Parasignal by HagamosVideojuegos
:tv: PARASIGNAL :tv:
:speech_balloon: No screamers. This is a completely family-friendly experience.
:floppy_disk: The downloadable version is recommended, as the web version may not look as intended.
Trapped in a dimly lit room, you find yourself sitting in front of an old console and a flickering television. At first, everything seems normal… until it doesn’t.
The game begins to behave strangely. Channels switch on their own. Static fills the screen. Something feels… wrong.
Is it just a glitch, or is something else trying to reach you?
Dare to keep playing and uncover what hides beneath the white noise.
Will you be able to finish the game?
And more importantly… will you notice the ghost watching you?
Controls :joystick:
- Move: WASD
- Interact with the TV: Mouse
- ~~Press L to use the lever~~ (Spoiler?)
Screenshoots :frame_photo:
Made by :heartbeat:
- Art: Rebekpew
- Code: David lópez
- Game Design: David lópez & Rebekpew
Game developed in 72 hours
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/parasignal |
Ratings
| Given | 20🗳️ | 15🗨️ |
The setup and the TV reminds me of my childhood at the summer cottage, where NES was only allowed to be used during rainy days!
The signal events are well implemented and the physical knobs really sells the feeling with the audio and screen noise. Well done!
A few small issues:
- The sensitivity for turning the UHF knob is far too low, considering how frequently and how far you have to move it. It's possible this was exacerbated by me playing on trackpad, though.
- It would be nice to be able to zoom in on the papers to read them more clearly. I notice one of the screenshots on your page does show a closer view of one of the papers, though, so maybe I'm just missing something?
- The game often crashes for me when turning the television off, usually when the screen is displaying static (though that could be a false correlation, I didn't test it extensively). This is on the Windows build; not sure if it's an issue on any other platforms.
- Less of an issue, and more of a suggestion: the static before the monster first starts moving is a nice touch, and added some tension, but that tension disappeared once I realized time didn't seem to be progressing while I was on the wrong channel. If the knob's sensitivity were turned up, that could be an interesting mechanic to make the monsters slightly more challenging to avoid.
@zamizmi I'm glad you liked it. We were hoping to strike that fine balance between cosy and creepy, but we couldn't manage to include all the ideas that would have added that creepy touch – which is pretty typical for a game jam :laughing:
@python-b5 The screenshot of the book was taken manually within Godot, not in the game itself; we didn’t have time to implement the book’s visualisation, along with so many other things that fell by the wayside. :dizzy_face:
I like the ideas you’ve suggested; if we spend time on the game after the jam, we’ll take them into account.
Thank you very much for the feedback! :joystick:
However, in general the concept behind this game is brilliant. That looks like an Atari 2600 in the background. The nostalgia is strong. A solid entry.
Nice graphics and sound! Solid idea, i really liked it.
@tkap1 Thank you for playing our game! I’m glad we’ve managed to evoke a sense of nostalgia in you, that’s exactly what we were aiming for with the game.
@trsthstrs Thank you very much for appreciating the idea! We did indeed want to create a game within a game. Originally, using the dial and changing channels was going to play a bigger part in the game, but we didn’t have time to implement it in the later levels. If you’d like to spot something in the game that we did add as a nod to something that was going to appear in the next level but we didn’t have time to include, there’s a ghost in the second level, but the clearer the image is… the less you can see it.
It's always a surprise when the screen moves and suddenly there is a skeleton in my face!
That's not a complaint, I think it's neat to make a game that is a little bit harder :)
The concept is REALLY cool!! I love the setup and how you play a game within a game with that old-school feeling and atmosphere, some Zelda vibes, the fish eye (not sure how else to call it) effect on TV adding to it - very fun and engaging!
I am glad you mentioned L activating the lever in the description cause I wouldn't realize that otherwise :')
Visuals are really nice ofc, the gameplay is interesting, just a tad hard for me :') But very cool! I loved how we needed to adjust the TV for new level to appear.
