Garbage Collector by Jens
The goal
The goal of the game is to put burnable items in the burner and plastic on the recycle conveyor belt!
How to beat the game
You'll win when all the trash has been handled, but you'll fail if you run out of space. New trash will fall down and the amount of trash will increase every time.
What you shouldn't do :)
If you burn plastic or try to recycle a pot you'll get punished with extra trash in next round!
Known issues
- The sound effect of the alarm is way to loud. (Turn down your sound before you play)
- Clicking the conveyor belt to leave the trash can sometimes fail, clicking close to the character should solve that.


Ratings
| Overall | 393th | 3.325⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 508th | 2.95⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 598th | 2.7⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 420th | 3.425⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 174th | 3.725⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 148th | 3.425⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 239th | 2.722⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 114th | 3.526⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 23🗳️ | 7🗨️ |
Good work.
i found only some imprecision on the mouse track
However, the game itself is kinda boring. You pick up stuff and then you dump them in one place or the other. There has to be more to it if you want it to be replayable.
I wanted the "processing" of the different trash to result in new items to be created that had to be put in some other place. For example if you burn something with metal a metal bar would be created that would then be moved to recycling. While wood would have created coal that could be used for something else. :)
I liked the mood, fitting music + visuals. I got a bit spooked by the alarm at first, I tried to pick it up :) (perhaps a bit too loud)
I didn't really see any progression in the game. It would be cool to have some way of managing the items like stacking multiple of the same item on top of each other or something. The ending was a bit crude too :D
The alarm is way to loud, I got so used to it during development so I just missed it.
I had more plans for the game, but ran out of time. See earlier comments about some of the features I had to skip.
The core design requires very little strategic thinking from the player, and the core gameplay loop of walk-to-trash, walk-to-output gets tiring really quickly. Maybe a focus on rearranging the trash area would have worked better. Maybe a certain pattern of trash or recyclables could cause them to disappear, or maybe you'd need to operate a lever to make the falling trash/recyclables fall into the right output.
TVs and gameboys can't be recycled as plastic. They contain a lot of copper and gold wiring that - if you want to recycle them - needs to be disassembled before you can sell the casing off for remolding. Rubber ducks are sometimes made of synthetic rubber, but I wouldn't be comfortable throwing them in the plastics category either without some additional context. I don't know why you didn't just use plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic cutlery, plastic food containers. Things that are unambiguously plastic, instead of making the player guess...
Especially with nothing to go off but a low resolution drawing, you need to make things more clear if you want the player to sort your items.
The sound effects got to me the most, though. Every few seconds, I'd get a horrifyingly loud, high pitched, and distorted screeching blasting out of my speakers. It's far louder than the music which is the thing I'm hearing most of the time. How did you not get annoyed by the sound while playtesting this game? It drove me nuts within a few minutes of play.
I really don't want to be this harsh. This isn't a lazy game; you've created a lot of assets for it and polished the lighting and movement controls. But I also want to be honest in a review, and the experience you've provided me with is frustrating. I'm sorry.
Just before I published the game I got the feedback from a couple of friends that it should have said something else instead of plastic, and the TV/GameBoy was added in the end because I had to few "plastic" items.
The sound effect of the alarm is horrible and I should have fixed it.
You shouln't be sorry for writing a good review and what you actually think, I appreciate it and I will definitely improve for my next Ludum Dare :)
I'm glad you like the graphics and movement, I probably spent a bit to much time on that, but I'm happy with the outcome.
Thanks!
All in all, well done! :clap:
Pros:
- Great assets (the alarm was actually fine for me) and mood!
- Control are very fluid (though I also think it's a bit weird to pick things up with the mouse)
Cons:
- Repetitive mechanics (specially by the end where there is no trash coming down anymore but you still have to throw everything), maybe a survival mode?
Obs:
Wasn't really sure what some of the object is (the blue thingies), so I just tried plastic and it worked :laughing:
Also who was the architect of this place? Such a big area with no use, and conveyor belts so far from the trash... :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
Cheers!