Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Ben Morledge-Hampton
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 59 | Signal | Mixed Messages | compo | 109 | 3.59 | 3.40 | 3.76 | 4.23 | 3.61 | 3.50 | 3.67 | 3.57 |
This has potential as a prototype. I hope you continue to develop it!
What a clever concept! It took me a moment to get a handle on the controls, but once I had some practice I was surprised at how much control I had with such simple commands. I do wish there was some music in the game, but I know that can be hard to add with the restraints for a compo submission. Great job!
Is there a download link somewhere I'm missing? I don't see one on this page or the linked itch.io page...
The presentation here is really special! The intro cutscene was a pleasant surprise, and the characters and humor add a lot to the experience.
That being said, the gameplay didn't hit quite right for me. The basic idea is interesting, but the amount of work you have to put into simple combat actions quickly becomes tedious. In that regard, I think the game actually suffers from the first-person control scheme and would have been snappier and more enjoyable with simpler inputs. Also, binding escape to quit with no warning and no save system is a recipe for disaster...
Don't get me wrong though, I think the framework you've built is good, and it's clear that a lot of love and care went into everything. I also want to reiterate that I really enjoyed the characters, the writing, and the voice acting. With some redesigned mechanics, this could be something great!
The concept and art direction has a lot of style, but it seems like the gameplay is a bit unfinished... I hope you keep working on this!
Short and sweet! The base mechanics here have a lot of potential, and it would be nice to see them expanded a bit. Some music and sound effects would also bring a lot of life to the game. Still, what you got done during the jam is impressive, and I hope you keep working on it!
I got some good laughs out of this! The voice acting is a lot of fun and adds a lot to the humor as well. Even though the gameplay is simple, it works well as an accessory to the story and overall creative direction. All in all, very impressive entry, especially for a compo submission.
Wow! Very creative concept, and well executed too! I'm surprised this game doesn't have more ratings on it!
Simple, but fun to play. I especially love the use of vocals for the sound effects! I would have liked to have an objective other than just chasing a high score, but I know that kind of thing is harder to implement with the time constraints for a game jam. Great work!
Very cool concept, and executed beautifully!
My main critiques are just a couple gripes about the UI. First, it would be really nice to have the option to fine tune placement by clicking and dragging objects instead of just sending them back to the inventory on click. Second, when placing objects from beyond their maximum range, it would be helpful if the connection lines originated from the point they will actually be placed, not the location of the cursor.
Neither of these critiques kept me from enjoying the game though. Amazing work!
What a creative concept! The game is very chaotic, which I assume was the intention. Slowly building out the level to add complexity was a great idea, but I still think that the early-game could use some difficulty adjustments. Even something as simple as guiding two drunk drivers home in a row is exceptionally difficult with the amount of traffic at that point in the game.
It's impressive that you were able to implement two separate game modes for the compo! Both modes present interesting challenges to overcome, but they're held back somewhat by the level design, which is pretty basic. Still, there's a good foundation here!
Cool concept, but I'll second what other people have been saying bout there being too much information thrown at the player right from the start. Of course, if your target audience is people who are very experienced with decryption then perhaps this is fine. I think that's a very small fraction of the people in the jam, but that doesn't make this a "bad" game by any means. It's just very niche.
Very addicting! The core gameplay loop is solid, and the graphics and audio, while simple, add a lot to the experience. Making it so that hitting every tools retriggers them all was a great way to incentivize more planning and strategy in each shot. I think my only critique is that the guidelines, while helpful to line up a "perfect" shot, ultimately detract from the gameplay. There's very little skill involved when you can see exactly how your shot will land, and as a result, good shots don't feel as rewarding. Maybe you could make the guidelines fade out after some distance? Or perhaps you are only awarded them after certain shots/tool hits? Just some ideas. This is a very good submission overall!
These devs have GREAT taste in music, haha!
For real though, this game is such a vibe. The core gimmick is simple but works really well. It honestly feels a bit underutilized, and I mean that in the best way possible. I want to see more of this! Invisible walls? Non-Euclidean world design? Darkness? There's a lot of potential here to turn what would normally be annoying and confusing mechanics into something interesting and engaging when you have the music to guide you!🎵🎵
Clever concept! The gameplay was a bit too slow for my tastes, but the basic idea is good.
Cool concept! I had fun juggling the needs of all my growing trees and managing my signaling network. As others have mentioned, the controls feel a bit clunky and it's not always clear why you can't perform certain actions. This is still a really solid entry though!
