Mixed Signals by LDJam user 236055
Mixed Signals is a fast paced action game with rhythm aspects where you have to date as many people as you can by reading their signals and matching their emotions.
Play it with music - the in-game music dynamically remixes itself to the state of the game (if they dislike/like you, etc)!
No Generative AI was used in the making of this submission, all assets and the music are made by us :)
Features
- Randomly generated characters from a set of face shapes, faces, bodies, hairstyles, clothings
- Rare special characters modeled after ourselves and characters from our previous jam games (like granny!)
- Dynamic music remixed on-the-fly from stems and adjusts to the gameplay (faster bpm versions as you get further in the game, different tracks when the characters like/dislike you, sound effects mixed into the music track)
- Beat-synced animations - everything moves to the groove of the music track
- Difficulty curve: As you complete more people, the game speeds up and gets progressively harder
>>> PLAY NOW (web / itch.io) <<<
Gameplay


Tutorial

Credits
- Nanni (@nanni): Art
- Russell (@Madking): Art
- Esteban (@Exio4): Development
- Martin (@Spliddo): Development
- Sebastian (@Beepboop): Development
- Daniel (@universeflow): Music & Development
| https://universeflow.itch.io/mixed-signals | |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/mixed-signals-3 |
Ratings
| Overall | 336th | 3.69⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 233th | 3.673⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 485th | 3.292⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 414th | 3.762⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 234th | 4.113⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 245th | 3.711⭐ | 85🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 121th | 3.784⭐ | 83🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 369th | 3.723⭐ | 85🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 77🗳️ | 115🗨️ |
@human-writes-code thanks for your kind feedback! glad you enjoyed it :)
in our team we also had wildly different high scores / skill levels, which was interesting to see!
out of curiousity, what was your high score?
But seriously, I don’t even want to be too serious about this one: the funny sprites, the simple yet consistent UI, and the straightforward gameplay really pulled me in.
Great work overall! I can see the hardwork that went into it! :)
@rinnnzy yes I agree, our artists did a great job <3
@dywanix thank you, glad you enjoyed it :D
Really well done overall though!
So far one of the most polished entries I've seen! Great work everyone
@tkap1 @aurel300 oh no, that's a good point, sorry it didn't work well on your keyboards! if we make a full release we would definitely add key rebinding and be more forgiving if you press them one after another instead of all at once
@lenny-rudeberg glad you enjoyed it :) what score did you manage to get?
@drainkid awesome! there is actually a bit of room to press them quickly one after another but maybe it's not forgiving enough, definitely something to tweak in a potential full release :)
@Sarah yes it's designed to be that way, when the throuples come in the music speeds up to 140 bpm (the max) and then the real challenge begins. glad you liked the music, the first day I was pretty much exclusively working on the music so I'm happy to hear someone appreciate it :D
@crimsontrouper you are supposed to press two keys at the same time to match both emotions, how did you manage to skip them?
@draki thank you, glad you enjoyed the music and atmosphere, we put a lot of work into making it feel coherent!
@500 thank you, the sound effects are actually synced with the music, so they never sound out of place (it's a little detail that is usually hard to notice). what is "Galagame"?
@alexey-bobrovskiy thanks for playing! yes the difficulty is supposed to pick up quickly to get you to replay it and push for a higher score, it is definitely possible to get much higher scores though as you practice more, some of our team were able to beat The Rizzler ;)
@crimsontrouper ah, I believe there is a bug where when people switch out they still get new emotions, which doesn't really make sense. so when you complete a person, it still gets an emotion but then leaves immediately and the next one comes in with a new emotion. is this what you mean?
Super cute game, the art is adorable and dynamic music is always a pleasure 😊
1593 in hard mode :sunglasses:
I actually enjoy hard mode by the way. I am very glad you included it because it actually gives a reason to look at your cute dates while in a flow state :heart:
Great little game!
Gotta say i'm really bad at rhythm, colors and directions, but it was really fun to play!
Liked the visual and musical mood :)
@stormsword @kintsugi glad you enjoyed the hard mode, it's definitely harder when you actually have to read the emotions in their face :D
@a333 nice score, you're not bad at all! and yes, hehe, that was part of the fun of the game ;)
@pimeko it takes a bit to get used to matching the colors/emotions to the keys, but once you get the hang of it you can get really high scores, it has a bit of a learning curve. glad you enjoyed the storytelling/atmosphere, we put a lot of work into that :)
@guimao yes, when the throuple comes in the music increases to 140 bpm (the max speed of the game) and then everything gets intense haha. 6k is a really good score!
@dvan1337 thank you so much, that means a lot to us <3
Overall I really liked this submission. (But I also love rhythm games anyways!)

