The unidentifed Signal

steveofstevesgames 2026-04-20 09:44

When you go back out of the controls page the mouse disappears. I like a lot about this game, all the notes sections are good, music is a bit harsh and has a big silent bit but is ok. I like the quick drawn ciphers, quick and does exactly what its supposed to. But im too lazy/stupid to play properly. I did a lot of this stuff as a kid, it will take me ages to figure it out but i will get there eventually. I will try properly if im in a logical mood. I know others will love this.

ellaris 2026-04-20 09:54

Interesting premise, but turned out quite tedious, I think it would be better if you didn't have to switch between the terminal and the main screen, also since you had the objects on the screen it would be nice to be able to select them with a mouse. I feel like you could have added another input screen where the player could take notes (if they didn't want to take out a physical one). I attempted the last 2 parts of the message, since they seemed the easiest, I got gibberish and then the method I used to figure out the gibberish, which made me feel quite bad about wasted time. Long strings of numbers are problematic since you don't know if you should read them by 1 digit or 2. I didn't see any text for the ciphers, so I assume it is at least double encrypted, which seems like torture. The audio didn't seem to fit, and was quite annoying being aggressive and starting/stopping suddenly.

msipp27 2026-04-20 18:31

i did put a notepad on the pause screen...

tenthousandfireants 2026-04-20 19:34

Interesting concept, might try playing it longer to see how I do better lol

fifut 2026-04-20 19:42

The concept is original

2026-04-21 16:05

The game is interesting but difficult

conradoclark 2026-04-22 00:51

I really like the concept here, but I feel like too much is thrown in your face right off the bat. It would be interesting to decipher one small phrase first, then receive another message, etc, with increasing difficulty while keeping the player engaged.

I tried answering something wrong into the textbar, and was surprised to see there's actually a second hidden code in the game over screen, which is cool. The curiosity in me wants to decipher the two sentences, but the design pushes me back.

This idea reminded of the three-body problem novel (at least the alien signal decoding part). If you don't mind my rambling, I have some extra feedback: - The acessories could be inside the game (pen & notepad). This would make the experience more immersive. - Though the handwriting may look charming at first, the amount of information made my eyes very unsure where to look. Maybe you could have tabs, or separate buttons to open different tips? (like one for the morse code, one for the grid, one for each of the ones in the cryptology book etc) - The music, as others have said, does not fit the game. I know time is an enormous pressure, I myself don't have any audio in my game lol.

This being said (I hope I didn't sound harsh, I just wanted to give a thorough feedback), congrats on publishing, and keep making games!

msipp27 2026-04-22 01:01

@conradoclark Feedback is duly noted, due to the way i coded the game you can cheat by looking at the source code and finding the anwsers, there is also a third message only found in the source code

kayrum 2026-04-22 02:56

A paper to note things down was really needed.

faketrap 2026-04-22 05:24

The game is too difficult/complex to figure out what to do. The controls are also very confusing. I never managed to play it; the game was a huge disappointment. However, the concept for the theme is quite interesting.

w2k 2026-04-22 11:26

This is totally a decryption game, and the puzzle is difficult.Since I can barely recognize the relationship between different number combination, I think they may be double or even triple encryption.At first I want to solve it like Holmes : "e" has the highest probability of appearing among all letters,but multiple encryption stumped me. I'm sorry but I think it's a good puzzle but not a good game...First of all the difficulty curve of this game is unreasonable , this puzzle looks like a "boss fight" and maybe more players need some simple questions to learn how to decrypt.Secondly the UI is somewhat narrow, and the text in the bottom left and top right is squeezed together, making it difficult to see clearly.Finally, BGM is a little bit abrupt, perhaps making it more coherent would be better(but I suspect that BGM has a certain pattern, perhaps it's also a hidden puzzle). Since I have not solved the puzzle yet ,I won't give you my rating now.I will find some time to comeback and keep playing.

msipp27 2026-04-22 13:55

@w2k i'm afraid the music is not a puzzle, it's just bad

lanatra 2026-04-22 15:50

For me, having everything exposed at the beginning is a little overwhelming, making it demotivating to get started. But I'm not hugely into puzzle games, so maybe I'm just not the target player :)

plutonicrock 2026-04-23 18:13

omg a decryption game, I love this! Surprised there isn't more of these given that the theme is “signal", great work though!

ben-morledge-hampton 2026-04-24 19:13

Cool concept, but I'll second what other people have been saying bout there being too much information thrown at the player right from the start. Of course, if your target audience is people who are very experienced with decryption then perhaps this is fine. I think that's a very small fraction of the people in the jam, but that doesn't make this a "bad" game by any means. It's just very niche.

msipp27 2026-04-24 21:05

i will keep that in mind!

2026-05-03 14:08

It's a very cool concept. The style of this artwork seems a bit absurd but very interesting. The way it converts signals through the interaction between numbers and letters is considered quite interesting.

alexandr-gerya 2026-05-05 14:27

my brain hurts just looking at all this threw everything at me at once and i noped out cool concept for cipher nerds tho