FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD59 → Syntax Breaker

Syntax Breaker

By D_Indie, Jinny, mrekzes, Legacy33, DivacheLLo, Kiselle and

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall6583.2121
Fun7132.8421
Innovation5003.2720
Theme5203.5521
Graphics2724.0221
Audio4373.2321
Humor5102.5219
Mood5373.4421

Comments

2026-04-21 11:10

игра хорошая, минус балл в каждой категории за предательство Дани

kevin-meissner 2026-04-21 17:25

Looks prety amazing, but I could not figure out what I need to do ^^

croxx 2026-04-21 17:35

visuals are genuinely impressive for a jam game, unreal engine doing its thing. but i had no idea what i was supposed to do, the ui gives you almost nothing to work off, just symbols with no real explanation. got killed a few times pressing random keys trying to figure it out. with a proper tutorial this could be something, the atmosphere is there. good luck!

mrekzes 2026-04-21 17:53

@kevin-meissner you can read the backstory (description of the game) or open the notebook labeled Guide on the table.

mrekzes 2026-04-21 17:55

@croxx Thank you for your honest and comprehensive feedback. The code hints are located under the monitor, and a small tutorial can be accessed by clicking on the yellow notebook on the table.

2026-04-21 22:02

The game looks promising, but it's unclear what to do in it.

2026-04-21 23:04

I love the style, and I know the game is supposed to be like that, a puzzle game with no hints other than the ones in Guide book. I just wished that there was more context and feedback from what the player is doing, other than just dying after 3 mistakes. I'm still trying to figure it out xD

perovic2018 2026-04-22 03:44

очень крутой визуал, и имеется цельный геймплей, однако хочется чуть более конкретной атмосферы (вроде мрачно, но на улице ясно и светло). Плюс хотелось бы контекста происходящего

mrekzes 2026-04-22 07:52

@romanradiy you can read the backstory (description of the game) or open the notebook labeled Guide on the table.

mrekzes 2026-04-22 07:54

@ana-garcia Unfortunately, we didn't have time to create a proper storyline, so the background information is included in the game's description. The game itself is a complex puzzle that requires careful observation.

mrekzes 2026-04-22 07:56

@perovic2018 задумка в том что главный герой сидит в своей каморке и делает поставленные задачи, пока мир вокруг прекрасен, если пройти игру на хорошую концовку то герой как раз таки выйдет в этот мир

evgeniia-filonova 2026-04-22 10:24

It's very atmospheric and interesting, but even with the guide, it's not entirely clear what to do. However, I admit that the problem may be with me. The graphics are high-quality, the sounds are well-chosen, and everything works as it should. Thank you for giving me a cigarette.

mrekzes 2026-04-22 10:43

@evgeniia-filonova My team is very happy that you were able to find our cigarette feature

2026-04-22 11:38

Accidentally broke the game by writing a bunch of dots, I didn’t understand how to connect a dot and a stick idk. The visual is very good, it lacks a custom cursor and could improve the camera a little. Good game

mrekzes 2026-04-22 12:29

@markwer paper says that a dot is an action, and a stick is "No", so a stick with a dot means inaction

vydra 2026-04-23 19:15

Sorry but i can't play because of:

Assertion failed: CanFormatBeDisplayed(this, CandidateFormat) [File:D:\build\++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Windows\D3D11RHI\Private\D3D11Device.cpp] [Line: 836]

0x000000014174cb18 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x0000000145fa3729 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x0000000145fc51e7 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x0000000145fb13c6 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x00000001466ef1b5 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x000000014672f32f SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x0000000142605daa SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x00000001486c9e99 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x000000014610544b SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x0000000149adce97 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x0000000149acf397 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x0000000149acf66a SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x0000000149ad2498 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x0000000149adfa94 SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x000000014e3257aa SyntaxBreaker.exe!UnknownFunction [] 0x00006fffffa11549 kernel32.dll!UnknownFunction []

profugo-barbatus 2026-04-23 20:12

Graphically impressive, mechanically disappointing. I can see the premise, but the effort to communicate the ruleset is very poorly done. The first puzzle past "just repeat the symbol back" does so by introducing a character combination not in the book, note, or environment. None of the existing elements of the book or note provide contextual clues as to what kind of action is occuring, much less how to deduce new symbol actions. I understood "action" and "inaction" but I didn't understand "One Action [Device with something]" or how to respond to it with what appeared to be a series of numbers. Quit after a couple deaths.

More playtesting outside the dev team and more information would probably have helped.

On top of that, little user experience things could have been done to be addressed. The lack of mouse constraint makes this awkward feeling to play on multimonitor setups. Distributing the game via google drive as opposed to itch.io can make some people nervous about downloading. Camera FoV as a zoom is very disorienting.

Still, its a very pretty game, and there's clearly a lot of love and attention put into the assets and environment. If that was the primary focus of the team, then well done, it landed great.

half-animal-half-beast 2026-04-24 01:27

interesting concept and presentation, feels quite experimental in a good way

woona 2026-04-24 08:49

Great job with the scene and audio, feels very immersive. I've completed the first few puzzles but got stuck on the one with a signal with multiple symbols. The instructions feel a bit cryptic.

Also, I think the first person camera rotation is a bit too much. In the game you just interact with the terminal and keys, there is no need to move the camera too much: the most important parts become invisible.

kate666 2026-04-24 12:34

The idea of puzzles is really interesting, but I probably didn't have enough mental capacity to go beyond the circle with a dot. Maybe I should have read the guidebook more carefully, but the instructions are for beginners, right? The graphics are really cool and detailed!!!

kiselle 2026-04-25 09:02

@vydra I don't know why this error is happening, but Google says it's a driver issue.

kiselle 2026-04-25 09:06

@profugo-barbatus Thank you for the feedback, we saw these issues during the testing phase, but due to time constraints, we were unable to respond. Regarding Google Drive, this is a necessary measure as Unreal Engine does not support web builds, and the build itself is too large to upload to itch as a simple file (plus we are from Russia, and itch is blocked for us).

kiselle 2026-04-25 09:07

@half-animal-half-beast Thanks

kiselle 2026-04-25 09:08

@woona Thanks, we saw the problem.

kiselle 2026-04-25 09:11

@kate666 Thanks for the feedback, but the puzzles aren't your problem. They're more of our problem because the "Curse of Knowledge" has worked, and we thought that if we understood our language, we would understand everything.

ionhaven 2026-04-27 16:57

Very pretty and very confusing.

mrekzes 2026-04-27 19:36

@ionhaven Yes, unfortunately, our game turned out to be more difficult than we had planned.

cethin 2026-05-03 21:06

Cool game. There needs to be a little more feedback on what's going on I think (the ending you just hear a door open and it goes to the menu, for example), but it's relatively short and easy. (Though maybe I'm wrong about that. The comments seem to indicate otherwise.) The biggest issue I had is that I didn't realize I could turn at first, so only the things right in front of me were available. The other issue is the thermometer is pretty hard to read. Other than that, I think it's set up well to give enough information to figure out the meaning of everything without being too obvious!

mrekzes 2026-05-05 18:22

@cethin thank you for the feedback, we didn't leave much feedback so as not to overdo it and disrupt the immersion, and regarding the thermometer, you can zoom in by scrolling the mouse wheel