Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → The Big Lost
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 59 | Signal | can u talk? | jam | 398 | 3.60 | 3.47 | 3.45 | 4.34 | 4.12 | 3.83 | 3.50 | 3.92 |
First attempt finally won at wave 112 🙁 Second attempt wave 31 😐 Third attempt wave 17 😎
Surprisingly addictive gameplay! The strategy is fun and feels original, although the endgame tended to get quite "grindy" in the games I played.
Also, I don't know if it's a bug or not, but you can kinda cheese the early turns by attacking before the opponent has had time to place all their units.
Wow, what a trip! Took me couple of tries to fully grasp the gameplay and couldn't make sense of the "ratings" at the end, but those are minor nitpicks. Thoroughly enjoyed this! 👏
Fun little stealth/puzzle experience!
I too am not a fan of the use of AI in a game jam (or in general 😅), but I commend you for disclosing it. The idea is still your own. It holds up well and uses the theme to great effect!
Would’ve loved some music to compliment the mood.
Wacky hybrid between strategy (troop selection) and dexterity (frantically placing them so you can attack 😅). Like other commenters, I found attacking first was always preferable though.
The presentation is excellent! I loved the sprinkled-in humor and the charming illustrations. Some animations would’ve been nice, but for a one-man submission, I'm impressed by what you have accomplished here.
Love the idea! Simple but clever design. Good balance between strategy and luck. The zany/trippy graphics are charming and the UI is intuitive and responsive.
Sadly, as others have already commented, the game doesn’t scale well. After playing for a while any dice will one-shot the enemy, making every choice meaningless.
Here’s me at level 533 doing about 20 trillion of plasma damage 😅 Screenshot 2026-04-23 152427 (Small).png
Incredible what you have been able to achieve here in terms of scope and level of polish! 👏 It’s missing sound effects, but otherwise feels very complete. Loved the drum n bass music!
I'm not sure I found the main mechanic very fun. It doesn't add much to the gameplay and some of the screen filters was kind of nauseating. **The final level was genius though!** Very fun to watch the replay afterwards 😅
Very cute little adventure game!
Both the story idea and the dialogue is very funny. I loved the branching paths and multiple endings (got the "good" and "best" endings). I also liked how the theme is woven into the story.
Fun to see a submission made using wareware! Your pixel art is adorable and works great with its aesthetic.
I played this in browser on my phone as recommended and it worked flawlessly! My only complaint is that (to me) it felt like the swipe left/right controls were reversed.
Very simple but cleverly designed game. Great use of sound cues! Great atmosphere, quite tense. After a few attempts I was able to get a signal, but…
Was finally able to reach the end (with maybe one or two quick peaks in the walkthrough 😅)
This felt very complete and polished for a game jam submission! Really fun as well, but quite difficult – at least for a puzzle game novice like myself.
Nice moody atmosphere, complimented by the graphics and sounds. The audio sounded very compressed though, almost a little distorted?
Couldn’t really see the connect to the theme (*Edit:* ah, the radio signals). Otherwise, a great submission 👏
This was so neat! I love the two-layered gameplay and how you have implemented the theme. Great graphics (both 3D and 2D) and music.
It took me a while before I realized how to spin the channel wheel quickly. Also, I think I found a bug: If you turn the TV back off right at the start, the game seems to crash.
Overall, a great submission 👏
Not the first “terminal-signal-scanning” game I’ve played this jam, but definitely one of the better ones 👏
The gameplay basically consists of trying to make sense of the cryptic interface and instructions. It's a fun concept but there are some frustrations, like having to click that tiny “X” every time you want to close the frequence window 😅
Loved the fourth wall breaking ending!
Conceptually this is one of my favorites! I love the cryptic framing. *What are you doing? What are the pings on your radar? What happens when you approve or reject their responses?* After a while you start thinking: *Am I even a good guy?* The terminal interface, the unfeeling language and droning sounds – they all add to this creeping feeling of unease.
