ONE BAR by BadPinkChicken 2026-04-19T10:24:48Z
Cool concept
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Andrian
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 59 | Signal | 👥 | Save the Cat | jam | 789 | 2.81 | 2.67 | 2.86 | 3.38 | 2.31 | 3.21 |
Cool concept
Can't open any linksI really want to try your game, but I’m having some technical trouble. All I see is a single white line in the middle of a black screen
I finally managed to play it! The browser versions didn't work at all for me, so I downloaded the PC build instead. Once I figured out the symbols on the walls and floor, everything clicked and the gameplay became much smoother. I’d love to see even more challenging puzzles in the future! Also, the rat analogy is just brilliant!
Great use of UE5! Massive respect for taking the time to strip out unnecessary plugins and optimize the build size — it really makes a difference. Hunting for the different targets was genuinely engaging. Solid work!
"This game feels like an official release! Everything is so polished and high-quality. I really enjoyed the simple yet addictive gameplay — the character controls are super smooth, and there were just enough enemies to keep dodging them fun and engaging.
I’m not sure which engine you used, but the graphics look like they might have been custom-built with OpenGL. If so, that’s incredibly impressive!
And of course, I’m thrilled to see such amazing results from my fellow countrymen. Greetings from Ukraine! 🇺🇦"
In my honest opinion, this is one of the coolest games of this jam! It feels incredibly polished—the camera movement is smooth, and both the animations and sound design are top-tier. I really appreciated how intuitive the controls felt, thanks to the subtle tutorial cues from NPCs and the UI. The puzzles were engaging and fun to solve. My only minor gripe was the key bindings; I'm so used to jumping with the Spacebar! Still, an amazing entry. Great job!
The art is amazing, and I really enjoyed the signal recording mechanic! However, I’m struggling to get a good ending—or at least one that isn't so terrifying, haha. Could you give me a little hint on how to reach a better outcome? I’d love to see more of what this game has to offer!
"The RC car concept is awesome. I used to spend hours playing with these as a kid! The movement feels incredibly fluid and smooth. Really enjoyed the vibe of this one."
This horror game actually reminded me of my ex... so the atmosphere is definitely terrifying! Haha. But seriously, the art style is incredible. I'm honestly not sure how you achieved this look—I'd love to read a devlog or a technical breakdown about the shaders and the art pipeline. Amazing work!
Cool artwork and gameplay
I really enjoyed the gameplay! It’s simple, easy to get into, and provides just enough fun to keep you hooked. I loved the sense of progression, and the final goal is great with such a wholesome message—working hard to save up for a birthday present is a lovely touch. Great work!
I absolutely loved the theme of this game. In my opinion, it’s one of the most original entries I've seen so far, and it fits the jam's theme perfectly! Even though the game turned out to be quite difficult for me due to my terrible drawing skills, I’ll definitely come back to it once I’ve practiced a bit more. Great job!
Cool art! The animations look very polished, and the audio is top-notch as well. The game isn't easy and takes a bit of time to get used to, but it's worth the effort. Great job on the overall presentation!
This game gave me some serious 'We Were Here' vibes, which is exactly why I decided to play it. Communicating through signal patterns is such a brilliant idea! I had so much fun trying to interact and talk with this 'monster.' Truly a unique experience!
Using a sine wave to control the spaceship is such a cool and creative idea! Really clever implementation of the 'Signal' theme. Great job!
Very cool graphics. Love puzzle part of the gameplay.
I really appreciate the technical side of this project. 2D Global Illumination with Holographic Radiance Cascades is truly high-level stuff, especially running on Vulkan! The bloom looks fantastic too — I'm a big fan of well-executed bloom in games. Incredible tech work!
The trading mechanics are really interesting! I can see this evolving into a great economic strategy game. One tip: you might want to polish yours game page a bit more to catch the eye of more players
I really enjoyed playing as a signal officer! As a former military person myself, I truly appreciated the theme and how you handled it. It felt engaging and resonant. Great job!
Really enjoyed the humor in this one! It definitely gave me a good laugh
I absolutely loved the joke about people wearing tinfoil hats! It’s those little humorous touches that give the game so much personality. Really fun entry, great job!
Cool game! This is exactly the kind of thing that would be a blast to play online with friends or even stream on Twitch. I love it when developers take an original approach to the shooter genre. Also, the use of Depth of Field was a great touch—it. Nice work!
