lakso 2018-08-12 22:15
The idea is nice, but I think you should explain your mechanics a little better.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → defrag/delete
By inventroom
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 2.75 | 8 | ||
| Fun | 2.33 | 8 | ||
| Innovation | 3.08 | 8 | ||
| Theme | 3.75 | 8 | ||
| Graphics | 3.00 | 8 | ||
| Audio | 2.66 | 8 | ||
| Humor | 2.33 | 8 | ||
| Mood | 2.25 | 8 |
The idea is nice, but I think you should explain your mechanics a little better.
I agree with @lakso that it was quite confusing. A smoother introduction to the mechanics would have gone a long way over the wall of text. I almost quit after my first round of not really knowing what I was doing, but I gave it another go and now seeing the timer, running through knowing mostly what I was doing was more fun in a frantic sort of way. Though sometimes it did feel a little under-pressured relative to how behind I was, perhaps if the timer drained quicker but gets refilled at the end of each round (to a degree at least) this would help boost that frantic feel; or so I thought. I went back to check and noticed this is a thing so good job, perhaps making it pop a little better would help.
I think there's also a problem with deleting "unnecessary" files. What is and isn't necessary is rather opinion based. I'm guessing I was meant to delete tmp files online but I'm still not sure post playing.
The game did have a nice feel to it and I think that's largely due to the sound effects, though given that they're the windows sound effects I'm not sure how much credit I can give for that; they're used well at least.
@lakso @brandon-js-lea Thanks for the feedback! I guess my plan was to present this (as far as possible) as an application within Windows, so to keep it 'in-character' I put the mechanics only on the title page and presented it as though it was an application's Help page. Admittedly, it does make it a little obtuse, but that was the thought process behind it.
The deleting of unnecessary files is actually dependent on the file names, and what is and isn't safe to delete has a pattern to it (though if you're familiar with a computer's system files, you'll have an advantage being able to tell what shouldn't be touched). The idea was to figure it out based on observation, though admittedly that also can be a bit frustrating.
I'll consider this feedback and think about how to solve these issues post-LD. Thanks again!
The game is pretty simple, and after reading the instructions carefully I was able to actually enjoy the game (I had no idea what I was doing the first time).
I liked the general concept and idea since it linked directly to the theme, I have no problems about the file selection things, other than hoping that the display could just remain on the entire time.
I'd say that the game can get boring quick since there's not a lot of pressure on it, despite having a timer. Perhaps you should find a way to make it more exciting with an increasing rate of timer depletion. Alongside with that, perhaps setting a goal for how many bytes are freed before clearing every sector may help too (literally spamming enter still somehow cleared memory, not sure if it's a bug or not).
About controls, I liked that you kept it close like Windows, but spamming the arrow keys get really painful, so perhaps the whole "holding to move fast" thing would help.
Overall, there's a good bit of potential for this game to be a fast paced arcade organisation game, well done on that!