It's really neat to see a jam entry that leans more heavily on visuals and tone. I also enjoyed how creative you got with the sound design! At times the layered audio from the echo could be a bit jarring, but even that fits the dream-like feel you were going for. Obviously, the gameplay is a bit light here, but I think that's fine for what this game is going for. Great work!
Ooooh! I love input-heavy games like this! There's something so satisfying about ripping through tasks at such high speeds. I really enjoyed my time with this game!
This one hits all the right notes! The presentation is great, the character and stories are a lot of fun to interact with, and the gameplay strikes the right balance of simple yet engaging. Great work!
Very charming! Would be even better with some sound effects.
I really enjoyed this entry! Games that want you to experiment and explore how the basic mechanics work are some of my favorites, and this one handles that very well. Great work!
The basic idea here is good, but I think the game needs some basic quality of life features, like a speed up option. Later levels with moving enemies rely heavily on trial and error, and the game just moves too slowly too keep that kind of gameplay interesting. Still, it's very impressive how much content you were able to include given the restrictions for the compo. Great work!
I really like the tone of this entry. Driving around in a Martian dust storm with while some chill techno music sets a really nice mood. That being said, I wish the gameplay had a bit more going for it. The basic idea has potential, but it needs more mechanics to help the player navigate. I was never able to see the waypoints I set on the map in-game, and the terrain just wasn't distinct enough to navigate by topography alone... Adding more landmarks or other methods of navigation would make this experience a lot more interesting.
@kanity Sorry about that! I'm not sure why it wasn't working for you, but I just added a Windows build to the downloads. Thanks for letting me know that you needed it.
@infinitye Sorry you had troubles running the web version. I just uploaded a Windows build if you're still interested in playing the game.
@kanity @infinitye Out of curiosity, what browsers are you guys using? I'd like to see if I can fix the issues with the web build, and it would be helpful to know if a specific browser is causing problems.
@last-angle Thanks for the feedback! It's good to know that the pacing towards the end was a little slow. I don't think I'm allowed to change it during the jam, but I'll definitely keep this in mind for the post-jam adjustments.
@captaindreamcast I'm so glad you enjoyed the game! It was my first time making a game with such a direct narrative, so I'm glad it was engaging.
@kanity I got a good laugh out of this comment! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with Mixed Messages! It's good to hear that you enjoyed the game and made it all the way to the end. I didn't consider how difficult the game might be for non-native English speakers, so I'm glad that it was still accessible enough for you. In hindsight, I wish I had lowered the overall difficulty and increased it more gradually so that the ending wasn't such a slog... Turns out, it's really hard to gauge the difficulty of a word-puzzle game when you're the one who wrote all the answers, lol. It's definitely a lesson I'll take forward to future projects though!
To answer your question, I'm a sucker for some good raspberry jelly, but apple jelly is good too!
Oh, and that's "Smokey Bear" on the poster that you mentioned. He's the mascot for the US Forest Service. The game was inspired by some amazing experiences I had staying with fire lookouts as a kid, and Smokey Bear is a sort of proxy for that nostalgia.
Again, thanks for the "long messy comment", haha! It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that someone engaged so deeply with this thing I made. :)
@baturinsky Sorry you had trouble figuring out the controls. I try to keep instruction outside the game to a minimum so that the player is encouraged to experiment and make real discoveries as they play. Did you make sure the game window had focus by clicking on it? If so, just try typing some random letters when the scrambled messages appear. I'm sure you'll figure things out!
Something about this is very captivating! The gameplay is simple, but the sense of mystery and exploration is really well done. I did a few quick playthroughs and was impressed at how much variety there was between the different scenes. How did you build the 3D environments? They look like they were created from photos but are somehow distorted. It gives everything a dream-like quality that I think works very well.
Also, it's worth noting that it's very easy to fall out of the map if you stray too far out of the scenes. An easy fix for this would be to track the player's vertical position and move them back to the spawn location of each scene if they fall too far.
There's a lot of creativity on display here, from the mechanics to the visuals and the setting. It took me a while to get the basic objective figured out, but it clicked eventually, and I don't mind having to fiddle around with controls until things make sense. My biggest critique is that the game does tend to drag on a bit. Discovering how things work was interesting, but repeating the same steps over and over again definitely became tedious. I'm also not a huge fan of the stereotype portrayed by the villain... That being said, it's clear a lot of effort went into this project, and it kept me invested until the end. Good work!
I got a good laugh out of this! Definitely a silly concept. It would have been nice to have some sound effects and an ending, but I still had fun with the game.