msipp27 2026-04-20 08:44
i liked the rope swinging mechanic, why couldn't the game have just been about that?
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Beacon Bound
By enryu-mirik
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 219 | 3.17 | 33 | |
| Fun | 142 | 3.33 | 33 | |
| Innovation | 123 | 3.48 | 33 | |
| Theme | 146 | 3.69 | 33 | |
| Graphics | 173 | 3.35 | 33 | |
| Humor | 152 | 2.44 | 30 | |
| Mood | 88 | 3.69 | 33 |
i liked the rope swinging mechanic, why couldn't the game have just been about that?
First of all - the atmosphere is great! I really dig the art style. The idea is neat. This could be a puzzle in a bigger game. The main issue I had was that no matter how I rotated the light, the rocks stay. There should be some kind of indicator (a beam, perhaps) to show where the light is aiming, for incapable, clumsy gamers like myself. I will try to beat it later though. Overall, a great entry!
Sorry, I wasn't able to finish this one, just couldn't figure out how to get the ships to come closer. I kept saving them with the light, but nothing changed for about fifteen minutes so I stopped. I'm probably just being a bit dumb, so my only critique of the game is that I feel like the grappling was way more fun than shining the light around. Every time I would come back from a trip outside trying to swing onto the ships, I'd come back to what felt like a chore. It felt like I was just maintaining something, rather than growing it, and that just wasn't satisfying at all. Besides all that, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Ah, I see, thanks for the feedback, I'll try to improve the tips. Basically, with enough grappling charges, you need to fly between cliffs and try to reach a ship that isn't threatened by the cliffs.
But the system as a whole isn't very good, this is my third COMPO and the third time I've had serious problems with estimation and I have to cut half of it out so it works somehow.
very beautiful visuals, especially the lighthouse
@enryu-mirik Don't worry too much about it, I still had a lot of fun! There's never enough time in a game jam to make everything perfect.
It’s like Spider-Man got sent to a lighthouse with Willem Dafoe. So funny.
at some point i forgot that was game about saving ships and just started swinging around the lighthouse)) liked the vibe of the game, great visuals
@tolviere @beareye Yeah, I wanted to diversify the gameplay around the lighthouse and keep the "signal" theme, but the grappling hook ended up being more fun than the main mechanic... Maybe I should've quickly reworked the game into something like a courier game. But oh well
The rope mechanic is super cool, it reminds me the Worms a little bit, I just stand there and saved ships for 10 minutes, very satisfying. It would be great to be able pickup logs with harpoon from the above!
beautiful visuals and atmosphere with a grapple mechanic that steals the show but the lighthouse management feels like a chore
It's cool, it feels like Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. It took me a while to get used to the controls.
Thanks for the opportunity to play in the browser
I really like the mood and the swinging mechanic, but the lighthouse was a bit hard to figure out, and the objective was a little counter intuitive. A good experience nonetheless!
Really cool - I dug the resource management, even if you get flooded with planks pretty quickly. I will say, the final objective of catching a ride on one of the boats is somewhat finnicky, and it has nothing to do with the amount of ropes you have, but just because you need to balance clearing a path for the boat while *also* leaving enough rocks to be able to swing to it, while still being able to catch it before it sails away. I eventually managed it though and won. Really great job overall though - I enjoyed this a lot!
I like the graphics, grapple hook mechanics (never gets old/boring). However, the player slides like a crazy - it was a challange to get to the top of the lighthouse. Then, as others mentioned I couldn't save the ships from crashing on the rocks - I didn't know where I was pointing with the light (no indicator). Nevertheless, idea is interesting.
So I have an idea for a woodfarming venture, but it really hinges on ships being captained by moths...
Really cool idea, and you cannot go wrong with grapples. Really enjoyed the graphical style, and great show of having a clear game loop, and really making it work. Those things where it's like, easy to get the concept of, but difficult to master.
The game has a great atmosphere. I liked the rope mechanics, but I didn't understand my goals.
Yes, thanks for the feedback. Essentially, although it's counterintuitive, you just need to get on the ship and leave this island, but it's quite tricky because you need to clear all the cliffs that might be in the ship's path with a beacon, but still leave enough cliffs for the ship to be reached. And you also need to have enough ropes to make it happen.
I'm really curious how many of you managed to get to the end, because in the current implementation, it's very difficult to understand the strategy and then execute it. So @drainkid congratulations on making it.
The music loop is too short and get's repetitive really fast, other than that it was fun. The Ground check is a bit clunky, but the hook is pretty fun. I feel like the game was a bit too easy, I got out with like 1 extra rope and I feel like I could easily do it with no extra ones. Some of the rocks were refusing to disappear however I point the light at them and it was a bit annoying, not sure if it's a bug or the visuals just don't line up correctly with the mechanic. victory.png
Cool game! Refreshing take on the theme and I enjoyed the sandboxiness of the game! You guided the player well with clearly lit up places which pulled the players attention to wanted direction.
Grappling hook was fun mechanic and it worked well in the main loop! I was happily surprised to see the lighthouse was its own minigame, and well-connected to the movement mechanic!
Sounds and polishing was only thing I noticed to miss, and the rather short soundtrack got a bit annoying.
Well done!
Screenshot 2026-04-26 at 9.21.59.png
LOVE the concept. I even got some A Story About My Uncle vibes with swinging mechanics. If this game would have more polish, complexity and slower pace - I would buy it on steam. photo_2026-04-26_12-49-50.jpg
Здорово, красивая музыка и приятное управление, прям как человек паук прыгал
Really pretty lighting and evocative atmosphere. The assets and textures fit nicely and moving around feels challenging but fun, though getting to the top of the lighthouse was finnicky. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how how to save the ships and was sort of blindly moving the light around doing my best (random guesses). I felt like a siren leading them to their doom, especially when I fell off the tower and couldn't get back up there in time and had to watch all the ships crash into the same spot. The mechanic of having to find fuel by destroying the ships feels a bit unsettling when you're also trying to save the ships. From the warmth of the scene and the music I gathered it's meant to be cosy, but the writing and the fuel harvesting mechanic felt like it's meant to be dark. That was actually an intriguing combo that made me think I might be in purgatory. With more polish I think it would be a really fun world to inhabit for longer.