I guess I am not lmao, I kept looking for it in the static, the game and the room itself but my dumbass didn't see anything somehow
The game could use a real ending too, it doesn't have to be a jumpscare but anything to mark the end that's not just a "gg well played" (I assume you ran out of time for it and had something a bit bigger in mind but couldn't execute on it)
Also yeah I kept looking for the zoom button to look at the texts in closer detail at first (I thought you could because of the screenshots), then realized they were readable without having to zoom after some time so it was fine
Cool concept with nice visuals and simple controls, and a creepy ambience. Nice
The way your jam entry was set up reminded me of duck season which I liked to play, so that is a good thing!
@leophyte Thank you very much for playing! I can see you’ve gone to great lengths to try and find all the secrets; the ghost is on the second level, but it’s hard to spot.
As for the ending, we didn’t have time to implement the other levels we’d planned, nor a few other things we’d had in mind—due to time constraints, in fact.
The start screen with no signal was actually meant to give clues about the game, so you’d have to go back there from time to time.
As for the book, we didn’t actually have time to include it, but we had intended to add several pages with clues for each level.
Thank you very much for playing! :joystick:
@oradimi Thank you!! :tv:
@bumble I hadn’t heard of Duck Season, but I’ll have a look! We’d intended to do something a bit creepier or at least spookier, but we didn’t have time to put the rest of our ideas into practice, maybe after the voting! Thank you for playing! :joystick:
Stay tuned! :tv:
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 👏
Rotating the UHF knob on the TV is a real struggle. It only turns a tiny bit at a time, which feels very "meta," but the actual process of turning it is honestly quite painful on web.
That said, I love the game's art style and the haptic feedback on the controller. It’s absolutely mind-blowing that this was achieved in just 72 hours.
@the-big-lost Thank you so much for playing and for your kind words! We originally thought rotating the dial in a circular motion would feel more natural, but it seems many players try to use it like a slider, which is why it doesn’t work as expected. Maybe we should clarify that in the description. And about the bug… please don’t break my TV, it’s a relic! :sweat_smile: (Honestly, getting the whole game playable while basically making two games in one already felt like an achievement.) Thanks again for playing! :tv:
@bigfatgua Thanks a lot for your detailed feedback and for playing! About the dial, it works the same way as mentioned above: it needs to be rotated in a circular motion rather than dragged horizontally or vertically. As for the second level, we included the control to open the door in the controls, and also hinted at it in the book (and in the screenshot we shared). Since we didn’t have time to fully implement the book interaction, that hint ended up being a bit harder to catch. You need to press “L” while near the lever to open the door. Thanks again for trying the game! :joystick:
neat way to embedded a game in a game (Gameception?)
Edit: I wanted to upload a screenshot of the "Thank you" screen.. but it wouldn't let me.
I was half expecting some jump scare the whole time when there was that kind of background. Nice idea with the old crt tv. I wonder if there were some secrets in addition of the normal gameplay. I tried to look for them but didn't find any... Not sure if I dialed through all channels in the end though.
I think it would have been cool if some obstacles would have faded away when tuning it a almost off-channel.
@tomssuli Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that! We were definitely aiming for that tension, like something might happen at any moment… but yeah, we didn’t manage to push the horror side as far as we wanted due to time constraints. There are a few little secrets (like something hidden in the second level :ghost: ), but it's pretty subtle. We want to create an extended version in which we’ll add a few things that could be really interesting; I hope to be able to show you something soon! :eyes:
@block97 Thank you!! I’m really glad you had fun and liked the vibe—that means a lot! And yes, we want this moment of desperately rotate the dial! Sadly, we didn’t have time to add other things, but perhaps you’ll be able to see them in the future, stay tuned! :tv:
@guitarbro Thanks a lot, really appreciate it! And yeah, that’s totally fair—we originally planned to go much further into the spooky side (and even had more levels in mind), but we ran out of time during the jam. I’m really glad you enjoyed it! About the dial, it’s actually meant to be rotated in a circular motion, not dragged like a slider, which might be why it felt a bit off. I love that you can see it as the start of a bigger horror experience—that’s definitely something we’d like to explore after the jam! :joystick:
@venomousmouse Thank you so much!! I’m really glad you liked it! :tv:
It feels very nostalgic, but at the same time a bit off in a good way. The lighting and small details make the scene feel very real.
