Ludum Dare #54compo
Defrag
Summary
A casual turn-based puzzler. Play as a disk-defragmenting program trying to save space while someone is adding and removing files.
Instructions (available in-game):
Click to begin selecting a region, then
click again to complete the selection. Click
somewhere empty to move the selected
blocks to that location, or right-click to
cancel. Click "pass" to skip
your move for this turn.
After you make a move, some number of
blocks will be added or removed. The game
ends when there isn't enough space for new
blocks to be added.
Two blocks of different colors can't be
directly adjacent. Try grouping similar
colors to save space.
A more screenshot-heavy version of this guide can be found here.
Tool Credits
sound-effects made using sfxr
Changelog:
The links below are to the original version submitted as part of compo. A newer version can be found here with the following changes:
- Fixed audio latency issues in some browsers (hopefully)
- Tested in firefox and chromium. Browsers with anti-fingerprinting measures enabled
may cause audio to not play.
- Improved selection and placement to hopefully be more intuitive for new players
- Replaced the wall of text with an interactive tutorial
Tools: sfxr
Comments37
brainles etertainment2 Oct 2023, 20:51
Interesting variation of tetris.
Ben Parisi2 Oct 2023, 20:53
I played for about 5 mins. I don't get it. I think for a game with a unique mechanic like this, a 1 min video of you playing it and explaining it would be super helpful
Sun-Wukong2 Oct 2023, 20:56
Interesting concept but the size of play field should be increased at least tenfold. Currently game ends in 5-6 turns due to overfill before you even start understand what happening.
247gamestudio2 Oct 2023, 21:10
The game really fun and cool to play, I liked the defragmentation concept and it fits perfectly in the theme, plays really well and is actually addictive. Congrats!
LDJam user 3775462 Oct 2023, 23:24
I have to second @ben-parisi, it was not intuitive to get started. Maybe add a little guide with screenshots. I would love to try it again. The tolerance for people to stick with playing is very low, so try to make it really easy at the beginning so people don't bounce off immediately :)
But It fits the theme perfectly and the idea of making a defrag game is great :D
But It fits the theme perfectly and the idea of making a defrag game is great :D
henk3 Oct 2023, 11:16
@ben-parisi @kanagg Thanks for the recommendations. I've made a more screenshot-heavy guide and posted it here. Please let me know if that helps.
mahalis3 Oct 2023, 16:03
This is a lot of fun! I found the “gap” cells really confusing—it might have helped to explain what those meant up front—but once I understood that, I had a great time reorganizing things and made it to 47. I appreciated having a preview of the upcoming operations. Nice work!
cogcomp4 Oct 2023, 05:31
Interesting idea. I think I understood the gist of it except the corner cells. Never seen any of those when I've defragged my disks :laughing: Just as someone else said. I also thing there should be more cells as well. But all in all quite a satisfying game to play. Well made!
LDJam user 3775464 Oct 2023, 08:40
@henk yes that helped a lot thanks :D
exergy4 Oct 2023, 18:54
It took a bit of time to understand but then I loved it! Awesome job!
LDJam user 2625254 Oct 2023, 19:07
That was fun! I managed to get a score of 62... out of 54? But yeah, the game is fun! Though I feel like the sound effects feel kinda random. Like I don't know when they are supposed to trigger and I rarely hear them, but there are clearly sound effects in the game.
I feel like the controls could be made a bit more intuitive. It takes a while to figure out how to do things at first and having to move your mouse all the way to the "clear selection" button takes a bit longer than it should (it could, for example, be mapped to a right click), but once you get used to it it's pretty fun.
I feel like the controls could be made a bit more intuitive. It takes a while to figure out how to do things at first and having to move your mouse all the way to the "clear selection" button takes a bit longer than it should (it could, for example, be mapped to a right click), but once you get used to it it's pretty fun.
henk4 Oct 2023, 22:40
@dennis-magnusson Thanks for the feedback! The 54 is just sort of meant as a target to shoot for, not really an upper limit, since I think a bare score by itself would be hard to interpret for people new to the game :P.
Unfortunately the sound effects seem to be having some latency-related issues in some browsers. What's your browser-OS combination? I think Firefox on Windows may be having issues in particular.
Right click does clear the selection. Was it not working for you? I suppose I should mention it in the instructions...
Unfortunately the sound effects seem to be having some latency-related issues in some browsers. What's your browser-OS combination? I think Firefox on Windows may be having issues in particular.
Right click does clear the selection. Was it not working for you? I suppose I should mention it in the instructions...
