V.P.N. by LDJam user 280624

[raw]
made by LDJam user 280624 for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

Stop right there! You must play the game first

title-title1 - Frame 0.png

Ratings

Overall 44th 3.909⭐ 90🧑‍⚖️
Fun 39th 3.828⭐ 89🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 64th 3.747⭐ 89🧑‍⚖️
Theme 14th 4.431⭐ 89🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 141th 3.517⭐ 89🧑‍⚖️
Audio 28th 4.029⭐ 88🧑‍⚖️
Humor 20th 3.919⭐ 88🧑‍⚖️
Mood 58th 3.833⭐ 89🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 40🗨️

Feedback

debugman18
Apr 20th · 01:07 UTC
Really fun little game. The more towers you create, the more points you get. It gets harder to keep the enemy away from your signals, though.
Chomby
Apr 20th · 02:27 UTC
![vpn_end.png](///raw/55d/66/z/70701.png)
Fun game with great music.
Kagerowo
Apr 20th · 02:45 UTC
Fun game overall, I just wish there was a keyboard key for quickly turning towers on/off just by hovering over the tower and pressing the key without having to open the little menu, but it didn't bother me enough to stop me from finishing the game.
LDJam user 428646
Apr 20th · 02:47 UTC
I like this quite a bit. I'm a bit of an addict when it comes to incremental games, and this just perfectly scratched that itch while still giving the player some kind of resistance. The only critique I might have is that I wish the choice of which tower to connect had more of an impact. I guess I wish it felt more like a puzzle rather than a mad dash to swap around the lines so that the enemies don't gobble up all my points. Overall though, I like it!
![what.png](///raw/66a/86/z/70730.png)
Sthor726
Apr 20th · 03:13 UTC
Nice game! The tone of the game was great, and the gameplay was frantic and satisfying.
LDJam user 331502
Apr 20th · 06:58 UTC
You have some interesting abbreviations in your lore, people come up with all sorts of things...

The game is quite difficult, however. If you don't understand when to disable the towers at the beginning, you'll end up spawning R.K.N. minions who will be a real nuisance later. Overall, it's not very convenient to disable every active tower when they all start moving, and it gets a bit frustrating over time. However, the mechanics themselves are quite interesting. The graphs turned out to be quite good.
Rafa Fiedo
Apr 20th · 08:34 UTC
Nice game!
Like the usage of the theme, the music also was good,
at some point it was very hard to get 100points.
like that 'vibe' button :D
Nikiroz
Apr 20th · 08:47 UTC
A fun little game. I wonder what rank Comrade Octopus holds 🐙
nshe
Apr 20th · 09:57 UTC
Such a fun and well-executed game on a gloomy real-world topic. Would I be too far off calling it a horror game? 😅

A couple feedback notes:
- I missed a few on-screen hints because couldn't pull my eyes away from towers. It's a bit hard to read those, I wish they popped up and stopped the time instead.
- Playing from a laptop trackpad wasn't easy – aiming and right clicking is a bit tough, almost impossible after the tower F.
- I wish lone-standing towers were highlighted better, i.e. by drawing a severed connection to other towers
cagibi
Apr 20th · 10:46 UTC
Nice concept! I didn't really get to disable towers properly, so I just deleted and recreated links when they fed too many aliens :D

My personal strategy is to try to lure all enemies to one side of the network, hoping the other side is productive enough, not sure if it's the best one.
Alex Mulkerrin
Apr 20th · 10:55 UTC
The vibes here are peak. The progression of the music with the gameplay is really well done and I enjoyed the explosion of new button alerts. The signal passing mechanic seems really neat and just wiring up the towers is engaging. The enemies make things a lot more frantic although once I had enough towers and connections I could ignore them and accrue points.

Perfect fit for the theme and completable in a good amount of time, very good :D
TermiGht
Apr 20th · 14:34 UTC
Man the vibe upgrade was gold. And the way the game started I just loved it! :D
pres2300
Apr 20th · 15:46 UTC
This was really unique! I didn't expect to have to defend my signal paths by taking them down and reconstructing them. That's a cool mechanic. The vibe upgrade was top notch. Well done!
DzejPi
Apr 20th · 16:38 UTC
Vibe upgrade really made me laugh, very good upgrade! Took me a little bit to figure everything out, but not too long.