The gameplay was original and fun. Unlike other commenters, I didn’t think it got boring during these four short levels. It also makes excellent use of the theme!
Wow! Loved everything about this. Beautiful pixel graphics, original idea, humorous and fun to play! So long as well! Level after level, with good variation too. Can think of very little to complain about, except the lack of sound effects. Great job 👏
There's clearly a lot of potential here. I loved the idea, writing and aesthetics (the pixel graphics are *absolutely amazing*!), but didn't really gel with the gameplay. There's a lot to take in, but no tutorial or explanation. Also, found some parts of the UI (e.g. the typewriter) quite unintuitive and confusing.
Awesome logo, dark ambient, terminal interface – the aesthetics are unique and on point! I also like that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously (memo.txt, the ending etc.)
Gameplay is solid. Very satisfying weapons and physics. Unfortunately there’s not much of it and what's there doesn’t connect much with the theme. Also, the game also seems prone to crashing with "Anal Karnaval"
Nice (and surprisingly chill) little puzzle game! I’m impressed by the level of polish. Graphics, music and UI go well together, complements the setting and makes for a cohesive package.
The main mechanic is well implemented, but I felt gameplay needed something to add more strategy. Now it’s more about precision clicking than puzzle solving. The emit limit also felt unnecessary.
The scrolling levels, the multiplying signals, the paving of the way for the signals – I like the ideas here! Simple, original and well connected to the theme 👍
I felt that gameplay was lacking something to make it a bit more strategical. As it stands now, there's not really any thinking required: Just click the bombs' connections as they appear.
Simple in terms of presentation, but gameplay is well thought out and addictive! I beat it twice with very different builds. Lots of strategy and good balance. Very fun to play 👏
Very impressive for a one-person team to make in just 48 hours! Fun idea, great gunplay, tight controls. I especially liked the dynamic music that drops the break when the shooting start 😎
Some nitpicks: * It's a difficult game, it would have been nice with a quick way to retry when you die * The bottom-up perspective was different, but didn't add anything to the experience * The theme is not really part of the gameplay in any meaningful way
Otherwise, a great submission! 👏
Well the game is certainly rough around the edges, but the main mechanic fun and well implemented!
Beat on my second attempt. For anyone else wondering: **Use the numkeys (1-3) to switch equipment**.
A very immersive experience!
As already commented, the graphics, audio, etc. feels cohesive and compliments the setting well. I liked the sound design, especially the voice acting. Didn’t expect to see that in a game jam game!
The gameplay itself is quite basic, but there’s some humor there to break up the monotony. I too didn’t really understand the point of the signals as it seems you can just aim for the spheres.
Oh, and loved the moment when you realize you can get out of the seat and walk around the ship!
A cozy, chill and surprisingly addictive incremental game! (I ended up maxing out every upgrade just for the fun of it.) The graphics are simple but the UI/UX feels polished and intuitive.
The "fireworks for a friend" backstory is sweet and gels with the theme, but I felt not much was made with it. Also would’ve loved some variation to the fireworks, you end up watching them a lot 😅
Ah, the comforting palette and sound of the PICO-8!
Loved everything about this! Simple but fun idea, tight controls, good challenge. The levels get quite difficult towards the end, especially on the few occasions where mirrors had to serve more than one purpose.
Did manage to beat all levels. No perfect rank though 😅
As someone with a penchant for both the PICO-8/TIC-80 family of fantasy consoles and nonograms (even though I absolutely suck at them), this really hit the spot for me! Probably the submission I've spent the longest time playing so far 😅
Was finally able to beat all levels (spoiler):
screenshot (Telefon).png
Good to-the-point gameplay. The mirrors were a fun addition. They broke my brain at first, but eventually I got the hang of them. I'm very impressed, both by your TIC-80 implementation and by the levels you've created 👏
Tense little split-focus game
Great sound! The intruder at the window scared the crap out of me the first time 😅 As for the graphics, I agree that the retro shader felt a little bit too strong. And I too experienced the double mouse cursor (playing the web version).