"It’s really cool to see a tactical game made for a game jam with an art style that reminds me of 80s arcades. Such a unique combination! The visuals look great. Well done!"
The game has a really intriguing, mysterious atmosphere! The setup with running out of gas and arriving at the station definitely pulled me in. I did find the gameplay and UI a bit challenging to navigate at first, so some extra 'quality of life' tweaks would really help the player stay immersed in the story. Still, a very moody and interesting concept! Great job getting it finished for the jam
This game reminds me a lot of Sebastian Lauge’s YouTube series. I highly recommend checking out his videos on space and terraforming! The idea of growing trees on a moon-like surface is brilliant. The Stranger Things soundtrack added an epic feel to the atmosphere, and the voice acting was spot on. However, the key bindings felt a bit off for me. Other than that, it’s a great entry!
This game really reminded me of my university days studying circuit design (schematics). The interface is top-notch and feels very satisfying to use. There’s such a great sense of accomplishment when you finally get the 'Flow' right. Awesome work!
Really unique idea
I really liked how every character in this game has a distinct personality, rather than just random emotions where you have to guess if they're bluffing or not. Also, using facial expressions as signals is a truly original idea. Well done!
Cool idea for an arcade game! I really liked how the echolocation works—it adds a fresh layer to the classic arcade experience by letting you 'predict' obstacles and collectibles.
The balance felt spot on: having the signals for fish and trash so similar forced me to really stay focused. The health bar kept me right on the edge of failure, creating a great sense of urgency since I couldn't just stock up and relax. Also, I truly appreciated the environmental message behind it; using these mechanics to highlight the ocean pollution issue is a great touch. Great work on the visuals too!
The technical execution is top-notch! The cardboard materials actually feel like cardboard, and the way the shadows fall on the surfaces is incredibly realistic. It’s a small detail, but I absolutely love that kind of attention to detail. The car physics are excellent and very intuitive to master. Plus, the way the concept ties into the 'Signal' theme is really clever. Great job!
Cool game! I love the level of interactivity here—being able to use almost any object to fight off the zombies is a great touch. The anti-corporate humor is also top-notch and really adds to the vibe. Great job!
I'm really impressed with the technical polish of this game! The layered background shader creates a true sense of deep, vast space—it feels volumetric and endless rather than just a flat 2D image. The gameplay itself is engaging and feels very refined. I’ll definitely be coming back to play this a few more times just for the fun of it!
The gameplay is so easy to pick up—nothing feels redundant, which is great because I could jump right into the fun! I really appreciated the dynamic lighting, especially the shadows. It’s quite rare for 2D games but it adds so much to the atmosphere. Also, the story hook with the signal and the footprints leading in different directions was genuinely intriguing. Great job!
Great use of UE5! I didn't have any performance issues at all, which is impressive. The ambient sound was a bit too loud, but the heartbeat sound really helped with finding the ducks. It would be cool to experiment with spatial audio in the future to make the tracking feel even more immersive. Nice work!
@rushb
Ryzen 5 3600 32 GB RAM RTX 3080 10 GB
I know my rig isn't weak, but I've seen plenty of UE5 devs make even the simplest scenes laggy
Very solid game
I really loved the brutal atmosphere of the game. The art and animations look absolutely amazing! Keep diving deeper into the coding side, and you'll definitely become a gamedev master. Great work!
I really loved the story! It was so engaging that I actually wished for more quiet moments to absorb the plot—sometimes I was so distracted by the gameplay trying not to lose that I couldn't fully focus on the narrative. It’s great to see games with a proper story in this jam. Well done!
I've always wanted to play a cool game using surveillance cameras, and this was such an interesting experience! I have to admit, though—trying to figure out what was wrong with the girl was the hardest part. Maybe that’s why I’m single, haha. Anyway, it’s a truly original game, and I’m definitely going back for another playthrough. Great job!
I really loved the 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' vibe here! It would be so cool if the test focused on checking human empathy—just like in the book—rather than just memory. Great thematic choice!
The game was a bit of a challenge for me because I have 'paws' instead of hands when it comes to rhythm games lol. But the gameplay feels really fun and engaging! Great job on this!
@su-yuhang Thanks for trying out our game! I accidentally broke the animations right before the deadline and didn't have time to fix them — classic jam experience, I guess. Sorry you didn't find the cat in the game, but I really hope you find yours in real life (if you dont have one already)!
@julester Thanks for noticing the pulsing effect! I spent quite a bit of time on it because I had no idea how to implement it at first, so I'm glad you liked it. Also, sorry about the bugs with the doors and zombies — those definitely slipped through the cracks!