Defrag5 Oct 2023, 03:16
Nice connection to the theme, and unique gameplay. However, it seems like the benefit of making colors contiguous is merely that you get to save a single space by not needing to have a buffer. My initial expectation was that some kind of Tetris/match-3 style block removal would take place. I didn't grasp the core game loop for a while. Because the gameplay is novel, you probably would have to spend a little more time walking the player through intended gameplay.
LDJam user 2625255 Oct 2023, 06:45
@henk ah, cool! I'm using Orion on Mac, which is basically just Safari. As for the right click, I actually didn't try it, I just assumed it wasn't in there, and that it would be a good idea, buy it's great that it's in there, would definitely make the experience nicer!
gilborn5 Oct 2023, 22:12
Puh, think this is the longest playing session so far in the ludum dare. It was engaging to find out how it works and ended at 116 points.
Strong entry, a cool puzzler!
Strong entry, a cool puzzler!
Likirus6 Oct 2023, 11:14
Very interesting puzzle game, probably one of the best puzzle games I have seen in Ludum Dare in a while. It took me one attempt to understand the rules, but when you do, it's very interesting and rewarding to find good solutions. Great Job!
LDJam user 2385006 Oct 2023, 13:52
204/54! I got reckless.
FYI: YOU SHOULD NOT SELECT THE EDGE PIECES!
I did not understand how to select at first, but when I did, it was super fun. Very relaxing game, I really enjoyed it! Great job!
FYI: YOU SHOULD NOT SELECT THE EDGE PIECES!
I did not understand how to select at first, but when I did, it was super fun. Very relaxing game, I really enjoyed it! Great job!
khaotom7 Oct 2023, 07:02
This is great little puzzle. Experimentation led to learning the rules quite well for me. Very enjoyable.
cheesepencil7 Oct 2023, 07:12
I struggled with this one and didn't figure it out even after reading the guide with screenshots. Might just be over my head. I do see that other folks are enjoying it and I'm happy for that
Gamester11287 Oct 2023, 07:52
I have no clue how I even got this far. I got 16 score for the first 5 times I played and then BAM! 223/54! I don't even know what caused me to fail lol but I probably forgot what the next important piece was while looking ahead.
Really good and even complete game for something made in 48 hours. Probably one of the best games. It is designed in a way that can be played for a really long time if you do it correctly, making it IMO very finished!
Really good and even complete game for something made in 48 hours. Probably one of the best games. It is designed in a way that can be played for a really long time if you do it correctly, making it IMO very finished!
stmate037 Oct 2023, 21:59
Pretty fun game, I struggled the first few games then did a 100+ run and I had fun, it really hits the spot when played well, otherwise you feel that cluttered mess vibe which is bad, god play is rewarding and bad play will make you unhappy, very nice skill based game, also like how you can technically change the colors
Hakro8 Oct 2023, 14:07
Took me a couple of tries to figure out, but once I got the hang of it, it was pretty fun. The selection steps might be a bit confusing at first.
Nice idea overall. GG.
Nice idea overall. GG.
LDJam user 3144238 Oct 2023, 23:14
I also didn't quite grasp what the triangle half-cells were. But the concept is great and entirely on theme. :)
goddzeproject9 Oct 2023, 11:48
Interesting idea, without knowing how disk defragmentation works, it's hard to figure out)
ellaris9 Oct 2023, 15:50
Interesting and fun idea for a puzzle game, I enjoyed rearranging the pieces, it does take a while to fully grasp the concept.
Tommy10 Oct 2023, 16:53
Incredibly interesting idea man! The game is very enticing to play, really well polished, fun and complex. Also the clean minimalistic graphics and the SFX help in making it very pleasant to play. Well done!
ciobeni11 Oct 2023, 02:55
Loved your take on the theme! I never once in my life imagined being a defrag software - and enjoying it too.
Took me a while to understand what I had to do and how the game mechanics worked, but once I got the hang of it after a few rounds it was smooth to play.
Took me a while to understand what I had to do and how the game mechanics worked, but once I got the hang of it after a few rounds it was smooth to play.
Pincushion11 Oct 2023, 17:22
Great idea. The selection and placement is pretty satisfying. It isn't too challenging, but it takes a moment to consider moves. It's a good difficulty level for a jam. I thought there was a good mix of additions and removals. It made me wonder if there's some magic under the hood to keep the randomness fun (or was I just lucky). It's fun to play.
