Chief Data Engineer by candlesan

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

ChiefDataEngineerUpdated.png You are the Chief Data Engineer of a Starship. The ship uses an advanced storage drive that holds Pentabytes of data but sometimes requires manual defragmentation. Your hard drive is running out of space! Free it up!

MainStoryScreen.png

Level1.png

HOW TO PLAY

Use your mouse to drag data storage units around. Drag all the storage units into the green target squares to beat the level.

UPDATES

I have created a post-jam version. The post-jam version makes the following changes * Level 7 and 8 swapped * Autogenerated music track from http://earslap.com/page/otomata.html. Please only rate the "Audio" category based on the piece interaction sound effects

Ratings

Overall 115th 3.793⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Fun 101th 3.756⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 358th 3.195⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Theme 139th 3.988⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 255th 3.5⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Audio 316th 2.988⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Humor 140th 3.118⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Mood 163th 3.382⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Given 43🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

jackou
13. Aug 2018 · 01:15 UTC
Nice work! Like the sounds, the graphics and the level design. Good job on the theme! Some bg music would have been awesome, but I think in this case I value the different puzzle pieces and levels higher! -I'm on it!
🎤 candlesan
13. Aug 2018 · 01:19 UTC
Thanks @jackou. I totally agree some bg music would have gone a long way. I blame the 3 hour earlier start time! My general routine is to do particle effects, sound effects and music on the last day. I didn't move those things around and found myself out of time before I knew it! That'll learn me for next time! Thanks for playing!
SimplePotential
13. Aug 2018 · 01:28 UTC
I really liked this! Good to see some professionals getting into the competition (I'm assuming you're "the" Wyatt Chang).

Love the Star Trek theme but more importantly I love this style of puzzle game. Only real criticism is it might of been nice to have some ambient noise, something classic star trek-esk in the background.

Overall, great entry!
Jay Elbourne
13. Aug 2018 · 01:28 UTC
After beating the last puzzle I loved it. Thought it was too easy until I got to the last two puzzles and I had to switch my brain back on after 48 hours of coding...Well done! This was my fav so far today.
🎤 candlesan
13. Aug 2018 · 02:20 UTC
@simplepotential Thanks for the kind words simple! Yes I have my day job but I have a real passion for game jamming in my offtime. I agree some ambient noise would have been great. Maybe like engine noises or computer beeps and boops in the distance. Good suggestion!

@jay-elbourne Thanks! Glad you liked it. Yeah the difficulty ramped kinda fast. I was fiddling with the levels a bunch trying to get it right but the jump at level 7 and 8 is definitely a but sudden. Thanks for playing!
Phlip45
13. Aug 2018 · 04:42 UTC
As others have said the only thing really lacking is background music. The sound effect of it popping in and out was nice. The art works and I like the little dialog before each puzzle. Puzzles themselves were pretty good and thankfully you are able to just fiddle with it til you get there for the last two (I'm not great at puzzles).

Have fun out there!
```
You: I'm on it
```
Kappa.B
14. Aug 2018 · 02:27 UTC
Congratulation on making a game! this game was awesome. I love the puzzles and the Star Trek theme. At first i was concern that the puzzles were too easy but the last 2 gave me a satisfying challenge well done. Ss for my only critique, when completing a level there was no indication on how to exit. I would have to wait a few seconds and randomly click. this random clicking made me do the 2nd last mission twice. but overall well done.
Cary Stanley
14. Aug 2018 · 03:15 UTC
I really like the "quantum entangled" pieces made the game a lot more interesting and challenging. Great idea!!
🎤 candlesan
14. Aug 2018 · 03:19 UTC
@kappa-b Ah sorry about the random clicking causing a mission you had already completed load again. Thanks for sticking with it despite that UI weakness and playing through!

@phlip45 Some background music or even some engine or "beep boop" sounds will definitely be at the top of my list in a post-jam version

@cary-stanley Cool! Glad you liked those pieces :) Yeah coming up with challenging pieces was a nice discover that emerged during the jam.
squirmonkey
14. Aug 2018 · 07:26 UTC
This is a fun puzzle game. The limited space reminds me a lot of those old RushHour toys. I had fun playing it. It could use music.
Aterlamia
14. Aug 2018 · 11:01 UTC
I liked it a small fun little puzzler. And star trek is always a + in my book. I would have liked some background music but for the rest good submision
Thijs Tak
14. Aug 2018 · 11:05 UTC
Ah yes, the LCARS menus. Nice job on both the theme and the style. The starting levels where quite easy the the last two took me a bit to figure out.