@robotchimp We'd love to create a longer, more in-depth game based on this concept, and we hope to be able to show you something soon! :tv:
@justmars Thanks! We spent too much time on the sliders and the dial – so much time, in fact, that the puzzles ended up feeling a bit lacking :sweat_smile:
I think the idea here is great and the signal mechanic works semi well with the gameplay, I just wish the game was a bit longer, but I think what's there is good!
One criticism I have is that it would be nice if you could look at the written instructions closer/form a better angle cuz they are a bit hard to read, even if I didn't really need them
I feel like I've missed something, but I've replayed the game three times with no change, and the comments here don't seem to hint at anything. I just kept ending up in the place described as dungeon #3 in the book and getting 'thanks for playing'. Do the screens in the overworld count as dungeons? That'd make some more sense of it, but I'm still not sure. After looking more closely at the book, I thought maybe I'd have to do something obscure to find the other dungeons; the notes on #2 mention changing the channel when I'm by the lever, so I tried both the dial and the power switch but I didn't end up with the lever automatically activated like it said. When I activated it manually with L I always just ended up in that 3rd dungeon. I never saw the game "behaving strangely" etc.
So please tell me if I'm doing it wrong, because I want to make sure I'm not missing half the game! :')
But based on what I did see you're getting high scores from me!
Very atmospheric and tactile having to tune the TV and so on. I agree with the other commenter that the dial rotated too slowly, even with a normal mouse. I had to spin it a lot to move it just a little. It's also interesting to look around the room at the details you've put in there. I didn't see any ghost either, unfortunately.
The game within a game on the screen is okay on its own but of course it's elevated by the surroundings. If the notes aren't hints at something obscure like I guessed, I think they should be, as it would really help capture that feeling of playground rumours back in the day.
Good audio too, fits the mood and the setting. Overall polished, just seemingly lacking something, and that might just be on me, so please correct me if so~
Good stuff!
As for the design, we actually put a lot of care into how the TV itself was handled. For example, we intentionally left one of the dials missing to make it feel older, but also because we simply didn’t have any more mechanics or controls to add to the game at the time.
And regarding the two things you mentioned that you would’ve liked to see added… honestly, we would’ve loved that too. We had to cut a few ideas because of time constraints, but we originally planned to include a couple more levels and additional diary pages for each stage so players could explore the story a bit more. Hopefully we’ll be able to make a more complete version in the future.
@zhangzhimu We’re really flattered that you enjoyed our game so much! It definitely took a lot of effort to put everything together in such a short amount of time, so much so that we had to cut a few ideas along the way. Even so, we’re very satisfied with the final result, and I’m really happy to hear that you had a good time playing it as well.
Hopefully, if we manage to release a more complete version in the future with the rest of the ideas we originally had in mind, you’ll give it a try too.
@ava-skoog Wow, I can tell you really took the time to dig deep into our game, and honestly, you have no idea how happy it makes me to read a comment like this.
Sadly, I have to admit that some of the things you were looking for were actually planned at some point, but we had to cut them in order to finish and publish the game in time. That said, we do want to release a more complete version in the future, and I can already tell you that you’ll be able to experience some of those ideas much more clearly there — with more puzzles, better tuning for the dial mechanics, and improvements that make the ghost easier to notice.
Because yes… it is there, actually very close to the lever. It was technically meant to become an enemy we wanted to develop further in later levels in a more interesting way. The thing is, it’s not something you can notice at first glance. Sometimes, noise lets you see things that a clear mind cannot…
Seriously, thank you so much for your comment. Feedback like this is exactly what makes us want to keep making games simply for the joy of creating them.
Thanks again for playing to all! :joystick: