Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Beat the Signal
By fassenberg
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 150 | 3.45 | 82 | |
| Fun | 123 | 3.42 | 83 | |
| Innovation | 262 | 2.72 | 82 | |
| Theme | 266 | 2.61 | 82 | |
| Graphics | 221 | 3.08 | 83 | |
| Audio | 64 | 3.68 | 82 | |
| Humor | 1.87 | 6 | ||
| Mood | 187 | 3.24 | 82 |
Very fun, the "dodge the bullets" made me immediately lock in. Was a little sad it was a repeat of the same 3(?) stages. Still fun tho, love the effects, granted, a little aggressive for the eyes, but still really cool stuff. (Don't know what it has to do with signals but you go, lol)
@mr-flower Thanks a lot for the feedback! Really glad you enjoyed it 🙂
There are actually 4 phases in the game, which I treat as difficulty levels. They gradually ramp up in intensity and then switch back to a calmer rhythm to give a bit of breathing space.
Each phase is reflected through color changes, music intensity, and the strength/amount of the red spheres 🙂
I definitely want to add more variety in the future as well.
The music you generate when 'eating' the coins is really satisfying. That is a GOOD SIGNAL as far as i'm concerned :D . Nice!
Good tutorial ingame which is always nice to see. The music is snappy and I like how the game elements move with it. The coins have a neat spinning animation and make nice tones on being picked up. Even though I'm not very good at dodging I still managed to stay alive a while, until I fell of the map that is.
@alex-mulkerrin Thank you, that’s really nice to hear!
I decided to lower the difficulty for the jam so players wouldn’t have to sweat too much or die in the first few minutes. I’m glad you were able to stay alive for a while 😄
I like the game design decisions here: the slowdown on hit and the color changes for more dangerous stages. Nice work!
I agree with what other said, nice work and despite being very simple, the the game seems quite polished. Nice!
@manabreak thank you! I’m really glad to hear that! I tried to polish it as much as possible. So many ideas ahead
This game has the best tutorial so far. The only thing missing is a health bar. It doesn't quite fit the theme, but I liked it.
There are a lot of things that I really liked here: You managed to make the game feel so smooth and stylish with probably the most basic shapes. Everything feels so alive! Also "small" things like the ingame tutorial are especially for jams a feature for which I am grateful. Rhythm games are something that give fill me with great enjoyment, and here I especially like that by collecting the coins I become part of the music ambience.
Very cool! The embedded game didn't work for me, so I hopped over to your itch link. Super cool game; everything is super simple but *polished* to near-perfection. Great tutorial, nice sound, and I **loved** how the visuals synched up with the music. Solid entry!
A pretty good beat game, smooth controls, and pleasant sounds. It seems a little hard on the eyes, but you kind of get used to it. Thank you for the game!
That's good. Sounds and visuals are nice. It's simple but very juicy ! Well done !
@fassenberg You don't know why this is happening? unity.png
@makintosh It looks like Unity isn’t even trying to load the game, so I’m not sure what’s going on. Do you see any errors in the console? If yes, please let me know.
From your screenshot, it seems like you’re trying to play it on ldjam.com. You could also try running it on itch.io or downloading the Windows desktop version
Thanks for letting me know!
Lotta game juice in this one. got 1020. I enjoyed it there is a good skeleton here for a really good rhythm game
Very nice bullet hell game. I would definitely like to see more music variety!
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@isaac-hisey @pastmoments Wow, impressive! I couldn’t reach that score myself 😂
I’m planning to add more variety to the game, so feel free to bookmark it on itch.io
Lovely game! I very much like the audio synch in jam games or in games is rare, and it was so good to see it was done. Nice tutorial too! And yes the game felt polished, even though graphics were simple.
Nice and easy game which absolutely fit in the jam games. It's nice how the signal as red dot that slows you, when hit you. Also the intstruction for asdw and space are nicely done and the final score is nice to have feature :)
Very nice bullet hell, I like the reactive music.
great!A decent little game！
Pretty solid bullethell. I like the combination with the rythm, really mixes it up
Very polished with nice audio👍🏼
The idea is simple, but good!
Great game, I was just wondering about the dash feature how often I can use it. I would love if it had a small bar to show if is available. Overall love the sound, difficulty and the tutorial. I have managed to gather a score of 675. <3
@gantunk Thanks for the feedback! OMG, I set the dash cooldown to 2 seconds — that’s actually way too much 😅 I’ve fixed that in the itch.io version.
But there’s good news: if you time it with the beat, you can do the next dash instantly. Though I agree, that might be pretty tricky.
Nice concept and cool visuals! I love the sounds when picking the coins, which like improvise the melody within the drums. I think if there were a 808 bass track the music would be cooler (like hiphop)! And align the melody with a chord progression will make the vibe even better.
I have also made a rhythm game this time. Have a try if you are interested! :rocket: :sparkles:
Just go 1015. Nice game! The atmosphere is great!