Hard mode was also fun! :laughing: I got to 4092. Some faces were definitely easier to read than others, haha.
It was fun how the music went faster and faster, but I didn't really find a rhythm aspect other than that.
Fun graphics, cool that you made so many different faces possible :smile: Music is nice too.
Overall, well done! :clap:
@hiretsu @bumble glad you enjoyed it, hard mode is the original vision of the game, so I'm glad you like it too :D thanks for playing!
@havearollonthefloor that's a great score, thanks for playing!
@ghostmaple the couples are still fine, the throuples are the real challenge :D nice score, thanks for playing!
@kanhao thank you, glad you enjoyed the dynamic music, I put a lot of effort into making it all sound good and coherent (to the point where it's mixed in so well you probably don't even notice it's dynamic unless you're trying to listen for it, but it definitely changes the vibe of the game, e.g. when you're almost losing and the heartbeat comes in)
@papaver you might be one of the best players outside our team, a 14k score is really good! my personal best is 17173 but one of us even managed to beat the rizzler with ~26k score. if you want to push your score higher, the rhythm aspect is that the emotions get bigger and smaller, when they are big and you press them, you are on beat and get extra points ;)
there were moments where i pressed the correct three keys, but it still counted as a mistake, probably because hitting them at exactly the same time is really hard and even a slight delay gets penalized. or maybe i just wasn’t accurate enough 😄
my high score was around 6k
@hhch thanks for the kind feedback, glad you enjoyed our interpretation of signals :)
couldn't score as much as other rizz gods in comments though

A second song would be nice, but I like that you got some variation in the song over the time if you keep playing.
The graphics are nicely done and the introduction screen with the gameplay overview makes you understand the gameplay quickly. I like that it gets more difficult over time by adding more characters. Very cool that you added a "hard mode".
The finger on the smartphone, which shows you when you loose, could be more visible in my opinion.
Apart from that I think this is a very polished game with a fun game loop and a nice take on rythm games. Nice interpretation of the theme. :)

great character designs! i wish i could take a closer look who im flirting with, but the game is very fast, so i can't xd
the controls, in my opinion, are a bit awkward. when you have to press three keys, it gets very hard. maybe it would be better if it wasn't the arrow keys, in my opinion
anyways, great polished submission!

@unfavorable-enhancer thanks! we tried hard to make the music fit the vibe of the game with the tension increasing over time!
@pipetto yeah the pace picks up quite quickly haha - thanks for playing!
@panduplan thanks for the feedback! the emotion animation is synced to the beat, so when they are biggest you are perfectly on beat ;) using a horizontal row has been suggested before and it's definitely something we'll look into in a potential full release :)
@mrtroy pressing the three keys at once is supposed to be hard, but maybe the horizontal row mapping would make it easier for some players, thanks for playing!
@lllarso the song adjusts to where you are on the rizz bar, if you are around the center, it plays the normal theme, if they like you, it adds an upbeat lead synth sound, and when they dislike you (you are close to losing), it switches to a theme where the baseline gets replaced with an actual heart beat sound! we added all this variety to keep the music interesting even during longer playthroughs. thanks for the feedback, the rizz bar actually also lights up the field you're currently at, but we'll definitely look into making the finger more visible too! btw, I only listen to the music to know where I am on the bar, you don't need to look at it if you don't want to look away from the main game ;)
@dywanix thanks for playing, the stress is intentional, it's a fast-paced arcade game :) but we did make the first few characters a bit slower to ease players into the fast pace. the suggestion to use different key mappings has been made multiple times before and it's definitely something we'd add in a potential full release :)

Quite Nice, would have liked if I could use wasd as well :)
@hexstart try hard mode and you will have to pay attention to the characters ;) nice score btw!
@ausstein thanks for playing, that's a neat score! yes, wasd would definitely be a nice addition, thanks for suggesting!
@pickens-inc thanks for the extensive review! glad you enjoyed it :) I initially had a sound effect for success but playing it so often ended up being quite annoying, in the end I didn't have time to come up with a shorter/quicker sound effect that fit better with the music. :( it does have rhythm mechanics (although it's not required to use them, it's required to get higher scores): the emotions get bigger and smaller, when they are biggest, it's exactly on beat. if you press them on beat you get a higher score. as for the controls, I think with wasd controls up and down at the same time would be a lot better on some keyboards.
@ao-85 thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it :)
@cameronpenner try hard mode and you will have to pay attention to their faces ;) it's the more realistic way to play the game haha
@auxc thanks for playing! it takes some getting used to, if you practice more, you start building muscle memory for the combos - with a little bit of practice and trying to press on beat you can even get to 20k+ score ;)