Game info

Digital Janitors is a desktop defense game in the style of an old-school PC. A hacker has taken your employer's network hostage, sending malicious files and malware to all the company computers. Playing as the IT Administrator for Merter Corporation, you must go to each computer in the company and excise the virus, beating back the hacker.

Primarily, this is done by sorting files into either a secure drive for files that are safe and originate on the computer, or into the recycling bin for files that are malicious. Files will often act in unexpected ways, teleporting, moving around, disappearing from the desktop, and more.

To handle these varied challenges, the player can purchase software from a shop. Abilities like an underclocker which slows down the desktop, a marquee select for grabbing multiple files in close proximity, and a malware magnet for grabbing multiple files of the same type.

The hacker won't take this lying down, as he is able to track you through the network and will interact, antagonizing you with over the top pop-up advertisements, and threatening you via an instant messaging program.
In the full game, the player will progress from the first floor up to the CEO's office, with randomly seeded abilities available in the shop and the order and layout of specific encounters keeping the game fresh.

The game evokes the strong aesthetics of the Windows '95 era of personal computing while maintaining modern sensibilities. We looked to contemporary games like Hypnospace Outlaw and Emily is Away, which aim to present elevated versions of the societal conditions of online life, as well as media from the era, like LucasArts adventure games and the 1995 film Hackers.

Tired Turtle Games

Tired Turtle Games is an undergraduate game development team at the Entrepreneurial Game Studio in Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

Contest entries 2021