I am sure there is some advanced strategy, but I managed to finish just by removing connections once Nibbler was on it, and recreating it again. Final graph looks very nice, I am sure I could calculate the most optimal connections like... 11 years ago just before the discrete math exam, and then never again.

Seems like my time is somewhere around the middle:

![2026-04-20_10-09-16.png](///raw/046/93/z/70b5d.png)
cupofmilk7
Apr 20th · 16:55 UTC
the game is really interesting, but those octopuses drove me crazy… 😄
tweekus
Apr 20th · 17:07 UTC
Very fun! Finished it with 2 octopuses :D
![Screenshot 2026-04-20 at 21.07.16.png](///raw/4a9/66/z/70bb5.png)
Ivan Grigoriev
Apr 20th · 17:47 UTC
Political satire ;)
paracorn
Apr 20th · 17:55 UTC
The Game is fun!
Mr. Flower
Apr 20th · 17:55 UTC
That was really good, pretty nice and simple. Managing all the towers while trying to have them not get eaten up was fun. Fits into the theme very well, nice simple art, music was peak, so many good things about this one. I don't think I have any critiques honestly, lol.
Kyanoss
Apr 20th · 18:28 UTC
this is the first game that actually makes me laugh when playing! I love how you build the tutorial and other stuff into the rythem of the game flow!
Guardaro
Apr 20th · 18:58 UTC
Any game with a vibe button is a winner in my book. Very interesting! This was surprisingly *stressful* to play; I wanted to keep all of my signals. Nice entry!
stasm
Apr 20th · 19:15 UTC
Great little game. Initially I thought it would be more of a puzzle, but I ended up clicking the connection lines and towers like crazy. In fact, I had more success completely removing connections and then rebuilding them than disabling and enabling the towers. I just enjoyed making the aliens look for something else to munch on. I also like how this is balanced and timed to be a 3-4-minute-long game.

![Zrzut ekranu 2026-04-20 o 21.09.12.png](///raw/1c1/32/z/70d71.png)
FrowsyFrog
Apr 20th · 23:08 UTC
I was confused about how to fight all those monsters XD. Still, it stayed entertaining! Great job!
FakeTrap
Apr 21st · 01:20 UTC
This is such a fun take on the theme. The gameplay might seem simple at first glance, but it gets harder as the number of towers increases. And... oh man... V I B E , IT'S SO AWESOME! Excellent work!
Head Priestess Ari
Apr 21st · 01:42 UTC
I absolutely loved this game, the vibe was IMMACULATE OMG, the difficulty was a bit hard at the very end, but managed to pull through with the >when you don't have any connections they run off the screen< thing

chef's kiss
Avi
Apr 21st · 02:56 UTC
The most crucial button of the game: vibe button. ahaha

Took me 4m.40s :)
LDJam user 416499
Apr 21st · 03:55 UTC
idk what to do with all the octopus mitosis😂
richjbaron
Apr 21st · 05:51 UTC
Genuinely so much fun/funny. I loved it!!
Mischa-98
Apr 21st · 07:36 UTC
I spammed towers and somehow won
LDJam user 428140
Apr 21st · 07:45 UTC
So much fun! Thanks captain octopus!