@rubatotree it's great feedback, thank you! Yeah, I definitely want to take some rest and then push the concept further, including more sound variations. It should be easy to add at this point. I already notice some rough parts in the audio, but I’m glad they weren’t too noticeable
@rubatotree I just realized I’ve actually played your previous game! Amazing. I had a feeling I’d seen this kind of vibe before!
I even had your “DEPTHS” game in mind during development.
@fassenberg Wow thank you! I'm really surprised. :heart: I really like making these lovely games and do a lot works on music. :sparkles:
As an old and not that good touhou player, I like it! I got a little dizzy because of the flashes, but everything was fun!
got 975! Snipaste_2026-04-21_23-44-10.PNG
@mikan Impressive! You beat my best score! LD59_Game_4k9OS5dmI9.png
5 stars for the audio — feels simple, but it slaps and it's actually woven into the gameplay. Bullet hell about a blue pill and coins is a winning formula by default. HP isn't shown anywhere, I actually thought I was immortal for a while. And honestly, there might be a bit too much of it — the challenge feels pretty light. Though maybe that's just the bullet hell veteran in me talking. Either way — simple, satisfying, and importantly, it has a tutorial. Oh, and the text animations are really nice!
really fun idea!
Simple and enjoyable gameplay. Loved the beat, but I got huge motion sickness from playing this game. Maybe it was the way things moved combined with the flashing, but I don't typically get motion sickness from regular games or VR games. Also going fullscreen does something to break the visuals. It kind of flashes the game for a frame and then goes away to a full black or full white screen. Exiting fullscreen doesn't fix it, but going back in again seems to fix it, although exiting fullscreen once more breaks it.
@haln Thanks a lot for the feedback!
I’m really glad you enjoyed the gameplay and the beat, but I’m sorry about the motion sickness — that definitely shouldn’t happen. I’ll see what I can do about it.
And thanks for reporting the fullscreen issue — that might be something on Unity’s side, as I didn’t implement fullscreen behavior myself. I’ll still look into it and see if there’s anything I can do.
Good UI,good introduction and good dynamic visual effect.I noticed that red ball has different status, as I gain more coins and time goes by, the red balls become bigger and more.I love the art design but maybe the playability need to be improved ? More maps or more mechanism I guess?Also I can barely figure out the connection between this game and theme Signal...
So cool! Great tutorial, simple controles, good juice, fun gameplay!
@w2k Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, I’m planning to add more variety as I continue developing the project — I’m already working on some new features. Unfortunately, due to LD rules, I can’t upload those updates here since they were made after the deadline, but they will be available on itch.io.
As for the theme — the “signal” is represented by the rhythm. The current beat drives the gameplay: it controls the pacing and difficulty, and if you follow it, you can chain actions more effectively (like dashing in sync).
Great game
super tutorial presentation! health bar would be helpful :) It's really nice to pick up all these coins
Nice one! Simple rule with fun dynanmic. I especially like your tween animation, presenting a very good game feel
i am also unable to load the game. unity just hangs with the load bar full
im on chrome using a windows PC
@hammeredzombie Sorry to hear you’re having trouble launching the game!
You could try playing it on itch.io or downloading the Windows build instead. Also, there’s a chance some resources might not be accessible at the moment — I’ve noticed it only works for me with a VPN right now.
@fassenberg loads fast on itch, cool idea but i still had to stop playing after a few moments.
the screenshake is an accessibility issue with all the other visual stuff going on. the screen pulsing while i was trying to follow the coins with my eyes made me seasick and i had to quit.
@hammeredzombie Thanks a lot for giving it another try!
Sorry about that — the screenshake and pulsing definitely shouldn’t make it uncomfortable to play. I’ll see what I can do to tone it down or make it optional.
Really appreciate you pointing this out!
A game about defending a square (capsule), with a well-executed tutorial (something many jam games lack), as well as a cool implementation of effects synced to music.
This is exactly what gameplay should be—simple to pick up, but so addictive! I was aiming for 1,000 points, but couldn't get past 750. Great job! Add some cool music and a bit of polish, and you’ve got a solid demo
@stormdrill Thanks a lot, that’s really nice to hear! I’m actually working on expanding and polishing the game right now.
This game proves that you can make something fun with primitive shapes, a decent color pallet, nice music, and movement that feels nice. Very nice work! Very simple, but effectively executed.
Love how the music goes with the action, feels pretty good to move in! I wasn't quite good enough to better than 490 :sweat_smile:
I saw your comment on our rhythm game 'Smoke Show' and immediately went over here :smile:
This entry reminds me of just shapes and beats BUT 3D! I really like how these types of games switch the rhythm aspect around and make the level do the hard work of moving to the rhythm you JUST have to dodge right!
Thanks for making me aware. I really like rhythm games :smiley:
I got 1350 lets go. Simple yet fun game. For expansion I'd love to see a melody with the music and maybe some more insane projectiles like lazers. I was picking up super hexagon vibes and feel like this could live up to that. Also, because this is a score based game a leaderboard would've been awesome. I'm a sucker for bullet hells so great job.
