2026-04-21 10:16
Awesome concept. It takes a while to get into it but its a lot of fun!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → In a puff of smoke
By loki-drams and
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 819 | 2.63 | 28 | |
| Fun | 831 | 2.23 | 25 | |
| Innovation | 362 | 3.48 | 27 | |
| Theme | 387 | 3.82 | 27 | |
| Graphics | 732 | 2.75 | 26 | |
| Audio | 541 | 2.64 | 27 | |
| Humor | 593 | 2.26 | 23 | |
| Mood | 764 | 2.86 | 24 |
Awesome concept. It takes a while to get into it but its a lot of fun!
This is a brilliant concept. The amount of information is little overwhelming at first, but after some gameplay, it begins feeling more intuitive and natural.
Good job!
The theme of the jam is well captured. I read a long time ago that one of the first ways to transmit information over long distances was through fires and smoke. Very well done.
I didn't understand anything, couldn't test further, maybe that's a nice concept, I can't tell :'(
Data folder not found
Unfortunately, I couldn’t launch the game :(
I really struggled to understand this game. I know you put a lot of effort into the tutorial, but it was still quite hard to learn everything. Even after playing for a while, I couldn't quite understand how to send cats. It's too bad, because I really liked the concept!
If possible, I would suggest trying to refine the concept next time, or at least introduce elements a bit slower. For example you could start with just a single direction at once, and just a single action. Maybe it's also possible to simplify to JUST reading and interpreting smoke signals, instead of needing a second action to send resources?
Overall nice job!
Thanks a lot! And at first we wanted to put more mechanics! But the time is against us, for more and for better tutorial. Some sprite for menu has been absent (like for the cart).
Question for all and @miclefirst, have you launched the game on Ludum Dare website or itch.io ? (I can't launch by LD web).
Thanks again !
sooooo difficult game for me) I don't want to figure it out. But the game will definitely find its audience 😊
Thank you all for your comments !
I love the concept and the vibes—congratulations! It seems there’s a small bug with the music, as it suddenly cuts out, and the cursor appears to lose focus if you move outside the screen. It's a bit difficult to understand but great work!
Screenshot 2026-04-22 130354.png Great game! But i think he judges to harshly. xD
I believe a great deal of effort went into creating this game. It's not easy to understand, but the concept is very interesting. In my opinion, some mechanics should have been introduced gradually, instead of overwhelming the player with everything at once. However, I enjoyed poking around, understanding, and figuring it out.
Thank you for your game!
Cool concept, signaling over distance. The game reminds me of n64 zelda, which I like :D I had a bit of confusion on how to do actions. I read the instructions but then needed to remember what it said. Overall great project for the jam.
I really liked the core concept of the game — using smoke signals to communicate. However, I struggled a lot with the difficulty, even after completing the tutorial.
I tried three times, and each time it felt like I was starting to understand something, but it didn’t actually change the outcome. I’ll briefly describe my thought process as a player — maybe this can help make the game more beginner-friendly.
After the tutorial, we start in a situation where one tower is blue and another is white. As I understand it, that means we can take control of that tower. Based on the instructions, I try to request people and resources using smoke along with the icon that has two arrows. But nothing happens, and when the timer runs out, I lose. My expectation is that people and resources should appear in my tower, and then I’d be able to send them to a neighboring tower using a cart — but instead, the game just ends.
Another example: I see a cart with a flag coming from the red castle. I send up red smoke along with the target icon. But the game gives no feedback indicating whether my action was correct. I can imagine this might be intentional — like being in a real tower without internet or radio — but as a player, it just feels frustrating.
It’s possible I missed something in the tutorial. If you could give a bit more guidance on how to act at the start of the game, I’d be happy to give it another try. I liked the game overall — it just felt too unfriendly to new players.
Thank you for all your comments !
The tutorial and understanding of the game need to be redone. First with better progress, a better tutorial step, and more feedback.
@catanus it’s a bug! For the tutorial, we remove 1 wood from a tower, but the update removes all the wood (and the tower is abandoned in the next round). The smoke signal requires resources for you; we only get there the next turn, but you lose when you have no firewood or men. (The completed game is difficult and buggy => a new round is: you first lose your resources like food or men, and after receiving deliveries, so it’s a bug). The detection of the event has finally been carried out; the only feedback concerns the XP on the table. We wanted to add a morning letter (in the next update!) presenting the event, the deliveries and whether the enemies have been correctly spotted, but we were running out of time.
The only guidance i can give you for this version is always keeping check of the resource on table and keep as much resource as possible. But maybe a better advice, which saddens me a little, would be to play after the update as planned outside of jam, to fix important bugs that can make the game super hard for no reason.
But thanks a lot for your return !
I love the mechanic of looking at the table! And everything else is so nostalgic
You've created an unusual game, complete with a world of its own. The take on the theme is very interesting: using smoke to send signals to allies. I liked how you included details in the game world, like mountains, trees, buildings, etc. It was fun looking around and zooming in on the surroundings.
I wasn't able to figure out how to make progress, however. The tutorial was helpful, but when I started the game, I wasn't sure what to do. Detailed instructions posted here plus clear-cut goals spelled out here or in the game would go a long way. Also, it would be good to have the option to manually go to the next day/turn. Perhaps this was too ambitious for Ludum Dare as is; regardless, it certainly has potential.
喜欢wasd这种在2d环境的视角转换方法，很有趣 I like WASD's method of perspective switching in a 2D environment; it's very interesting.
I really like how the different locations are actually super far and you zoom a lot, that scale makes it a lot more immersive. Super hard to figure out tho :D
Error. There should be data folder but it's not
Hello @allax, What is the used version? What is the web site you used to?
I like the spotting scope feature, really immersive but I wasn't able to understand how to send wood or anything else.
I understand what you are trying to do with the small time you had and I like it.
Cool concept being a smoke signal operator(or whatever they're called)! I was just clicking around during the tutorial trying to get a hang of it and I think I messed up royally but the tutorial continued anyway :joy: I still don't quite understand how the game works, but I love these kinds of work-ish games. Would love to see a more fleshed out version at some point!