Signal Spark

t-c 2026-04-21 04:26

Edit: There was a 1.0 updated with a minor fix it looks like, and most of my criticism is at least partially addressed by the interface.

I really like the idea behind this one. Jumping between towers, finding targets, and ordering commands is a cool mechanic and take on the theme. That being said, there are a few things I think that could make the game far more readable and playable.

I'd like there to be some kind of indication if you're in "targeting" or "ordering" mode. I often found myself just guessing which one I was in, and trying a second time if nothing happened. Maybe alternating the color of the spark when you hit space bar? Additionally, I think the zoom is very unforgiving. Oftentimes it felt like I had no other tower targets in my sight radius, so I had to blindly guess where to launch myself.

That being said, launching yourself is super satisfying, as is seeing your pawns mow down enemies. Getting them all working towards an objective is super satisfying. I like the style, and especially the effect on the spark.

I wasn't sure what actually triggered this, but I did get one successful repair in. I noticed one of my pawns holding something, and managed to move them back to the ship, which updated the progress. But I was not sure where to go/what to do to get more stuff used to repair. Some kind of tutorialization/feedback would have helped me here for sure.

Anyways, super cool seeing what you managed to assemble for this game jam! Cool idea and execution.

tsaot 2026-04-21 05:29

Yeah, I turned the HUD off to generate the art and forgot to turn it back on when exporting the first time. The HUD is on now. I think I could tweak the tower layout a bit to make the level better.

I had to toss out plenty of ideas to make it in time. I wanted to have dialog that acted out a story, health bars and direction indicators in the hud for the squad, and a lot more level art. I was going to have the pawns hop, but is said, "forget it, they're pawns. They slide."

2026-04-21 21:04

Very cool implementation of the theme

miclefirst 2026-04-21 21:05

Well, jumping between towers was an interesting part of the game, and I also enjoyed watching how NPCs build their movement paths, but aside from that, nothing else really worked properly. So unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fully grasp the idea.

It would be interesting to try again if you plan to release an update

2026-04-21 21:15

It took me a bit to figure out the controls but when i realized what i could do i was pretty impressed :D The pathfinding and AI is actually pretty cool and jumping around was also fun.

acartlidge 2026-04-23 23:30

Fascinating control scheme, it was easy to grasp the jumping part but the swapping modes and getting orders part was confusing initially. I dont think it needed to be different modes just something like press space to highlight a target. But jumping around between different stations was really fun and I had fun also just trying to fling myself in an unknown direction and see if I got something or I died lol. Nice work!

tsaot 2026-04-23 23:57

@acartlidge Yeah, in retrospect, I think I need to do something like what you were saying, or make the left and right mouse buttons handle the signaling and maybe the spacebar for jumping.

@silky Oddly enough, the red pathfinding lines was an accident. I'm just using the baked in pathfinding in Godot and didn't realize that it would leave the debug lines on when exporting the game. I think it's better with the pathfinding lines visible, though.

I'm kinda proud with how the running from damage worked out. When they get hit by a blob projectile, they will make a short path in the opposite direction of where they are aiming, and they aim at the closest blob. I feel like seeing those lines change from the initial path to run away I think helps show that.

tsaot 2026-04-23 23:59

@miclefirst I think you're victim of my confusing control scheme. I've been discussing changes I can do with @t-c and I think I'll do them this weekend and post an updated version (but keep the current version for voting integrity).

yuriscat 2026-04-24 08:32

Looks like a fun game, I'm downloading the zip right now. Just wanted to stop by and mention that the itch.io link seems to be broken?

cardboard-box 2026-04-25 10:29

Itch project gone!

cardboard-box 2026-04-25 10:33

Felt confusing at first, but there's definitely a game here.

Pro tip: try not to upload debug builds, all the debugging things consume performance too

evil23 2026-04-25 11:00

Link to HTML5 is dead.

tsaot 2026-05-01 04:49

@evil23 @cardboard-box Itch fixed. Itch was being buggy when I originally uploaded and apparently, they decided it was a draft after they fixed their end. It's published now.

wouterk12 2026-05-01 07:33

Really cool mechanics, well done!

attentionadmin 2026-05-01 10:28

Reminds me of my game :)

ijzm 2026-05-02 19:13

Interesting mechanic, didn't understand it at first. Pretty fun but could use a bit of a better UX, a bit too hard to understand

vicebrother 2026-05-08 02:20

interesting mechanic and unique!

prakkus 2026-05-08 05:28

Mad props for ambition on this one, this is a lot to tackle for a jam and you almost pulled it off! I didn't manage to make much progress but that you got that this much RTS in, and the targeting and shooting and all that works, was satisfying to play around with its own right. In terms of the controls, this does feel like one of those cases where trying to fit the theme ends up making for a worse experience, but I also think that's part of the fun of these things.

2026-05-08 08:47

The gameplay is very simple and easy to learn. I feel that I can quickly find enjoyment in such a game. An interesting and excellent game during the design process

skleembof 2026-05-08 19:13

Great and very unique concept, but the implementation needs some work. I found it difficult to tell whether I was in send or select message mode, and it wasn't clear at first what you meant by 'pick up a message'. This made issuing orders feel unresponsive.

The jumping between towers thing is an awesome idea, and I really like how the limited field of view forces you to frequently jump around the map to explore. What I didn't like was how imprecise the jumping felt. Clicking on a tower worked fine, but if I clicked in empty space, it would just jump to some far off tower in the distance.

I think you should make it clear where the player is going to jump and also add some reasonable limits to the jumping distance. Maybe you can add a power level and limit jumping to towers that have electricity. Sending your pawns out to fix or connect towers to the grid would increase your jumping distance and allow you to explore the map.

Of course playtesting, fine tuning, and exploring a concept during a 3 day jam is very difficult, and you managed to create a very impressive entry in the limited time.