@oxnh Wow, that’s a great score! 😄 Thanks for the feedback and the suggestions — I’m actually working on making the systems easier to expand right now. Appreciate it!
Приятный минималистичный дизайн, абсолютно понятно что нужно делать и полностью законченная игра. Здорово! Есть чему поучиться😁
Very juicy!
I wasn't sure if there was a way to die at first. I'm still not really sure how I died, like if there's a health bar or something that I missed, or if it's getting hit multiple times in a row. There's some pretty great polishing here, although the flashing lights could maybe be dialed down a bit. Having a tutorial was definitely nice. I love the sound effect for picking up coins. I think dashing didn't feel very responsive, maybe because there was no indication of the cooldown or when it would end. This was pretty fun! Solid work!
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@tolviere Wow, that’s impressive! At the moment, you’re the best player in my game! I probably should’ve added a leaderboard :)
Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. I agree with all of it, and I plan to address these points in the post-LD version on itch.io, while also adding more variety to the game.
Originally, I didn’t include HP display because I didn’t think it was necessary, but many players have been mentioning it, so I’ll reconsider it.
You can’t take damage multiple times in a row — after the first hit, you get a short period of invulnerability. I also significantly reduced the flashing effect so it’s less harsh on the eyes.
Regarding the dash mechanic — the original idea was that you could dash without cooldown if you stay in sync with the beat. If you miss the timing, you get a cooldown penalty. However, in the release a flat 2-second cooldown ended up being used, which unfortunately makes it unintuitive
Very nice idea, still a lot to do, but it can be a great rhythm bullet hell.
got 2050 finally. why not considering add some Techno music?
@venomousmouse Thanks! 😄 I’m currently working on improving and expanding the game. Really appreciate the feedback!
@jerrywest Wow, we’ve got a new leader! 😄 I definitely regret not having a leaderboard in the current version of the game.
I’m still thinking about adding more musical variety. Since the beat is generated in real time, I need to better understand the genre first before I can recreate it properly.
Nice game, I like that there is an onboarding tutorial available. I wish there were a way to exit the Settings menu (maybe I just missed it).
@pavel-goncharov Thanks for the feedback! You didn’t miss it — there’s currently no way to exit the Settings menu. I’m planning to add both a proper menu and pause functionality in the post-jam version.
A wonderful rhythm game. The minimalist visuals and audio are more than enough, and the gameplay feels dynamic and engaging. The game really pulled me in. One small issue is that the large number of objects can cause occasional micro-stutters, which is especially noticeable in a rhythm game, but for a 3-day jam it’s still quite understandable. Overall, excellent work.
A very polished bullet hell shooter that runs smoothly in HTML5 despite the VFX. I appreciated that the tutorial was skipped upon restarting. Great work!
450 is my best score I'm really bad at Bullet Hell hah The sounds and controller are quite nice, but to be fair, I don't think the Signal theme has been covered
Couldn't play in web.. Probably you should just leave desktop version.
Really fun and simple idea, but it just works! The audio is great, feels super satisfying and fits the gameplay really well. I like how everything syncs with the rhythm, gives it a nice flow. Controls are easy to pick up and the game has good juice overall. Could maybe use a bit more challenge or variety, but still a really solid and enjoyable entry!
Very polished game for a COMPO-entry! I like the tutorial you get once, where everything is explained clearly.
The controls feel good and the graphics are simplistic, but fitting. The different sound effects while getting the coins is a nice touch. :)
Fun and challenging! I appreciate that there is a tutorial (and that it doesn't repeat). The music works really well with the gameplay, and the game itself is very engaging, it makes you want to keep retrying.
A small nitpick would be to increase the coin pickup range. I think with the isometric view, sometimes I thought I would pick up a coin when it wouldn't. But that's a small thing, and doesn't detract from the game at all.
Overall, a very solid entry. It's well polished and very fun.
Very net, loved the lighting, the sound fit so well to the gameplay. Remind me of touhou in a minimal version. Unfortunately, i tried to die but i didn't managed to... I hit many and many orbs but the gameplay was style going on. I was on the jam version btw (maybe it wasn't just implemented yet).
Lovely presentation and love the visual of the bullets appearing to the beat. There was obviously a focus on polish with that and it's really pleasing. I didn't get much as to how the rhythm played into the gameplay though unfortunately. I had a hard time relying on the dodge, expecting it to work like BPM: Bullets per minute, where it works so logn as you input on the beat, but it obviously has a hidden cooldown longer than a beat. I think that would have made a huge improvement to the game feel! But a solid entry with a compelling little game loop. Well done!
Lovely game! I very much like the audio synch in jam games or in games is rare, and it was so good to see it was done. Nice tutorial too! And yes the game felt polished, even though graphics were simple.