![Screenshot 2026-04-21 034252.png](///raw/c68/86/z/71d91.png)
no_firing
Apr 21st · 10:50 UTC
Awsome game!
OldDog
Apr 21st · 11:28 UTC
A very creative and fun game with fresh, cute visuals. The gameplay is a little on the simple side, and it would be even better if it had more strategic depth
Oradimi
Apr 21st · 12:43 UTC
Simple incremental game, short and sweet. I liked it!
LDJam user 423838
Apr 21st · 13:23 UTC
peak vibes and unique gameplay with a killer soundtrack, made me cry
LDJam user 240476
Apr 21st · 14:41 UTC
Great concept, awesome atmosphere, and most importantly—it feels very relatable.
Tanjou
Apr 21st · 14:58 UTC
Simple and challenging, with a great vibe
Yukiiii
Apr 21st · 15:34 UTC
A very fun game.
LDJam user 179040
Apr 21st · 16:16 UTC
Very enjoyable game and an excellent use of the theme! I love a little bit of graph theory in action, and to have that thing I was building then get attacked by an army of octopus soldiers was a fun and unexpected twist. Phenomenal work!
shimiki
Apr 21st · 17:14 UTC
It's a well-made game. It's cool that there's an ending. I liked how simple and straightforward it is—you know exactly what to do. It's cool that you can buy more vibes.
Avhatar
Apr 21st · 17:52 UTC
The music slaps and the gameplay is genuinely engaging. Seems simple at first, but hiding your connections from the pigs is actually really fun. Plus there's a solid real-world allusion in there — super valuable and painfully timely. Respect!

![Screenshot_3.png](///raw/6fc/d1/z/72130.png)
awalone
Apr 21st · 18:16 UTC
Astonishing Javascript Skills #РКН2016
half-animal-half-beast
Apr 21st · 19:31 UTC
iykyk babooshka balalaika

![2026-04-21_22-27-31.png](///raw/c0b/16/z/721b9.png)
Elbapotsnugg
Apr 22nd · 02:46 UTC
Very fun little game. Music was good and the core game loop was engaging. Great entry@
Sergey Kuznetsov
Apr 22nd · 14:21 UTC
Literally 1984
LDJam user 423872
Apr 22nd · 18:48 UTC
If growing kakens were my main goal, I'd definitely succeed. But for now, I'm trying to succeed by the rules of the game 😆
BorodaOlen
Apr 22nd · 21:06 UTC
It turned out to be a good game — a timely, relevant theme, and it fits the jam theme really well. And special respect for the music!
anku
Apr 23rd · 19:01 UTC
Очень хорошая игра, ничего лишнего.
caeonosphere
Apr 24th · 01:38 UTC
Cute cute! I had to Google an acronym, but I think I know what's going on here. I still felt bad for the poor octopus, though... :(
ugly_robot
Apr 24th · 17:42 UTC
Fascinating! What an interesting little game. Would love to see the formula tweaked further - what if it were different color destinations, instead of set destinations? What if you could 'starve out' the hackers by getting successfully delivering signals (that way, you could 'come back' from having too many, rather than having to restart).

Everything about this was lovely - the music, the art, but most importantly of all - the idea! Great work

![Screenshot 2026-04-24 134025.png](///raw/009/53/z/7298e.png)
Dywanix
Apr 24th · 18:59 UTC
fun!
vydra
Apr 25th · 19:29 UTC
I played that game. You have good sound and good atmosphere. But i didn't like gameplay. Simply clicking on the lines to delete them for keeping from octopus is interesting idea, but not fun.
Dennis
Apr 27th · 09:01 UTC
wasent so hard

![bird.JPG](///raw/025/a2/z/72cc9.jpg)
Yorsh
Apr 27th · 22:49 UTC
Fun game ! It's simple but works great. Music is cool. Graphics are a bit too simple but the feedback are very good. Well done !
GARYglhf
Apr 28th · 09:41 UTC
Супер, игра огонь, получил массу удовольствия особенно в конце )) ![Снимок экрана 2026-04-28 123944.jpg](///raw/20d/36/z/72dcf.jpg)
Crowelian
Apr 28th · 15:30 UTC
Good simple idea, but felt hard or maybe I just did not know how to play. :)
LDJam user 424326
May 05th · 12:12 UTC
Очень злободневно :'D
У меня не получилось разобраться, как работает терминал при нажатии ЛКМ на башню, но игра очень порадовала
Мне понравилась деталь с щупальцами, которые забирают постепенно весь текст
LesDremlet
May 06th · 14:15 UTC
Классная игра и саундтрек огонь!

![result.png](///raw/20a/b5/z/7323f.png)