FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD59 → Hold The Signal

Hold The Signal

By dywanix and JuggerN4uti

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall6873.1560
Fun5943.1060
Innovation7402.7459
Theme6573.1959
Graphics7322.7560
Humor6421.9546
Mood8182.4554

Comments

2026-04-21 16:44

Nice idea

lemma 2026-04-21 16:46

The game wasn't able to finish loading for me. I might try again later.

crispypear 2026-04-21 16:50

I couldn't place another tower even after multiple rounds. Are there any controls i'm missing? I'll hold my rating until I know

astoeth 2026-04-21 16:52

Fun little twist on tower defence ! It's a bit misleading to write "R to rotate tower" while R actually restart the game though :laughing:

dywanix 2026-04-21 17:02

@lemma you should try to run in on itch.io @astoeth that bug should be already fixed! :) @crispypear we did a small bug fix so you can try it again

crispypear 2026-04-21 17:14

Cool game!

Making a tower defense in such a short amount of time is no small feat. I do wish the connection to the theme was a little stronger though. The part with the player having to move around to maintain the signal is great, but I wish it was built upon more. Currently the player pretty easily fills up the bar completely, and then interacts with the mechanic every once in a while. How could you make it more relevant throughout the game?

Wish you good luck!

croxx 2026-04-21 17:22

pretty standard TD where the only nod to the theme is defending a radio tower and some wifi boost zones. slow enemies, slow scrap income, not much happening on screen. would be more interesting if u could at least sell/reposition towers. not bad for a first jam entry tho, gg

penagwin 2026-04-21 17:23

The idea to have the player be able to run around and do things to enhance your towers is a unique idea, I think this idea has some legs and could be expanded on for sure!

I might suggest if you do a tower defense game again for a game jam, you implement a way to move the towers, or add a better visual indicator of how they work - because the players aren't familiar with them.

Overall great submission :D

lemma 2026-04-21 17:30

Tried this on itch.io, worked fine. It took me a bit to get a good defense going, but once I did, not a single enemy made it past my first few towers. It would be nice if there were more waves so I could really test it.

kazuren 2026-04-21 17:36

The graphics of the enemies were really good and the tower variation made it a bit more interesting.

The feedback I'd give is that the music felt a bit repetitive after a while and also the player felt like he was sliding on ice as you're walking which made movement not as smooth as it could be. Moreover I think some SFX on enemy death + the tower projectiles would make it feel more fun.

alyd-asmar 2026-04-21 17:40

Very cool idea! I love tower defense games, and having something to do while waiting for the enemies to drop cash was a nice addition! :laughing: Cool take on the theme. I played for like 15 minutes and had fun. Of course some QOL features could be added, like my first tower of the second type was completely misplaced because I had no idea of how it was shooting, but eh, that's part of the fun of jam games :tada: Congrats!

anku 2026-04-21 19:02

I’m not usually a fan of tower defense games, but this one was easy to understand and felt intuitive. There’s a bit of an unexpected difficulty spike after the fourth wave, which caught me off guard. Still, it’s definitely the kind of game you can get pleasantly absorbed in for 5-10 minutes.

2026-04-21 19:09

Great idea for rephrasing tower defenses, where it makes sense for the player to move around the map. However, the second tower seems unbalanced. Yes, increasing the price when purchasing a new one somewhat solves this, but even so, the first tower is losing; it's too far behind, or I misread the damage.

2026-04-21 19:09

Great idea for rephrasing tower defenses, where it makes sense for the player to move around the map. However, the second tower seems unbalanced. Yes, increasing the price when purchasing a new one somewhat solves this, but even so, the first tower is losing; it's too far behind, or I misread the damage.

fassenberg 2026-04-21 19:14

A cute and engaging tower defense game, thanks!

rinzu 2026-04-21 20:12

It’s a great idea to think of this as a tower defense game. I liked the graphics in the game. The game wouldn’t load on the Ludum Dare page, so I played it on itch.io.

ao-85 2026-04-21 21:49

Wow, a new take on tower defense! I feel like this is exactly what was missing the ability to walk around and build structures, hahaha. It’s a really cool concept and mechanic. The only thing I didn’t quite understand was what the zones and signals do. But overall, great idea I really enjoyed it!

