FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD59 → Lost Crab in the Great Sand Labyrinth

Lost Crab in the Great Sand Labyrinth

By alpaca and

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2273.8539
Fun704.0239
Innovation1123.9039
Theme8252.1639
Graphics5523.4840
Audio2643.6739
Humor3752.8734
Mood3423.7638

Comments

roccay 2026-04-21 10:33

Such a cool idea! It feels like Pac-Man with tiles-swapping. Super intense, and it really pushes me to think and react fast. Great work!

uvwar 2026-04-21 19:55

Last level got me for a bit but I finally won! Very clever game and felt like I was in the cabbage-colored gameboy dimension, very fun!

val-ociraptor 2026-04-21 21:01

really immersive game that balances puzzles and urgency incredibly well! the music, limited palette and scope of the levels really kept me locked in until i finished the whole thing!

2026-04-21 23:40

Cool crab, and the visual part of the game!

elbapotsnugg 2026-04-21 23:47

Great concept and very snappy gameplay. Took me a bit to get the controls (unfortunately don't have a controller). I'm not really getting the tie-in to the theme, but great game nonetheless

kintsugi 2026-04-21 23:48

Really cool idea, that was unusual and fresh. But i didnt quite get where is Signal theme

2inkling 2026-04-21 23:52

Really love the idea of rearranging a piece puzzle to prevent an enemy from reaching you in real time. Controls took a bit to figure out, but once I did the experience was smooth sailing. Progression and level design is really just excellent!

t-c 2026-04-21 23:56

Really liked the mechanics in this one. Very clever, and programmed well. Bug free from my experience, even in weird corner cases where a racoon is halfway onto a new square. All worked exactly how I'd hope/expect. So, very good job.

Really dug the music, sound effects, and the effects in general when you're in the edit mode. Combined that really hit the sweet spot of satisfaction when playing a video game. I am jealous of how good this aspect of your game is.

Some levels felt cheesable, or that you only needed a couple of squares to work, but that kind of just added to the clever feeling you get when you reach the goal. I really dug the slow down mechanic. Don't really see how it fits the theme, but who cares, the game is very good. 48 hours too? Fantastic. Look forward to seeing if you do more ludum dares in the future. Cheers.

hammy275 2026-04-21 23:57

This gameplay is super unique and tons of fun! I really appreciate the balance of puzzle levels and the more "quickly dodge the racoons" type levels. Bouncing back and forth between the two lets your brain rest from puzzle thinking while you do a more action-y level, then you can switch back to a puzzle later! I also especially like how where in the tile you are plays into the rest of the puzzle, especially with how it helps guide you to which key gates you need to open.

The sound design is uniquely great, I appreciate the music used when you're in "tile moving mode", it gives a very nice feel for what you're doing. Graphics are dead simple, but they're only what they need to be to be great! I think I would have personally preferred more color versus a Gameboy-esque green, but that's personal preference more than anything.

Thank you for such a fun game! These types of puzzles usually aren't my thing, but in a jam-sized game like this, I had an absolute blast!

gryxitl 2026-04-22 01:36

Once I realized what I could do in the game it clicked and became a really interesting experience. I love the audio changes when you swap modalities.

oxnh 2026-04-22 04:26

Really fun game with good levels and controls. I like the music that played when you switch rooms around too, I wish I could listen to that when I'm in crab mode instead of the drone.

jacobloon 2026-04-22 22:28

Super fun, and the tile movement felt extremely satisfying especially when exiling a group of raccoons to the corner of the map.

2026-04-23 13:50

We made some updates: - Improved keyboard controls - remove a bug people were experiencing with the Enter/Return key putting the game in a weird paused state - Lowered the drone/ambient volume as some found it too loud and uncomfortable

Thank you all for the great feedback :)

We are very happy many of you are having such a wonderful time with our game!

animaster 2026-04-24 00:50

A great idea, excellent puzzle design, and very appealing visuals. I really enjoyed it. It was a bit hard to see how the concept ties into the theme, but the theme itself was quite open to interpretation. In the end, I just enjoyed a very well-crafted puzzle, great work!

irkar 2026-04-24 10:27

I liked the game - it’s simple and easy to understand; the crab sounds are the bestphoto_2026-04-24_13-25-51.jpg

eric-nguyen 2026-04-24 17:24

Super fun and ambitious idea. The audio and visuals are all on point! I really enjoyed the puzzles. Also huge bonus points for writing this in Odin. I didn't even know raylib could export to web, I gotta try that out next LD! Great submission.

