually so fun! At first I was struggling with the broom and getting tired of clicking, but on the third try I figured out I needed a few NPU cores first and some CPU Overclocks until the CPU Threads became useful, and then overpowered. Didn't level the broom on the last one!
MaxineY
Oct 06th · 21:11 UTC
A theme that fits perfectly with pixel art! It's like actually cleaning viruses from a computer.
🎤 robert18
Oct 06th · 21:14 UTC
@maytch That seems to be the best strategy! Makes you undefeatable
HNKXOBKA
Oct 07th · 16:05 UTC
I like level-up games, but the enemy count ramps up too quickly for me (or the game itself is too fast).
The pixel art is consistent and looks pretty good, but I felt the sound was lacking.
It's an interesting take on the theme, cool!
![ф.png](///raw/c7c/72/z/6eaab.png)
cogcomp
Oct 07th · 20:05 UTC
So a bit of tower defence with some extra interaction. Not bad at all. Though I have to agree with some of the other that difficulty goes up a bit too fast.
🎤 robert18
Oct 07th · 20:14 UTC
@hnkxobka @cogcomp I agree I wasn't able to get the difficulty right, next time I make a game that needs balancing i'll reserve more time for it
parkuhrmd
Oct 07th · 20:43 UTC
![Bildschirmfoto_20251007_223957.png](///raw/da7/43/z/6ebf6.png)

This is what I imagine Java is doing when I run modded Minecraft. Good work!
Baluj
Oct 08th · 00:05 UTC
I liked it. Now I only see "int i" running. Good job.
Alex Mulkerrin
Oct 08th · 16:01 UTC
This is well put together with nice pixel art and gameloop. I did like the messages on all the memory bits and their different attributes. Those ints are nasty.
Kenneth Gibson
Oct 08th · 22:14 UTC
this game lacks of good musc, but anyway that was interesting experience
Cobear25
Oct 09th · 20:52 UTC
Cool game, the theming for tower defense is fun. I struggled to get points, not sure what was going on. Overall nice entry though.
notime4games
Oct 09th · 21:41 UTC
nice game!!
![GIF 2025-10-09 23-37-31 - Copy.gif](///raw/9d8/z/6f229.gif)
i'm at over 100k and i don't think i can lose unless there is a limit on the upgrades xD
well done! fun to play. i don't think space does pause. good base game, you can go for a lot of new upgrades and enemies and so on from here. maybe make arrays that split up or something :)
🎤 robert18
Oct 09th · 22:23 UTC
@notime4games Haha well done and that's a great idea for the arrays
Edit: Woops.. Escape pauses the game, i typed it in a rush :laughing: I changed the description
Eugenik
Oct 10th · 12:23 UTC
The colour palette is the key, living for it.
commanderstitch
Oct 11th · 18:21 UTC
wow. felt very "computery" ram, code, etc. Nice. got destroyed on my first try. :D
![RamGame.gif](///raw/b24/z/6f460.gif)

The 2nd game is still going. I'm just going to let it go since i need to leave. Nice game.
Yvanor
Oct 11th · 19:20 UTC
Nice little tower defense-like game !
Indeed it was a bit difficult but nothing crazy, so that's fine.

I saw that you next time you will try to put more time in balancing, and I know that's it can be hard to make that fit in 48h

If that can help, next time you may put several difficulties and let people chose what they prefer;
Hard: being the difficulty that seems fine for you (knowing that you played a lot so you're good !)
Easy: an accessible balance for people who aren't good at this kind of game (or playing with a trackpad for exemple)
Normal: Somewhere in-between

That way you don't have to balance everything, and everyone's happy (you may even add replayability !) But I get that sometimes you just want to tailor a specific experience for everyone.

Anyway a clever concept and I love all the littles details related the the programming world.

Good job !
commanderstitch
Oct 12th · 02:16 UTC
I left it running. It had this when I came back home xD![MadeItTo813.png](///raw/b24/z/6f4ad.png)
🎤 robert18
Oct 12th · 02:25 UTC
@commanderstitch Hahaha that is absolutely wild!
grid96
Oct 15th · 21:09 UTC
Wow, very cool game idea and awesome implementation! I also like the graphics very much, just wish it also had 8 bit music and sounds :)
Dis0rder
Oct 16th · 15:57 UTC
Fun game!

Either it's due to the difficulty or my bad strategy, but all the clicking almost gave me a carpal tunnel syndrome! :hand_splayed: :mouse_three_button: :skull:

If I'll be returning to it, next time I probably ought to try building a more structured perimeter like others.

![screen01.png](///raw/e4c/2/z/6f6d8.png)

Haven't much experience of the tower-defense genre, so maybe that shows.

I liked the int() functions that kept blasting at me really fast. It made the experience a bit more tense and exhilirating.
Rewzu
Oct 21st · 18:30 UTC
I love the idea, the art style is fitting and it is a nice entry overall. Maybe some more balancing should be done but it was fun nonetheless! :D
Shoalmuse
Oct 22nd · 08:49 UTC
This is my nightmare of all my leftover TODOs coming for revenge. Cool idea. Some audio would have really helped sell it I think.