Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Cosmic Relay
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 7 | 4.27 | 22 | |
| Fun | 12 | 4.15 | 22 | |
| Innovation | 22 | 4.02 | 22 | |
| Theme | 47 | 4.20 | 22 | |
| Graphics | 15 | 4.32 | 22 | |
| Audio | 29 | 4.02 | 22 | |
| Humor | 34 | 3.70 | 22 | |
| Mood | 29 | 4.00 | 22 |
Fantastic entry! I enjoyed the variety of mini games to troubleshoot the signal problems. Very clean graphics, nice music, and in general really pushing the constrained engine to its limits. I was quite confused when I first started playing, but it didn't take long to figure things out. Now I want baklava.
This is a super fun plate-spinning game! Really creative to have a basic "shape sorter" game interrupted by constantly having to switch screens and do mini-games, and I feel like the balance was just right.
It was confusing at the start (I didn't realize why there was an X and I couldn't use it, not having internalized the screen switching controls). I also found the input prompts quite hard to read, which might be a limitation of the Pico (not sure if those input prompts are the "official" Pico buttons) but in particular the arrow keys were really hard to map in my head and could use an extra pixels to properly define the arrow shape.
In terms of the overall gameplay I think the biggest weakness is the lose condition or lack thereof. From what I can tell there are basically two ways the day can end: either the message queue fills up, or the timer runs out. Neither of these are "lose" conditions as you go on to the next day all the same, and the only consequence for filling up the message queue is opportunity cost to increase your score. I personally find "score" isn't as motivating as "you might lose the game" so I would rather that filling the message queue is an actual loss condition, so a bit like Tetris, in the harder levels I am fighting to stay above water and not be filled all the way to the top.
And then I would say that the countdown timer is kind of too similar to the message queue filling up (they are just two different ways to require me to move fast), so I would replace the countdown timer with a message quota that fills up: once the quota fills up, I win. That way there is a clear win condition (send X messages) and a clear loss condition (have Y messages in the queue) and I can have the satisfaction of *just* filling my quota before the queue fills up.
I say the above as constructive criticism because I really enjoyed the overall concept and rated it very highly. Good luck!
@guardaro Thank you! And yes, we all need more baklava.
@matt-giuca I must admit the main idea didn't set in my mind until very late in development, and I ended up rushing the "several days" thing which is why there's no real win/lose conditions and only one ending. Next time I think I'll try having the different gameplay loops fleshed out before starting development. Thank you for the great feedback and suggestions!
A very creative and fun game, and I like the art sytle, it's cute.
A lot of mechanics, a fun game with minigames. The controls took some getting used to and it wasn't clear at first why the right side was Xing out. Great entry
The game is really excellent for a Game Jam, the background music is super cool, the interface is beautiful, and the mechanics are fun and varied. It’s hard to do better than this, the only issue is that the music glitches when you repair a component. But well done!
I love the art style. It took me a moment to figure out how to play, but once it clicked it gets addictive. I played multiple times and found it satisfying seeing myself get faster at message delivery and fixing stuff XD. Very fun game. Great job!
It's very smooth. The controls felt a little unfamiliar, but I got used to them. The graphics and sound are fantastic and feel harmonious. I didn't even realize how time flew by. The puzzle in the last section seems to be giving an error no matter what I do. But I still managed to score 511!
Love it ! Very polised game in every aspect (visuel, audio, narrative, gameplay)
Capture d’écran 2026-04-23 172211.jpg
The game is fun and I'm loving it so much! Both the graphics and audio are a solid 5/5. AWESOME work!
The game is fun and I'm loving it so much! Both the graphics and audio are a solid 5/5. AWESOME work!
The game is fun and I'm loving it so much! Both the graphics and audio are a solid 5/5. AWESOME work!
Oops... Sorry! It seems I can't delete the duplicated comments XD
I really liked it! On my first run I was quite lost and only much later realized there were other screens with things to manage. On the second run I read the intro scenes more carefully and it became much clearer, though still not super easy for me, maybe because English is not my native language. I actually liked that conceptually the game always ends in failure, and the goal is to survive as long as possible. Pretty cruel, but very realistic 😄 The only thing I would suggest is adding a daily quota. Great work! Снимок экрана 2026-04-25 в 00.22.09.png
I didn't understand what to do when the output deactivated. I enjoyed the presentation though.
fantastic game, probably my new favorite entry. on my first playthrough I somehow completely misunderstood what the "main" screen was for and made it to the end having sent 0 packets, but I watched the demo clip and it clicked on my second try (final score was about 700 packets).
honestly I don't think I have any criticisms, the one issue I had with the game was entirely my fault this time. great job!
Once I figured out why outputs were getting deactivated and started tuning into different frequencies, I really started enjoying this game. What a fun--if not overwhelming--gameplay loop.
This game was a lot of fun! It took me a second to figure out the minigame mechanics. The art style was distinct, especially for a pico-8 game. I thought the presentation was nice and I enjoyed playing it. Also the baklava reference made me hungry :)
Really cool game! It could have been just an abstract game but all the animations and transitions give a strong identity to your game, it's impressive to manage this level of immersion with the Pico8 limitations. I also really appreciate the difficulty ramp, it kept me focused and motivated during each phase, I think the duration of the game is optimal.
Very cool visual and sounds. Great idea and execution. Only it feels as if days end too fast, but maybe it's just my feeling of the game. Great job!
Ooooh! I love input-heavy games like this! There's something so satisfying about ripping through tasks at such high speeds. I really enjoyed my time with this game!
2026-04-28 11_53_21-cosmic relay by ghettobastler — Mozilla Firefox.png Very fun game! It had charming graphics and the gameplay was engaging. I think the only thing I might have done differently is to allow for selection wrapping, where pressing left when I'm on the left most screen takes me to the right most screen, and pressing up on the top selection takes me to the bottom selection. That is an extremely minor quibble and might even have been done on purpose as a form of balancing, but I think it would make the inputs that teensy bit smoother.
Absolutely wonderful game and probably the most fun game I've played this jam.