Desktop Defense by emkiusz

made by emkiusz for LD 42 (JAM)

Made for Ludum Dare 42: Running out of space.

Defend the tower! Sounds simple? Then let's add to this the whole computer simulation. Really weak computer.

As you progress and more enemies show up on screen, you have to balance game's RAM usage by disabling parts of the game. If memory usage is too high, you will not be able to start another round.

Still not enough? The game (I mean, the game IN game) has no interface. For example, to see your statistics and stuff you have to open your save file. And it's still not that simple, because you have limited space for all windows.

Still there? Then what are you waiting for? Let's see if you can survive 5 rounds...

(When you finish round 4, take a look at RAM Optimizer, there may be something interesting waiting for you...)

Good luck and have fun!

TOOLS USED: - GameMaker: Studio 1.4 - GIMP 2.8 - SFXR

And yes, I'm aware of few bugs, like windows not correctly sticking to cursor and some objects clipping for others. But they're far from game-breaking, I'll eventually fix them someday. Let me know if you encounter any other bugs!

I made the whole game by myself... Then why not compo, you may ask. Because instead of programming the game 2 days ago, I prefered playing Stardew Valley and started jamming for real yesterday. I'm lazy... Also, I just noticed that in the game I wrote 'Running out of time' instead of 'Running out of space'. Sorry for that.

HTML5 (web)	https://emki.itch.io/desktop-defense-ld42
Windows	https://emki.itch.io/desktop-defense-ld42
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/desktop-defense

Ratings

Overall	988^th	3⭐	33🧑‍⚖️
Fun	996^th	2.8⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	316^th	3.467⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Theme	897^th	3.1⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	1072^th	2.581⭐	33🧑‍⚖️
Audio	736^th	2.367⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Humor	480^th	2.804⭐	30🧑‍⚖️
Mood	963^th	2.607⭐	30🧑‍⚖️
Given		41🗳️	0🗨️

Feedback

edgelord

14. Aug 2018 · 10:28 UTC

I was looking really forward to play this game after I saw you blogposts, but I don't get it how to start that tower defense game, sorry. There are no enemies. What do I have to do?

KerelOlivier

14. Aug 2018 · 10:34 UTC

A very unique take on the theme. I liked the UI wobbling when moving the Ram indicator, though not sure whether that was intended.

anaglyphcoding

14. Aug 2018 · 10:34 UTC

This is a pretty cool idea! I encountered some bugs though, for example the RAM optimiser icons kept showing up on top of the other programs when I closed it, but the window had disappeared. Also it sometimes the game window wouldn't move when I tried to move it. Other than that, I had fun! Well Done :)

darbis

14. Aug 2018 · 10:35 UTC

Poorly made game with a fun gameplay, you should work at the graphic

dylanbr

14. Aug 2018 · 10:38 UTC

The thing I enjoyed about this was the discovery aspect. Opening each application and figuring out what is possible.

I didn't enjoy the controls all that much although I'm not sure what to suggest. Maybe rather than the target let the player click a tower to fire from?

Azo

14. Aug 2018 · 10:39 UTC

I liked the idea of being capped on the amount of features to fit in with the theme. Level one and two were quite slow but level three had just enough enemies frequently enough to make it difficult and therefore fun.

@edgelord to start the game you should run the console app on the taskbar and press enter

Monkosum

14. Aug 2018 · 10:44 UTC

the game itself is fun, but if you shoot fireballs, the console window won't show how to start the game. i still don't know how to start the second wave. it could be a bit harder, the sprites could be improved (like the player) and there are some depth problems with the tower. but you made this in just one day, so this is pretty impressive. But the biggest problem with the game is that it reminds me of the days when i had a windows xp computer...

🎤 emkiusz

14. Aug 2018 · 10:44 UTC

@edgelord Just press Enter, it's explained in one of the windows.
@kerelolivier It's not and it happens only in HTML version.

alexkarate

14. Aug 2018 · 10:44 UTC

This is a pretty good game, but I think that you should have to compromise more in this game because if you turn off warnings, sound and the fires then you don't have to think about the RAM mechanics. And also this game would benefit greately from having another option of killing enemies. So you start with a lot of options but you have to limit yourself to the best ones or your favourites.

Also there is a bug with the fires, they don't go away

alexkarate

14. Aug 2018 · 10:45 UTC

@edgelord press enter, it says so in the logs

🎤 emkiusz

14. Aug 2018 · 10:48 UTC

@monkosum The next wave won't start if RAM usage is too high, I probably should explain that in game more briefly. Same goes for 'Press ENTER' message.

alexkarate

14. Aug 2018 · 10:57 UTC

@emkiusz You should color the RAM text red if it is negative

🎤 emkiusz

14. Aug 2018 · 11:12 UTC

@darbis Yeah, that's a big problem with my games, they all look ugly. I really need to work on that, thanks for pointing that out.

nenas

14. Aug 2018 · 12:16 UTC

I like how you have to handle the resources to continue. I have to disagree with @darbis regarding the graphics, I like the style of those application icons. Maybe a soundtrack would add to the mood and it also would be nice if the player could adjust the volume of the sound effects.

Raccoon_JS

14. Aug 2018 · 21:16 UTC

I expected something meta out of this game, but after Round 1, nothing happened. But an interesting game, though.

Saurabh

15. Aug 2018 · 07:43 UTC

I really liked the concept of this game and how you used running out of space with a PC. The game was fun but it got a bit repetitive and I hoped to see more exploration of the PC. Also I think I found a bug where if I tried to turn on shields before the first round it kept on disabling them and freeing up more space to the point where the game was using negative RAM. Some better explanation would have been nice although I can't claim that I thoroughly read the instructions :).

Diaxcor

23. Aug 2018 · 18:18 UTC

LOVED the game hhhh the name of it the design the help and the instructions menu jut i don't really see the relation between the topic and the standard of the game but a very good job

Drums

23. Aug 2018 · 19:13 UTC

Took me a bit to understand how things worked, but it felt very smooth and contained a lot of content. Good job all around!

walnoot

28. Aug 2018 · 14:34 UTC

Cool game, I've seen a couple of 'running out of memory space' type games, but I think this is one of the best implementations. Controls were a bit fiddly, but fine after you got used to it. I think the game balance could use some tweaking, since I never used the fireballs. I was able to complete the game just by moving around and spamming shoot. A good rule for shooting games like this is that there should always be a small reason not to shoot, for example recoil or limited ammo. Overall a fun game, so good job!

LeoDESIGAUX

28. Aug 2018 · 15:13 UTC

A bit complicated to go in, but good game overall nice work

🎤 emkiusz

05. Sep 2018 · 12:10 UTC

Thanks for the feedback everyone. :)