Some "nice to have" suggestions:
1. It wasn't immediately obvious that the blocks on the upper-right corner were the upcoming actions, though they're really clear to me now. Something like "upcoming reads/writes" would help.
2. Since the score was counting up to 54, I had hoped for an "I win" message. Because I like winning.
3. I can see other placement bonuses or blockers being added like "Bad Sectors" can appear over time.
It's not Gamester's 223, but I'll consider it a win.
Some "nice to have" suggestions:
1. It wasn't immediately obvious that the blocks on the upper-right corner were the upcoming actions, though they're really clear to me now. Something like "upcoming reads/writes" would help.
2. Since the score was counting up to 54, I had hoped for an "I win" message. Because I like winning.
3. I can see other placement bonuses or blockers being added like "Bad Sectors" can appear over time.
It's not Gamester's 223, but I'll consider it a win.
henk11 Oct 2023, 20:54
@pincushion Thanks for the feedback! Good catch: There is indeed some "magic" to the AI's move selection. The game wouldn't have been very fair without it :)
Recher12 Oct 2023, 18:02
A very original idea, that deserves to be polished and more exploited.
Maybe a game mechanism where a file, when it is correctly merged, is completely removed from the defrag zone, because it goes to a safe and stable space or something.
I'm not sure the added/removed block positions are predictable. I had some block removed and there were in the middle of the file, and the game did not warn me about it.
Also, it's quite frustrating to be obliged to use two turn when you just want to shift a file part for some tiles. You have to put it in a complete empty part, then put it back to the shifted place.
And, as said in other comments, each game is a little too short because not enough space.
But really, the idea is fun and original, maybe I will think about it to make my own version of the game.
Maybe a game mechanism where a file, when it is correctly merged, is completely removed from the defrag zone, because it goes to a safe and stable space or something.
I'm not sure the added/removed block positions are predictable. I had some block removed and there were in the middle of the file, and the game did not warn me about it.
Also, it's quite frustrating to be obliged to use two turn when you just want to shift a file part for some tiles. You have to put it in a complete empty part, then put it back to the shifted place.
And, as said in other comments, each game is a little too short because not enough space.
But really, the idea is fun and original, maybe I will think about it to make my own version of the game.
henk12 Oct 2023, 20:20
@recher Thanks for the feedback.
> Also, it’s quite frustrating to be obliged to use two turn when you just want to shift a file part for some tiles. You have to put it in a complete empty part, then put it back to the shifted place.
While the source and destination regions must be non-overlapping, that doesn't mean there isn't a single-turn way to do what you are trying to do.
> Also, it’s quite frustrating to be obliged to use two turn when you just want to shift a file part for some tiles. You have to put it in a complete empty part, then put it back to the shifted place.
While the source and destination regions must be non-overlapping, that doesn't mean there isn't a single-turn way to do what you are trying to do.
milq14 Oct 2023, 07:25
Remarkable puzzle crafted with pure JavaScript! I find this game, created solo in just 48 hours, absolutely astonishing! The idea of simulating a disk defragmenter is delightful and has kept me thoroughly entertained! If there’s a minor drawback, it would be the graphics - a bit more detail to immerse me fully into a disk defragmenter setting would have been great. However, it’s understandable that this type of game doesn’t necessarily need it. So, all that’s left to say is congratulations! It seems like a very solid game for being developed by yourself in 48 hours. Well done!
Dan Str15 Oct 2023, 19:26
cool game, keep up the good work
kristinamay16 Oct 2023, 19:37
What a wonderful puzzle game! I could definitely see myself sitting here for a few hours playing this, but I have to rate more LD games :laughing: . I was absolutely bewildered and annoyed until I read @sharploaded 's comment that I'm not supposed to select the end pieces. WOW that made a massive difference. I kept thinking I had to select the end pieces but then when I placed it flush with one of the same color, it kept the gap. It's so hard to create a fresh-feeling puzzle game but you definitely did. Love it.
fraanns19 Oct 2023, 11:58
A very cool idea, but I think the concept need more explanation.
henk29 Oct 2023, 12:09
@dennis-magnusson I know this is a bit late, but I've uploaded a newer version which I think should fix the audio-related issues you were seeing. Would you be willing to let me know if it helps?
To change colors:
- open browser console (ctrl+shift+i then click "console" tab)- paste this: `cell_inf[4].color = 'grey';`
- swap the number (0-4) and color (full list) for what you want
- hit enter
- the colors will update on the next mouse movement
Default colors:
- 0: yellow- 1: limegreen
- 2: cyan
- 3: magenta
- 4: orange