Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Deng
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 59 | Signal | Signal Box！ | compo | 245 | 3.07 | 2.92 | 3.86 | 3.65 | 2.50 | 2.67 | 1.96 | 2.50 |
Fantastic game! It was a real breath of fresh air. Everything from the gameplay mechanics and how well it fits the jam theme, right down to the sound effects and art style, is incredibly fun and interesting. I had an absolute blast and also learned a lot from playing it. Thank you for creating this game!
微信图片_20260421211047_113_152.png I love this game! In the begining of ld I wanted to make a game about ray and reflect too, but I didn't master the tech about simulating physics so I abandoned. You let me know this genre can be really fan! I recalled portal2 while playing, and I like the astrolabes. Hope you can make more phases! The graphics also made me happy, and the sound effet of rotation is funny. Besides, I'm not sure what are the difference between plant and a object that was used to enhance the signal in phase 6 and 7?
Too hardcore for me QAQ, I don't want to study ICS again besides school. But I support you drill down to this way!
What a wild game! The moment I realized a single straight track could no longer handle all the trains, I knew I had to start building a complex network. That realization was incredibly fun, and it suddenly made perfect sense why the map needed to be so huge.
This is genuinely a fantastic and highly engaging game, and I learned a lot from playing it. Thank you so much for creating it!
Really meaningful concept! It was a bit tough for me, though. The game throws a lot of information at you right from the start in a short amount of time, and the font size is a little small. Since my English isn't that great, I needed more time to process and understand everything.
However, I can totally see the strategic depth here, and it’s a lot of fun! I believe you can make it even better in the post-jam version!
Interesting idea! I take some time to figure out the mechanic, when I comprehended this game I found the joy! It's a unique game I have played.
Lovely figures! It is easy to access the innovation, if there are further variable mechanics to play it will be more enjoyable.
Super interesting mechanics and setting! At first, I didn't notice the time passing and ended up getting a Game Over after trying to interact with absolutely everything. Later, I realized you could only do research once a day, which suddenly made sleeping and working out feel very meaningful and strategic.
One suggestion: it would be really helpful to have a message log or history feature. My English isn't the best, so it's quite easy for me to forget what was said previously!
I like this game, every decision I made gave me great positive feedback, which really kept me motivated to keep playing! I also absolutely love the art style. The map selection mechanic and the overall setting strongly reminded me of This War of Mine. I feel like adding more item variety would make it even more fun! Maybe introducing some side quests (like delivery missions?) could be a cool direction to explore too.
What an abstract game! A good toy to help me relaxed. Besides, I learn a creativity on using skeletal system and I think there has some unique techs behind the frog toy, thankyou for making this game!
Nice game! I like this clean mechanic and smooth control.
微信图片_20260423003100_116_152.png The most fun game I have ever played in ld59! I'm really curious how many levels there are in total! It feels like the levels could easily be procedurally generated.
During levels 1 and 2, I initially thought it was a pinball or brick-breaker type of game where you had to figure out the signal timing gaps and click all the signals within that window. But after failing level 3 a few times, I realized the actual strategy was to just track a single signal and let it traverse all the planets.
This immediately reminded me of the Graph Theory I learned in my Discrete Mathematics class—it's essentially a directed graph where you have to visit all the nodes! It also made me think that if all the levels are about finding a Directed Hamiltonian Path, it would really test the player's mechanical execution.
Also, did you implement an anti-spam clicking mechanic to stop signals from spreading? Personally, I find frequent clicking on planets easier for moving my mouse to the next target compared to holding the click, but I noticed that doing so sometimes turns them red. Honestly, it's an interesting quirk and a totally acceptable design choice.
However, I feel like a few mechanics could be expanded or clarified. Sometimes, a planet with only an in-degree and an out-degree of 0 (like a sink node) would cause me to fail because my default assumption was that it would continue propagating the signal to adjacent planets.
Additionally, I recall a really cool moment where a signal passed right through an intermediate planet to reach a farther one. It would be awesome to see that specific interaction happen more often!
The game's music is also very rhythmic and really helped me get into the flow of the gameplay. Thank you for creating this game!
Very creative game! The narrative style, mechanics, audio, and art are all well done.
However, some key presses didn't seem to respond. There is also a bug worth fixing: when I open the inventory, time pauses, but I can still move around. If I bump into the bird while doing this, I can see the dialogue prompt pop up, and then I can just close the inventory to talk to it.
Honestly, though, this unintended exploit took a lot of the gameplay pressure off and allowed me to focus more on enjoying the story!
The End——This game gave me a lot of moments for quiet reflection. The "vacuum" period after each radar sweep reminds me of how I sometimes close my eyes while taking a walk—it helps me calm down, think deeply, and truly sense my surroundings and figure out exactly where I stand. It's a very philosophical game!
I saw other comments mentioning how amazing the audio is, but unfortunately, I was playing this during class so I had to play it muted... so sad!
Good idea for signal! I understand the mechanic in level3, maybe add some words will be of help. Besides, I haven't solve level4 but my edge crash two times when I play level4, maybe there is something wrong? I sure you can deeper take the advantage of these mechanic, I think the wrong/correct floor in level2 can be also utilized.
微信图片_20260422105953_114_152.png
Is this where it ends? I clicked the door, saw a red dot, then the ghost said "don't look at the moon," and right after that, it was the "Thanks for playing" screen. I'm still craving more! I really want to know what's down there under the stairs!
I absolutely loved this game. The signal jamming setting is super interesting, and messing around with the in-game phone was a lot of fun. I actually played this during class and it literally sent chills down my spine! The art style is fantastic, and the phone UI is incredibly creative.
One small piece of feedback: it might be helpful to add an "Press E to interact" prompt. I wandered around in circles a few times before I remembered I needed to press 'E' instead of just clicking on items with my mouse.
Also, I found it pretty humorous that the character jitters/flickers when you hold Up-Left to move into the dead corners, like between the sofa and the bookshelf 😂.
Really looking forward to more stories from you guys!
Interesting game! I love the rhythm and graphics, you also inspire me on how to improve hints to attract player's attention.
@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.
@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!
@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!
@alex-mulkerrin Thanks for the encouragement! I'll definitely be taking notes from your puzzle level design!
微信图片_20260423011711_117_152.png "Noooo—when I died and went back to that room, I found it completely swarmed with enemies! I sadly had to stop playing there, even though I absolutely love the concepts and mechanics!
Also, your 3D/stereoscopic visual effects felt like magic to me. I really love the creativity behind this game. Thank you for creating it!"
Direct way to show your idea, I believe you can make better game in the future!
Really fun! I enjoy a lot and learn a lot, thank you for making this game!