2026-04-24 18:20

@eric-nguyen Thanks! We made good progress in this jam because of a feature we had in an initial base repository, as well as how we did the level editing:

- We use hot reloading heavily. Most of the time, we keep the game running while making gameplay code changes. We can make compiled code changes reflect near instantly without needing to restart or reinitialize the game in most cases - Our level editor is a live level editor embedded in the game so we can also edit the game in real time without needing to switch between a level editing mode and a game mode. There are a few places we add code conditionally for levels such as placing the "DANGER" image in the first raccoon level, as well as not displaying UI for zooming in and out before level 3. Also, when we ship the web build, we just turn off the block of code that runs tilemap editor logic.

Thank you for your kind words. Hope you enjoy using it for the next jam! :)

hammerfrenzy 2026-04-24 18:46

Polished and one of the more unique games I've come across this jam. I do agree the theme isn't 100% there but there's no denying this is well executed.

metalim 2026-04-24 19:49

Nice concept and sound design. Expected level to freeze while editing, though

valentinwb 2026-04-24 20:44

This was such a fun experience, I really liked the level design, the sound design and music were very nice too ! Congrats guys !

bumble 2026-04-24 20:57

The art, sound and the game play fit really well together. Feels like you had some time to polish this entry!

What I like in particular is the slow motion while moving the tiles, which never removes the urgency to actually do stuff and makes the puzzle aspect way more interesting.

dennis 2026-04-25 14:49

Super cool Puzzel game

nerdyherbivore 2026-04-25 20:25

Love the gameplay, really innovative!

revetoon 2026-04-25 22:51

Very impressive level design! especially the last level which is my favorite :grin: Nice idea, I like the audio effects and the illustrations. Having a reminder of the controls displayed in-game was very good too (a rare occurence in gamejam games ^^)

caeonosphere 2026-04-25 23:07

No comments section is complete without one of these:

crab.png

Like some other commenters, I think the connection to the theme could have been stronger. But also like many commenters, I think it's a nicely executed puzzle. The funky little crab walk groove creates a nice vibe. Would love to this expanded with more mechanics!

alex-de-la-cour 2026-04-26 11:14

What a game! Definitely one of my top picks of this jam. The mechanic was super well thought out and executed, and the levels were all difficult enough to make me use my brain but not so tough that I wanted to give up. Love the pixel art as well.

Screenshot 2026-04-26 121315.png

mamboman 2026-04-27 09:27

Very nice game! Really enjoyed it, thank you! Very clever combination of game play mechanisms. I had trouble using my controller though (a cheap no name controller). I ended up using my keyboard to walk around and the controller to press a and go into the arrange window. Nonetheless the game was a lot of fun!

atmospherium 2026-04-27 16:55

Super well designed. The progression of difficulty was satisfying and the solutions took some creative thought without getting too convoluted. The raccoons added an urgency to the solve, but were usually able to be held off in a corner somewhere. It was a very engaging and immersive experience with very well-suited art and audio. Great work.

mekuire 2026-04-29 08:53

A great puzzle game. At first, I wasn't sure how to swap the rooms, but I figured it out quickly. The game has simple, pleasant graphics and soothing sounds that aren't annoying. The puzzles are interesting, too. Great job!

2026-05-03 07:55

This was really well done, but the connection to the theme was so thin, you might as well have made this game for another Ludum Dare. This fits the theme "shapeshift" better than "signal". I don't think you cheated and started a months early, but this is the best gameplay so far combined with the worst take on the theme.

euler-moises 2026-05-07 01:00

I loved your game. Even in its simplicity, it proved to be very challenging and fun. This aspect of building the path isn't an original idea, but I'd never seen one where the enemies walk while you're building it.

I think it would be more eye-catching if it were colorful. What was the reason for choosing this color scheme?

I made sure to finish it. It's on my "Coolest LD59 Games" list.

Congratulations!

Sem título.png

mikan 2026-05-07 15:09

Fun realtime action puzzle.

My playthrough: https://youtu.be/4bfdW_1TgWo

2026-05-09 00:55

@euler-moises We chose this color scheme because we do not consider ourselves artists so wanted a simple color palette to work with, plus we thought it looked cool and was a throwback to the gameboy era.

Glad you thought it was cool :) thanks for playing!