Defrag the Game

Games

puzzle game

SHOW HN2024

326points
107comments
#173of 3,515 in 2024
Top 5%of 2024 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

11 positive, 18 neutral or asking, 6 mixed, 22 critical, out of 57 comments about the project. Thread score -0.08.

Design: 9 for, 7 againstDocs: 0 for, 5 againstIdea: 0 for, 5 againstExecution: 0 for, 3 againstPerformance: 0 for, 2 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Fun, addictive puzzle game

    From 4 comments
    • Beautiful game that’s very quick to pick up, well done.
      liamwire on HN
    • fun little game, very intuitive!
      joseferben on HN
    • Took me a second to get the rules, but a fun little unblocking game, good work!
      hobs on HN
    • I played this way too long. It did take me a a game or two to figure out how the UI worked on desktop and what the point was, but after that, it's a fun little puzzle game. I like!
      khadadalek on HN
  • Smooth, lovely animations and visual style

    From 2 comments
    • Lovely game, great animations, everything feels smooth.
      boo-ga-ga on HN
    • The subtle blue color theme is great! When I was younger, we used to joke about doing the opposite, deliberately fragmenting every file on the drive to put them as far as…
      vunderba on HN

Objections

  • No instructions; rules unclear

    From 4 comments
    • Some instructions would be helpful
      geuis on HN
    • This is not like defragmenting a disk at all. There are no sectors or clusters, I can and have to move entire files at once. I have to move them in some fixed order and I can…
      danbruc on HN
    • As an old folk who watched a lot of DOS and win 3.1 defrag I could not figure out how to play. This game has many confusing differences from actual defragging: blocks can't seem…
      mrgoldenbrown on HN
    • Ok, but I had no idea I was already choosing a position to write the first file. I was pulling to refresh constantly on Firefox mobile until I finally figured it out. Which is a…
      iamtedd on HN
  • Does not resemble real defragmentation

    From 3 comments
    • Funny game but that's not how defragmentation works. I was troubled to understand how can I choose the file by it contents or even why can't I write to a place where there is a…
      p0w3n3d on HN
    • I remember defragmentation from ca. Windows 95 times, and it was totally different from this game. None of the files shown here is actually fragmented, only the used space is,…
      moring on HN
    • The idea behind defragmentation is to make the files themselves consecutive, which is not done in any way in this game, which makes it somehow confusing. The fact that…
      dfox on HN
  • Scoring is inverted and confusing

    From 3 comments
    • Fun game, but scoring seems to be a bit off. If I just smash space I get a score higher than when I actually solve the puzzle.
      holistio on HN
    • Hit the spacebar = 155 points. Solve the game = 111 points. Fun idea but not great point strategy. Thanks
      Sarkie on HN
    • Where is that explained?
      iamtedd on HN
  • Drag controls are hard to use on mobile

    From 3 comments
    • On iPhone drag-n-drop doesn't work. Long tap basically selects part of the gaming field and this selection is not draggable. Once tap is released it shows the Copy/... menu.
      abcd_f on HN
    • I tried swiping, got nothing. I’m not sure what else someone would interpret as drag and drop on a touch screen. That’s gonna be swiping.
      hinkley on HN
    • It sort of works for me, but it feels far from pleasant/responsive. Feels like it only ever goes in one direction at a time. Dragging diagonally has your file stuck.
      Aeolun on HN

Requests

  • Add instructions or a rules link

    From 2 comments
    • would be maybe good idea to add instructions :D
      pkstn on HN
    • Fun. Feedback: the only thing I found confusing is that it's not clear that the first block that is blinking is a data block. Maybe if it started with no block selected, and the…
      insane_dreamer on HN
  • Add an undo button

    From 1 comment
    • I love it. I think it needs an undo button. It sucks being most of the way through the hard level when you accidentally double tap space and ruin your game. I also want to see…
      ALittleLight on HN
  • Add a leaderboard

    From 1 comment
  • Add disk HDD sound effects

    From 1 comment
    • I love this cute game.And,I think it would be better to have the HDD Sound like the video you post. :)
      LittleOtter on HN

Questions

  • What is the optimal strategy for the score?

    From 1 comment
    • I wonder what the optimal strategy is, optimize for speed with more fragmentation and fewer operations or for less fragmentation but more operations and time. For 1kb, optimizing…
      marvinborner on HN

Alternatives named

  • Defrag98 Windows defrag simulator

    From 1 comment
    • There's a fun simulator of Windows defrag with sounds here: https://defrag98.com/
      NelsonMinar on HN
  • zfrag browser game

    From 1 comment
    • I actually had played a different game before here https://losttraindude.itch.io/zfrag
      a1o on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

Add a badge to your READMEShown on HackerShow
[![Shown on HackerShow](https://hackershow.org/badge.svg)](https://hackershow.org/show/41424371)