FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD59 → Signalien

Signalien

By jnur

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2353.8431
Fun1443.8231
Innovation5733.1230
Theme734.3231
Graphics2834.0131
Audio5482.5531
Humor3313.0328
Mood4713.5530

Comments

pocketdog 2026-04-21 01:41

wow oregon trail vibes! The car is very cute btw

thomas-olsson 2026-04-21 08:30

Good job! I had fun playing this one with my 5 years old. He laughed hard at the explosions

jnur 2026-04-21 09:09

@pocketdog Thanks! It was a struggle to keep the car so simple, the urge to make it more detailed was strong. But having 16 separate sprites (one for each direction) was a pretty good deterrent there

@thomas-olsson Aww, that's so sweet, thanks! Nice to hear that all the time spent honing those animations paid off and brought joy to you

sebastianscaini 2026-04-21 13:08

Did I just storm area 51?? The driving felt great, I really enjoyed the game!

igorekkedziorek 2026-04-21 13:09

Amazing game, really love it

pocketdog 2026-04-21 13:11

No kidding, I'll play it again today. Yesterday, when I was sleepy, I really liked it, today I will like it even more

jnur 2026-04-21 13:40

@sebastianscaini Yeah, you better be careful around the feds now :wink: Thanks!

@igorekkedziorek Thanks!

@pocketdog Hah, nice to hear. I should've added a leaderboard, or even just a timer, just so you can keep track of your progress

rynti 2026-04-21 14:27

Haha loved the end animation. Great game, really enjoyed it. Had to retry once as I died just before the final goal, but really wanted to finish it =)

Really liked the graphics, and the concept is easy to understand and really well executed. Only gripe would be with audio, it was just a tad bit loud & annoying and I would've loved some music as well.

But nevertheless, overall a fantastic job!

jnur 2026-04-21 14:33

@rynti Thanks! I was worried that the concept would be tough to really onboard in such a short game, nice to hear that you found it easy to grasp. And yeah, I totally get what you mean with the annoying sounds. I didn't really pay sound effects that much attention until very late, so I basically had to decide between potentially annoying lofi and having no sound at all, so doing it like this felt like an easy choice. But I didn't have time to find a nice looping background music, or even a looping car engine sound, so now there's no background audio at all. Nice to hear that you liked it, even if the audio is a bit grating :wink:

divarium 2026-04-21 14:45

Simple and efficient game. I had fun, understood the asigment and have been imerced. Good game !

dywanix 2026-04-21 17:04

driving sometimes feel a bit hard but I like the idea

juanrod707 2026-04-21 17:35

Very cool entry! It gets challenging pretty soon, loved the graphics and overall vibe

viktor-kovachev 2026-04-21 22:57

It's really funny!

viktor-kovachev 2026-04-21 22:59

The idea is well-developed, and the car is very easy to control. I really like the tire marks. However, the sound is very loud.

raivk 2026-04-21 23:05

Pretty fun, cool ending, nicely scoped entry. You did quite well, the gameplay works well. The driving mechanic isn't really intuitive (mostly while going downward) but I got used to it after a while. Congrats!

snk 2026-04-22 16:17

Funny game overall! The bombing on the last step after catching the 3 signals was a bit scary haha. Graphically pleasing and hooked me! Nice job!

jnur 2026-04-22 21:15

@divarium @juanrod707 @viktor-kovachev Thanks!

@dywanix @raivk Yeah, creating satisfying and intuitive driving controls and physics is a pretty daunting task for a jam, especially top-down :sweat_smile: Even just deciding whether I want the camera to rotate with the car or not, and whether the controls steer the car left/right or you point to the direction you want to go. But as long as the player gets used to it, all is well in my books.

@snk Yeah balancing the bombs wasn't easy, it took even me myself quite a bit of practice until I could consistently beat the game on every try.