2026-04-22 01:25

游戏很好玩,但是需要数值再平衡一下

pocketdog 2026-04-22 02:08

awesome tower defense

Безымянныddvй.png

ternarycat 2026-04-22 02:25

It's the nice one, i was enjoied. But to me was strange adding rotating mechanic only for one tower, first time i thought it's broken, only on replay i realized that i must rotate it. To me win strategy is make first and second towers in the begining and then spam green towers just because they make area damage. Well done!

dan-whiffing 2026-04-22 03:10

A little bit slow, a bit frustrating having to pick between currency and standing in wifi signals, since I can't tell how much signal is helping my damage. Always appreciate a speed up button in tower defense games, and I think currency should be auto collected. Good job participating and finishing a TD game!

mekuire 2026-04-22 06:14

It's your typical tower defense game; I didn't see anything special about it. It's not entirely clear what the signal charge does. It takes an agonizingly long time to accumulate money, and if you place a turret in the wrong spot, you might as well consider that money lost.

universeflow 2026-04-22 06:44

I'm actually surprised there are so many "signal tower" games but that there aren't more tower defense games in this jam. At first I didn't realize you have to stay in the circles to increase your signal. I like the idea of having a stronger signal to increase your towers' strength, but I wish the signal mechanic was incorporated more in some way, not just moving to a certain location.

goodwayman 2026-04-22 09:19

Cool TD idea! I like the mechanic to stay in a circle to increase the signal strength. However, I wasn't able to build a second tower for a long time, because I didn't have enough credits (this aspect needs some balancing I think). Overall, solid entry!

caelestial 2026-04-22 09:21

Nice tower defense game for a Signal theme, enjoyed playing it. Add description for towers, how they work <3

shivvvy 2026-04-22 09:48

A very interesting tower defense game, but it would be helpful if the signal tower’s range could be shown before placement. With the third signal tower, I only realized after placing it that it doesn’t reach my road at all. 🤔

sodaman 2026-04-22 18:34

I think it's a great idea that can be developed further with a few tweaks, also money should be gained faster I believe, otherwise good!

zozieee 2026-04-22 19:13

Fun little tower defense. I like the music and the gameplay was enjoyable, even if it felt a little slow to earn money.

vydra 2026-04-22 19:16

I don't like tower difference a lot but this game have interesting update for genre. And I like it.

hi-im-greg 2026-04-22 19:35

Nice little spin on a tower defence game, my biggest feedback is that it seemed to take a long time to get the scrap to get other towers, would have been nice if that came in a bit faster so I felt like I had more stuff to build. Also would have been good to see what the stats of the towers were so I could make more of a choice prior to building it.

Overall, was a nice and simple little fun game. Moving around the signal points gave me purpose beyond standing there like in a lot of tower defense games.

gkthegkpchannel 2026-04-23 03:40

neat game, my only gripe is a lack of sound effects, especially for those circles

digital-bacon 2026-04-23 11:11

Interesting way to mash the theme and TD genre together (not normally my type of game, but I enjoyed this one). A hint as to what each of the towers did would be good, as well as sound effects to accompany the towers' firing and enemies' dying.

Excellent work -- well done!

myezko 2026-04-23 14:24

this is amazing, never thought i would see a TD game here

emmatw 2026-04-23 18:26

I had fun with this, the additional mechanic of building up the signal worked really well for this genre!

krawa 2026-04-24 19:07

You did a great job!

wormkingboo 2026-04-24 22:14

I love tower defense games - had a lot of fun with this one! It was simple, but with nice difficulty/reward scaling. I could definitely sink a lot of time into this :) And the need to move around to keep the signal was a nice way to keep it interesting and incorporate the theme. I had one part where I got stuck running up, but that resolved before I died. Great game!Screenshot 2026-04-24 171430.png

2026-04-25 09:13

Great tower defense, I managed to beat the game on my second try, I just need an endless mode so I could build up the entire map

jpat 2026-04-25 14:36

Nice work getting a tower defense built in a jam! The signal-zone mechanic is a cool idea on paper, but I found it a little hard to engage with: once my signal bar filled up, I mostly just stood by my towers waiting for scrap. Speeding up the economy and giving the signal a more active role (maybe it drains faster, or different zones do different things?) could make the mechanic deeper or more meaninful. Also some tower tooltips and range previews before placing would go a long way. Good submission!

mikan 2026-04-25 21:28

The concept of increasing attack speed by accumulating signal energy is very novel. The effect, range, and value of the towers are not clear. I need to make a first mistake to know that the second tower is a straight attack, and I don't even know the effect of the third tower after the game ends

Snipaste_2026-04-26_05-25-18.PNG

venomousmouse 2026-04-26 09:35

I like TD's. In general the idea is very good.

pipetto 2026-04-28 10:35

Overall, it turned out to be a solid piece of work. It’s great that you added a bit of interactivity with upgrading towers by moving along highlighted points.

The game has potential, but there are areas that need further development. For example, at some point you end up with too much money, and the towers kill enemies before they even reach the middle of the path. As a result, the currency becomes meaningless and the gameplay starts to feel a bit tedious to watch.

Balancing is always challenging, so best of luck with further development!

2026-04-30 14:02

I liked that game, it was engaging and I liked the fact that I had to pay attention to the signal, in order to boost the damage. It was a bit unclear how much damage each type of the tower does and how they work, but that can be easily resolved by adding a short instruction before the game begins, but I learned pretty quickly the differences between each tower.

I could definitely spend more time playing this game, it was fun, wish I could play it longer, in order to fill the entire map with towers. XD