Also, the future looks bright when we need to defragment your drives by hand again :)

Keep it up.
T8kk
15. Aug 2018 · 06:01 UTC
Hey candlesan, nice small game. I enjoyed the game was a nice small puzzling experience. Small thing I would have liked is a "next level" button to not to need to go back to the level selection screen after each level. :) The music and ambiance was nice and fitting to the theme and overall solid game!
maartene
15. Aug 2018 · 06:10 UTC
Cool puzzle game. The introduction texts add a cool flavor to the game (or should I say universe).
Ossi
15. Aug 2018 · 18:40 UTC
Very enjoyable puzzle game! The last two levels were pretty challenging and I like that you showed the objective on the right side since it was a bit difficult to see where the pieces had to fit on the level itself. I found the "I'm on it!" dialogue responses to the tasks to be very funny, I had a good laugh before each level! Nice game!
Stefan Jovanovic
16. Aug 2018 · 13:26 UTC
Nice and challenging puzzle.
Keep up the good work!
outstar
16. Aug 2018 · 14:49 UTC
Really neat puzzle game, after some visual rework it would be a great mobile game if you added more levels! I love melting my brain on things like this :)
Holy
18. Aug 2018 · 01:35 UTC
It's a great puzzle game, with a logic progression, and after playing it each time that someone makes me a question I only can answer: I'm on it. :) Good job!
kromeboy
18. Aug 2018 · 14:22 UTC
Great Entry: it took me about an hour to complete it. Nice job!
🎤 candlesan
18. Aug 2018 · 17:13 UTC
@squirmonkey Yes! I loved that Rush Hour toy. I was definitely inspired by that. I considered early making it so pieces couldn't slide past each other but then thought I should go with a different angle.

@aterlamia Added some procedurally generated music post-jam. Thanks for the feedback!

@thijs-tak Haha - a future where replicators remove the need for money but we still need to defragment by hand :)

@t8kk That makes sense. I had the flow going back to the title menu 'cause I imagined it being a visual track of a ship flying between stars but then to double down on the LCARS menu style I removed it, but it definitely felt like going back to the front menu was less meaningful after the change.

@maartene @stefan-jovanovic @holy @kromeboy Thanks for playing!

@outstar I rejiggered my game post-jam into portrait mode and installed it on Android and it played pretty well. Thanks for playing and I noticed your game had a little bit of similar overlap in gameplay style.
ChicoDeLosMates
18. Aug 2018 · 19:32 UTC
I love the puzzle games, played until level 7 or 8, then it became really difficult.
Great work
Weine
18. Aug 2018 · 19:44 UTC
Nice little puzzler. I loved the trekkie style and storylet. You also made good use of the running out of space theme. The post-jam music improved the relaxed mood, but I won't rate that.

The difficulty level, and its progression, was spot on. At first I thought it was a stupid puzzle for stupid people. Then I got to the final levels and it took me some thought and experimentation to solve the last three puzzles, but I didn't have to strain myself too much. This is just about perfect for a LD game.

Well done!
schizoid2k
18. Aug 2018 · 23:00 UTC
"I'm on it!", and I loved it. Very nice puzzle game... gets very challenging. Nice graphics and audio compliment the game. well done!
JustinMullin
20. Aug 2018 · 11:57 UTC
Fun puzzle! Only issue I ran up against was the movement back if I dropped a piece slightly off from where it should fit was very slow. The fact that you need to shuffle pieces around on the board added a lot of interest to the typical pentominoes puzzle, and fit really well with the theme. The Star Trek flavor was awesome too. Also it worked really well on mobile which was nice!
Kale the Quick
23. Aug 2018 · 01:46 UTC
This is a pretty relaxing game. I appreciate the difficulty curve, and how there is no stressful time limit, and nice music. The levels keep me interested in going further :)
Zirrrus
26. Aug 2018 · 07:47 UTC
At first I was disappointed in how easy the levels were but the difficulty increased in a very satisfying manner and you did some interesting things with the shapes, it ended up being a really good and rewarding experience.

The style and themeing of it is absolutely on point. I love the strange abstract shapes you used to represent the data. I know next to nothing about Star Trek but it felt like it fit that universe very well.

Really good job!
Vivoubos
29. Aug 2018 · 19:45 UTC
Wow, very nice work! The concept is very great! I love puzzle game, and your is nice done! Great job
bradur
01. Sep 2018 · 04:58 UTC
I'm a sucker for puzzles, and this is quite a puzzle! Loved it and managed to beat all the levels. The gameplay is very well done and the sounds are quite pleasant. Good job!
🎤 candlesan
03. Sep 2018 · 23:54 UTC
@weine @kale-the-quick @vivoubos @bradur Thanks for playing and the wonderful compliments.

@justinmullin I didnt' even know that the game worked in HTML5 on a phone until you mentioned it! I loaded it up and was surprised! I agree that the piece slide-back is a bit slow, particularly over long distances. Would definitely fix. I think what I would want would be for the piece to slide back in constant time rather than at constant speed.

@zirrus Thanks for sticking it out and I'm glad the game was enjoyable even if you're not into Star Trek :)
HellSquirrel
04. Sep 2018 · 13:34 UTC
👍
blubberquark
04. Sep 2018 · 14:14 UTC
At first I didn't even understand how this could be difficult, but then you surprised me with great puzzles! 5/5
larzan
04. Sep 2018 · 14:25 UTC
I'm on it!
Very satisfying experience! In the beginning i thought: "poh, waaay to easy", but then the last levels were quite a different thing.
I liked especially the star trek gfx and the great level intro texts!
Well done indeed!