I'm a big fan of the game!
- Story-wise, the plea from my fired coworker has got me curious. Nicely done. The instructions are slightly overwhelming, it would be nice to get them in increments! For example, maybe after each step you do, reopen the manual and the next line appears. But that's just a nit. Right upfront with an easily accessible manual is perfect too.
- The art -- spot on. The buttons are so satisfying. For whatever reason, I expected up down left right for the ordering, but that's just a personal bias. It would be nice if the green "go" button also reset automatically.
- You even implemented "up" for last command in the virtual terminal! Haha! I think terminal would be a bit overwhelming for a non-programmer. One way is to simplify the number of commands that are available to start (unlocking new commands only when you need it). And maybe less text in stdout. For what it's worth, I think you did a great job with the 'status' messages after you've completed a task. It's very clear what to do next.
Nits/suggestions for simplification:
- make a table for the `files` output, and put the instructions after the list
- Tell the user that they need check all sectors when they "execvirus" for example (I realize the point is to pay attention to earlier instructions and to not have special output when you close the virus file... but maybe better that way?)
- I think it's hard to remember all the commands and navigating the sector commands take some time. I lost interest at this point, because it resembled work too much haha. I wish it had fewer commands and more button pressing! The "minigames" are a fun addition -- although, they could use some sort of state indicator, so I know what I've typed so far (maybe show stdin in the console?)
I was consumed by the singularity trying to figure out how to get all sectors to be "correct" :(