steveofstevesgames 2026-04-21 15:21
That is a very cool game, the fuel makes it quite hard. A puzzle game that seems like a cool space exploration game. Its hard to get past 6.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Captain Distress
By M.Kusy, hexstart and LittleMayBee
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 252 | 3.81 | 24 | |
| Fun | 321 | 3.52 | 23 | |
| Innovation | 321 | 3.54 | 24 | |
| Theme | 385 | 3.82 | 25 | |
| Graphics | 277 | 4.02 | 25 | |
| Audio | 159 | 3.89 | 25 | |
| Humor | 518 | 2.50 | 23 | |
| Mood | 244 | 3.93 | 25 |
That is a very cool game, the fuel makes it quite hard. A puzzle game that seems like a cool space exploration game. Its hard to get past 6.
It feels like a golf game, haha. Nice one! Middle mouse click doesn't work well with logitech MX2S because it is mechanically tied to scroll wheel. I need to change the binding to play your game. Great entry though, well done.
very nice game controls, comfortable and beautiful movement. of the minuses it is not very clear where to go the distance is written as an example
@flowerfield-games thanks for letting me know, we uploaded a hotfix build, which doesn't use middle click at all.
I enjoyed playing this and a nice gameplay loop with the fuel and travelling to planets. Good Job :)
I like the mood and vibe. Great game!
I absolutely love this art style—it’s so emotionally powerful! It would be even better if the elements were a bit more intense!
Pretty fun game, the flight system was very interesting! Great work!
I love the style and mood of this game :) it's a cool puzzle
Nice looking game with good audio, a little frustrating that going to the fuel costs so much, if you fail a quest then you're almost sure to run out in the next few jumps. Anyway I had fun so thank you for that! great job
Fantastic entry. I did sit here for half an hour trying to figure out the best routes. Classic travelling salesman problem.
Graphics are fantastic. The generated text is great. Sounds and music are fantastic. This is what I expect from Tano.
Well done all! Great little loop!
Screenshot 2026-04-24 203127.png
awesome!!!
Really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to play this game [on stream.](https://www.youtube.com/live/EVIN76_gvMg?t=133s)
I am no stranger to Tano games and the talent of this dev team really shines in their latest project. The kind of quality you come to expect from a veteran LDJammers! Chef's kiss. 👌
(comment 1/2)
There was one thing that drew me into checking this game out: the colour purple. And even though what piqued my interest was something very shallow, I'm glad I checked this one out. I played the Hotfix build.
It might be strange, but what stood out to me most about this game is the UI. The text was very clean and easy to read, there were a lot of good indicators for the planets and their distances from where the player is at, along with the previous distance. If I had to nitpick one thing, I would have liked to see bold text applied to the yellow for the distress beacon messages. With yellow and white having a lower contrast ratio to one another, it would help players who may not be able to see low contrast as well to distinguish the emphasized text in another matter that is not just colour.
I appreciate the elaborate settings menu. I found I didn't have to mess with it too much, but I'm glad it was there.
The controls were simple and easy to understand, which made it easy to focus on building up the skill of the actual gameplay. During my gameplay, I was curious if fuel was going to cost extra for going longer distances, but that didn't seem to be the case. However, it made sense from a gameplay standpoint since the limited placement of the fuel station and funds balances out the difficulty. It was easy to want to replay this multiple times to discover the names of the planets and their appearances. I even threw a couple of times just to go to super far distances to see what other planets were out there. I also enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the gameplay, figuring out from the message clues and the distances to pinpoint the location of these ships to be rescued.
Captain Distress screenshot 03.png
A puzzle game where you have to manage your own limited resources seems pretty straightforward, however, I do like that this entry is not so much focused on the journey between the planets and treats it more like a tactical turn-based sort of game.
A game about responding to signals fits the theme just fine for me. I do like that in the game over, you end up being the one having to send out signals yourself, which does give this feeling of continuity to retries where the distress signals you're responding to feel as though they are a previous player's "attempts".
The game has a nice colour palette. I like the appearance of many of the planets and the details on the ship. If there's one thing I would have liked to see, graphics-wise, it would be animations. I don't think it needs to be flashy or anything, but it would have been nice to see some lights on the ship, maybe some tints on certain planets - some smaller animations to make the game feel a little more immersive.
(comment 2/2)
I like that the menu theme is the backing to the main game theme. It leads to a neat seamless experience when starting the main game itself.
The main game music is lowkey with just the right amount of energy fitting for this kind of exploration game. It has just the right vibe to not wear out after multiple listens - in fact, I've left the game running in the background this entire time while writing up this review. I particularly like the sound design, specifically the soft keys and the little fading pads that kind of get panned as they fade out. This music is a good background track that you can do other things to, and I think it serves its purpose in the game well. I see picusmajor has a Bandcamp, so hopefully we will see this game's soundtrack on there soon.
Most of the sfx are good, though I will say that the distress sound - when you first get a message - seems quite loud compared to the other sfx like menu interaction sounds. It seems a bit like a creature and I found it jumped out to me distractingly. While there is an sfx slider in the settings, turning it down would make the other "normal" level sfx too quiet to hear.
Generally, the audio feels a bit on the quiet side, even with all the in-game settings maxed out. I had to turn up the game's volume quite a bit in my own headphones.
The game did not seem all the humourous to me. The most I could think of would be in some of the dialogue being amusing, but it mostly just seemed like people who were in distress.
The music primarily carries the mood here. I love the look of the "outer space". The details are what help to also set the atmosphere and complement the music. Again, I do think some idle animations (as described in Graphics) could help with the mood/immersion a bit more, but for the most part, the graphics, music and gameplay complement each other.
@random-storykeeper thank you for the elaborate feedback!
Regarding the game over distress signal - early on there was this idea to allow the player to post a nickname and describe their final position, and then have it show up for other players to rescue. Obviously that didn't make it in, and what remains is only how the game over message is worded. Glad you noticed it ^^
Really cool game! Nice art style and relaxing soundtrack. Just saw it another guy playing yet, but i will give it a try at home.
This is a good game! I really like the concept and art & audio are also great! At the beginning I couldn't jump and I wasn't sure why, but I guess it was because a planet was blocking my path. Maybe some kind of indication if the jump path is blocked might be helpful.
@le-don thanks! The path should already become red when it's blocked.
The game has a very interesting style.
I love the concept, art and soundtrack are lovely. Maybe you should balance the fuel regen in space station.
Overall a strong good entry!