yueyao-wang 2026-04-20 02:18
Interesting mechanic! It would work a lot better with a clearer UI, and the sound are a little sharp too
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Signal Box！
By deng
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 245 | 3.07 | 23 | |
| Fun | 222 | 2.92 | 23 | |
| Innovation | 43 | 3.86 | 24 | |
| Theme | 151 | 3.65 | 22 | |
| Graphics | 271 | 2.50 | 24 | |
| Audio | 209 | 2.67 | 22 | |
| Humor | 1.96 | 16 | ||
| Mood | 265 | 2.50 | 20 |
Interesting mechanic! It would work a lot better with a clearer UI, and the sound are a little sharp too
The mechanics are quite innovative, though the level design could be further refined. It might be worth considering how to better allow players to utilize the mechanics to achieve the level objectives.
The box movement is very smooth and the controls feel great. It would be even better if you could improve the interactive feedback.
@yukimiitsuka yes I realize a big trouble is I spent too much time on mechanic realization and some border debugs, at last I don't have any time to design the levels. By the way, I want to make a game that prefer battle rather than puzzle initially. I should find some way to study game design and mechanic guidance, do you have any recommendations?
@jacat Thanks! I will pay more attention to the interactive feedback.
Pretty hard to learn, the mechanic is complex and interesting. Having high hp made it a lot more lenient, and sometimes I can find a way out just by randomly trying things. Personally I feel if player only has 1 or 3 hp, the level could be made easier but requires player to think more. And you can make very elegant puzzles that way. It would be more focused on the puzzle than the battle. I think solving puzzle better suits this kind of games. But I don't know, maybe it could also be battle focused and also very fun. Great work on making a complex system! Very interesting and fits perfectly into the theme.
Interesting and inspiring mechanics!! Could be of better completeness if the graphics improved. Love it overall!
@yueyao-wang thx! I learn a lot from your game on UI and hints.
@absolute-garbage Thankyou very much! You give me lots inspiration on how to develop my game after ld. The version right now aims to hold players and try to let them experience more mechanics that I designed, so I give loose value on battle. Q(Quick mode) has the same aim.
I believe adding enemies makes the game much more dynamic and varied, keeping it from feeling as tedious as traditional Sokoban puzzles that often have only one strict solution.
The 'Pusher' also feels like it would be a really fun character. For example, in Level 3, if you don't use B+P and just simply push, you end up getting stuck in an infinite loop of pushing back and forth with the pusher.
Perhaps a future direction for level design could be requiring players to use boxes as weapons to eliminate enemies—making sure not to push them into a dead end—and then finally pushing the boxes to the goal.
However, keeping some pure puzzle levels is definitely still necessary. Moving forward, another design direction could be making walls act as more than just movement restrictions; combined with the signal delay boundaries, it will really force players to carefully plan their routes.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
The mechanics are very interesting! I feel that the level design is very potential, but the introduction of new mechanics in the first few levels is a bit fast, making it difficult to understand the purpose of skill set in the beginning.
@graphene Yes, you pointed out another crucial level design issue! I actually considered adding practice levels between the tutorial stages to let players master the skills they just learned. However, due to the jam's time constraints and knowing that playtesters might not finish the entire game, I wanted to front-load the more interesting mechanics to show them off earlier.
I will definitely focus on polishing the pacing and level flow in future development. Thanks for playing!
This is very good for a first time entry. The signal delay feature is a nice puzzle element and the graphics, although basic, do clearly show what is going on. I think the battle mechanic could be really fun if fleshed out.
@alex-mulkerrin Thanks for the encouragement! I'll definitely be taking notes from your puzzle level design!
It's a nice puzzle game. I spent some times with levels and I arrive at level 7. The mechanics was complex at first but with time I understood and I enjoyed the game.
To me, the signal delay feature was more enjoyable as a combat mechanic rather than a puzzle element (but the puzzle part of it is not bad either !), but I still really liked it
Interesting
This is very innovative, though I will have to agree that the mechanics are a bit too complex. I would actually like to see this as a pure puzzle game without enemies. I think a slower and smoother introduction into mechanics, their combinations and parity would be a bit nicer. But all in all, very good idea with lots of potential!
to be honest i haven't understood control completely, it was hard for me(
The enemies were more likely to end the game by boxing me in so I couldn't move than by taking my HP to zero.
I tried to solve the box puzzles in the rooms with enemies, but the enemy behavior didn't seem predictable enough for that to be worthwhile vs simply killing them all.
It's pretty good. Hard to understand at first, but I got it in the end.
The graphics are not overly complex but very clear! Each step is accompanied by hints and explanations, though it does take a bit of time to understand. It is very much in line with the theme of signals. It's great to have achieved such a level of completion on the first try! Looking forward to your future works.