Digital Janitors

Drexel University

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

7 0

Digital Janitors is an action-packed desktop defense game. A hacker has taken your employer’s network hostage, sending malicious files and malware to the company computers. As the IT Administrator, you must go to each computer in the company, excise the virus, and beat back the hacker. ...learn more

Project status: Under Development

Game Development

Groups
2021 Intel University Games Showcase

Intel Technologies
Intel Integrated Graphics

Links [4]

Overview / Usage

Digital Janitors is an action-packed desktop defense game being developed and published by students at Drexel University. A hacker has taken your employer’s network hostage, sending malicious files and malware to the company computers. As the IT Administrator, you must go to each computer in the company, excise the virus, and beat back the hacker.

Features

20 Levels
5 Bosses
15 Unique Malware-Fighting Abilities
Story Campaign, Time Trials, and Endless Wave Mode
20+ Achievements

Play Our Demo

Digital Janitors on Steam

Digital Janitors is currently in development by Tired Turtle Games, a team of 6 undergraduate students at Drexel University. While Digital Janitors started as an in-class project, it quickly expanded into a full-blown game with commercial and artistic ambition. Tired Turtle Games was accepted as an incubator team at Drexel’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio, a “startup factory” which provides studio space and assists students in developing and commercializing their games.

The development of Digital Janitors was deeply collaborative, in many ways eschewing the traditional regiments of game development in favor of a flatter, more equitable structure that suited our small team and long-standing tight-knit relationships. There was no manager or lead, with decisions made as a group democratically. The company is structured as a cooperative, allowing for equivalent equity for all members. As a part of EGS, we are able to learn best practices under expert guidance but also have the leeway to try out new and bold organizational structures.

Team Members

Andrew Viveiros : Pre-Junior (Narrative Designer, Writer | http://hitpoint.co)
Isabella Haro-Uchimura : Pre-Junior (Artist | https://www.artstation.com/isabellaharo)
Lillian Joyce : Pre-Junior (Business Developer | https://www.lillyjoyce.com/)
Ravi Patel : Junior (Artist | https://ravi_patel.artstation.com/)
Shane Tupler : Pre-Junior (Chief Gameplay Programmer | https://www.srtupler.com/)
Tyler Sweppenhiser : Pre-Junior (Game Designer, Programmer, Music | https://www.tylersweppenhiserresume.com/)

Team Contact

Tired Turtle Games - tiredturtlegames@gmail.com

Drexel University Contact

Rob Lloyd - rel63@drexel.edu

Methodology / Approach

Production

Digital Janitors started as a school project but became a proving ground for every member of the team. Everyone was determined to try new areas of development and push themselves to create something challenging not just for the players but also for ourselves as developers. Due to this, every member of our team grew to be comfortable in any situation they were put into regardless of the titles we hold in the credits of the game.
To keep production moving on Digital Janitors, the team utilized an altered scrum methodology alongside a traditional kanban-style layout for our long-term goals. This allowed us to continue working on the game with monthly updates, even when we had to create virtual workflows due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Design

The core pillars of Digital Janitors’ design stems from our core gameplay loop of high-octane action and cognizant problem-solving. The game features a variety of different types of folders that act as enemy variations to alter the gameplay. Our goal is to keep them intuitive enough that players will always know how to overcome them at a glance. The constraint of using folders for the game’s enemies gave us a creative outlet while continuing to challenge the player
Another large aspect of the game is in immersing the player in the world of an I.T. worker in the late ’90s. Our goal was never to create an accurate simulator, rather, we wanted to instill nostalgia within the player through a fun arcade-like game. Due to this, each component of the game is designed to give the impression of interacting with an old operating system without taking away from the gameplay.