@destic I’m so glad you managed to find the cat! Working on the spatial audio was a big priority for me in this project. I’m really happy to hear that you enjoyed the echo effect!
@salarium Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. I'll definitely check out and play your game later today!
@n-o-x Thanks for the kind words about the art style! Sometimes the best style is the complete absence of one haha
@denikk Thanks for playing! I’m really glad the game sparked some emotions, though I was honestly aiming for a cozy moment with a purring cat rather than zombie-induced heart attacks haha.
Balancing the zombies was a real struggle — they were either way too smart, leaving no chance to survive, or just completely clueless. I really hope the final version didn't end up being too easy!
@miclefirst Thanks for the honest critique! I’m definitely aware of the weak spots in our game. This was actually my first time ever trying to create animations, and I accidentally broke everything just a few hours before the deadline.
Still, it was a valuable learning experience, and it definitely made me appreciate the high-quality animations in other entries much more now!
@greedy-merchant Thanks for playing and for the feedback! Yeah, we’re aware of the hair rendering bug (or rather, the lack of it lol). Let's just say it’s the unofficial 'Easy Mode' of the game for now. Glad you noticed!
@bassilij Thanks a lot! Achieving that sense of immersion through sound and echolocation was a challenge, so it’s great to hear that the atmosphere resonated with you.
@borbi Glad you liked it! I accidentally broke the animations right before the deadline, but I’m relieved it gave you a laugh instead of a facepalm. As for the zombies crowding the door—yeah, I’m aware of that. Guess I need to work on their 'door manners' and teach them how to enter a room without making such a scene! Thanks for playing!
@dissonance-generator Thanks for the feedback regarding the AI art. I actually experimented with making the echo shader more colorful to match the art style, but ended up sticking with the black-and-white look for the atmosphere. I take your point, though — for the next jam, I'll definitely aim to level up (learn from scratch) my drawing or Photoshop skills to create my own assets from scratch. Thanks for the honest input!
@venomousmouse Thank you! I'm really happy to hear that the immersion worked for you. That was the main goal of the project. Thanks for playing!
@anete-ainjarv Wow, thank you so much! Being our first jam, hearing that from a horror fan means the world to us. We’re thrilled that we managed to capture that eerie and unsettling feeling we were aiming for. Thanks for the encouragement and for playing!
@pragmascript Thank you! It’s been an incredible experience for our first jam. We’ve learned so much during these few days, and your support really means a lot. Thanks for checking it out!
@borjaparraga We are echo bros
@perovic2018 Thanks! I definitely spent some extra time tweaking that shader to get it just right
@skale Sometimes the best visual style is the total absence of one. Thanks for the kind words!
@eden-zorro Thank you so much for trying our game and saving the cat! Regarding the AI assets: I’ll be honest, I started panicking as the deadline approached. Since I don't feel confident in my art skills yet, I used them to get things finished in time. I promise to practice my drawing skills before the next jam! Thanks again for the support and the honest feedback
@reverdie Thanks for kind words
@rushb Thanks as UE5 dev to another UE5 dev.
@sariiger Thank you for trying our game! Actually, my own cat was the inspiration for this game, so I’m very protective of him too.
@umaiit Thanks for checking out our game! Sometimes the total absence of story and style IS the best story and style... just kidding!
@nekuake Thanks for noticing the echo effect! I found an article on how to implement it and had to adapt the logic for UE5 materials. At first, absolutely nothing worked, but after some of tweaking and tinkering, it finally worked! Glad you liked the result
@grimslinger Thank you! I'm really happy people like the echo effect. It was a bit of a challenge to get it working
Such a simple and charming game with adorable art! I genuinely felt bad for the little animals I couldn’t save, though :(
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Translate: This might be the funniest game I’ve played this Ludum Dare! I lost the debate miserably, though... turns out I have zero charisma, haha :( But I had a blast trying! Really creative entry, thanks for the laughs!
I noticed the inspiration from The Last Guardian right away, which is exactly why I decided to give it a try! It’s a wonderful, sweet game about the bond between a human and a giant. The art style is lovely and the interaction between them is very charming. Great job capturing that vibe!
No way, I also made my game on UE5 and it's all about Echoes too! We are officially Unreal Echo Bros now. I definitely caught some D&D vibes while playing, and man, this could turn into a legendary vampire RPG. Awesome work!