2026-04-23 04:51

As some already said, driving feels nice and graphics look great! Also loved the setting and the humor was right up my alley. The beeps could be a bit more subtle, but I understanding because we were all against the clock, especially considering you did all by yourself.

jnur 2026-04-23 07:06

@peak-vinnie Heh, yeah in retrospect finding license-free sound effects online might have been a better idea than generating my own 8-bit sounds.

soothsayer 2026-04-23 20:23

Neat little game, I thought it was a great integration of the theme. As others have said, only real complaint was the sound effects are pretty grating.

dylan-shumway 2026-04-24 01:22

Really neatly scoped project! The audio did keep me from really fully enjoying, but the driving mechanic was very satisfying. Well done and thanks for sharing! :smiley_cat:

venomousmouse 2026-04-24 07:30

Nice game. I like how the vehicle feels. Also had a bug, when started a game i had no sounds, but i reloaded the page and it fixed.

pipetto 2026-04-24 07:59

I liked the visual presentation, especially the tracks left by the vehicle. But I’m not a big fan of this kind of “tank-style” control - I prefer cars to move in the direction of the arrow keys.

2026-04-24 12:59

Straightforward, well executed. I think you could opt out of the humor category, not enough stuff to rate on it. Don't listen to people, tank-style controls fit right in

jnur 2026-04-24 15:49

@soothsayer @dylan-shumway Thanks for the feedback! Yeah the sounds are clearly not conveying the vibe I though they would, that has been noted :smile:

@venomousmouse Thanks! Probably your browser acting weirdly, it would be a really weird bug to have. But nice that it sorted itself out like that!

@pipetto I totally get that! I personally don't like that sort of control scheme for a top-down game, but each to their own

@not-d00mka You don't have to rate the game on that category if you don't think there's enough to rate it on that, I think it's more valuable to keep all he applicable categories and only opt-out of ones where pre-made assets were used :wink: And yeah I agree that these tank controls are the best fit here, as I wanted to keep the camera oriented the same way as the map and not rotate either one of them, and having car controls based on cardinal directions would be really clumsy on a keyboard. Every opetion has its own benefits and drawbacks, and I do still think this was the best fit here. It's a matter opininion in the end, really.

mrturtle 2026-04-24 21:43

Nicely executed, I really like the tire tracks and car visuals. Definitely agree that the tank controls work well here.

shernik 2026-04-25 16:52

It's very cool that the goal of the game changes over time, and the graphics are stylish. I had to make 5 full-fledged attempts to complete the game. Sometimes the places of the shots are not clearly visible and the shot occurs quite quickly.

irkar 2026-04-25 18:05

Nice simple art and i like how to feels control car but sounds a little noisy) also after find 3 signals game become too hard for me but in overall quite good. Nice job!Screenshot_20260425_210105.png

kahztein 2026-05-01 07:31

Fun little game! Perfect idea for a jam, quick to play, has a simple to learn gameplay loop with a little bit of skill, and has a proper ending as well.

I quickly figured out that just flooring it, especially after triangulating the position, was a bad idea. It's a bit tricky but going slow was all it really took to beat that last part.

Graphics were nice as well, I do agree with others that the sound was a bit loud and sharp on the ears, but with the volume low it wasn't that much of an issue.

I enjoyed it! Well done.

tomssuli 2026-05-01 18:00

That was quick fun. Simple retro soundscape and good clear pixelart. Everything was pretty clear from playing a couple of times and it took several tries to get through the game.

Difficulty curve was good as bombing got gradually more severe and when there really wasn't hurry, I realized stopping at times was a good tactic.

Fun minimal ending for a fun small game :)

prakkus 2026-05-08 22:55

Very cute! The tire tracks really sell it, along with the controls which felt surprisingly good to me. It was even properly punishing to hit a rock, but a way that felt realistic. I also appreciated that it's actual triangulation! It reminded me of my buddy telling me about tracking down bird transmitters out in the wilderness for science.