Is there an ending? I got the "you have all data" e-mail.
This shows promise! You could definitely keep developing this into something more substantial. Well done 👏
One of the funniest submissions I’ve played!
The gameplay is basic and I found it almost impossible to guess which option would increase/decrease population, but still had a lot of fun with all the zany outcomes!
Since you get to see all prompts in a single game (unless you fail, which is more difficult than it is to win), there’s little incentive for repeated playthroughs.
@croxx @julester @antbrl Thank you for making me aware of the issue! It was indeed framerate related 🤦♂️ I've uploaded a new `canutalk-[platform]-bugfix.zip` version which I hope fixes the issue
@captandrey 🤫 It's a bug from the "coyote time" I tried to implement. Noticed it too but sadly didn't have time to fix it.
@braktheman Thank you! I totally see what you mean about the moving platforms. I would've liked them to reset when you die, but the way I had built it it wasn't a quick fix and then I just ran out of time 😅
@hagamosvideojuegos @vydra Thank you! I agree the game is difficult in kind of a frustrating way. I wish I had prioritized fine tuning the platforming more. I didn't and as a result, jumping feels stiff and unforgiving.
@tineks @conduit-games About the key bindings: Sorry about this, I feel dumb 🤦 Arrow keys is what feels natural to me, but it would've been super simple to add WASD bindings as well. It didn't even cross my mind.
@conduit-games About the volume: Thank you, noted. Just out of curiosity, was the volume too quiet or too loud?
@grimslinger Thank you for playing my game! Yes, the game is difficult in a kind of a frustrating way. In retrospect, I wish I had focused more on fine-tuning the gameplay and difficulty. Definitely a lesson for next time!
Wow. Just wow.
The game itself is kind of basic, but I have a feeling your focus was more on the overall experience than the moment-to-moment gameplay. And what an experience it is! Surreal, funny, thought-provoking. And whatever that aesthetic is called, it's on point!
This certainly seems interesting, but there’s _a lot_ to unpack here and without a tutorial (or a better explanation on the game page) it's kinda confiusing. Here are some useful things I *did* manage to figure out:
* Grey squares are bad (end your “run”) * Red squares are good (temporarily increase your attack?) * Blue squares are good (temporarily increase your defense?) * **To attack, you need to end up on one of the opponent's red or blue squares (bottom half)** * Once you have a clear lane, you can keep spamming it (with diminishing returns though) * Winning a battle gives you money which you can spend on new "cells" (some stars have stores)
Confusion aside, there's a lot to love here. The concept is very original, the hacker framing makes sense and fits the theme. I liked the pixel graphics too, although I would've loved to see my enemy variation.
Very atmospheric little horror experience!
As many people have already commented, the art is great, but I’d also like to call out the excellent audio which I think contributes just as much to the immersion 👏
In terms of story, its certainly creepy, but I didn’t really get how the different events were connected. I also didn't feel that the theme played a significant part in the story.
Loved the multiple endings!
Short but sweet, fun simple gameplay, connects strongly to the theme. A solid submission! 👏
Like someone else mentioned, it would’ve helped to lock the mouse inside the game window.
Cute little platformer! The pixel art is fantastic and the music compliments the mood well. I wish there were more sound effects though. The patter of tiny feet 🤗
The platforming is mostly good, but the branches annoyed me a little. I fell to my death more times than I like to admit because I misjudged how far you could walk on them. Also, kinda funny/kinda annoying how the game turns into Flappy Bird when you’re under water 😅
Overall, great entry!
Very immersive! I liked how, instead of having a HUD, everything was communicated through in-game displays and gauges. I also loved all the little details, like how the junk inside the cockpit reacted to the ships acceleration/deceleration.
As for the gameplay; as you say, it’s more of a proof of concept. It felt kinda illogical being able to control the speed of the ship but not steer it 😅 Took me a while to realize how you clear space debris, but in the end I survived day 246!