Looks interesting! Are you gonna build html? Looking forward

@nadia-pixel Yeah! the link plays in HTML

The art style and humor is on point! Every time I scrolled the terms and conditions I feel like i found a new joke.

10/10 You guys should be really proud of yourselves.

Great work! Atmosphere, art, style, all top notch! Gameplay was fun, only gripe is having at some points to memorize walk patterns, and some parts that are very unforgiving. But played it all the way through to the end, and enjoyed it a lot. Well done!

@4farandbeyond @jamesgames1000 Thanks for checking it out!

@t-c Thanks for playing! Yeah we got balance done super late -- level 4 with the cops is brutal in retrospect. Glad to hear you were able to beat the entire game though!

Great game ! Love the vibe and artstyle, music is on point, jokes on resolving the hacks are fun 10/10

really cool artstyle and idea!

Super fun to play!

The concept of combining a traditional detective mystery with a split-focus mini-game mechanic is really smart. Maintaining proximity to the target while solving these challenges adds a fantastic layer of tension to the whole experience. Well done keeping the action going across New Metrotown!

Love the concept, but I could not get past the dog/muffin captcha. :/ I clicked everything that looked like a dog, and it flashed green. Then nothing happened for a long time. I started clicking all the muffins as well, but they flashed red. Idk what else I was supposed to do. :/

Oh I haven't seen this genre in a while, I think there was an old sims game on the ds that did something somewhat similar?

The audio is excellent and really sets the vibe, I'd love to see this polished/expanded on post jam too!

The game is straight for the spite of the day haha! Concept is great and the realisation is pretty good. Loved it! had some troubles with goos as their areas are not really noticiable and it's hard ti predict when their effects work or stop working.
Btw, I've played it in HTML and wanted to play fullscreen to see everything more clear, but seems like there is something wrong, it crushed after pressing the fullsceen button.
Nevertheless, it turned out much fun!

Really damn solid!
Absolutely adore the multitasking. That darn frog , though, what a devious man LOL.

I think a less time consuming 'intro' puzzle than the terms and conditions every level could be an improvement to the trial and error routing some of the later levels lean towards, especially since the punishment is getting booted to the beginning of the level, thus needing to complete all the other captchas again as well.

@paulmag There's a submit button below the captcha -- if you've clicked them all and then submit it'll pass the test!
@neshtyak Yeah I have no idea what causes that -- probably a bug in Unity itself. Thanks for playing!
@noctoc Thanks for playing! Yeah we kept on switching up which game would start the level last minute -- I think it's supposed to be the "I'm not a robot" captcha but that change might've gotten overwritten in the final build
@penagwin Yeah! There's an old flash game called The Classroom that we took inspiration from, haven't played the DS game you're referring to tho.

A really fun game with nice music and pixel art—I liked it

Admired the visuals, liked it very much

Amazing visual, audio and really fun to play. I can see this becoming something bigger and better, you even added narrative elements. Top tier!

Great pixel art and funny mini games.

Fun game!! remind me of split fiction when you need to move and keep up and deal with phone screen... Dogs not muffin really got me :)

The first terms and conditions contract I would actually want to read. I liked the approach, straight to the theme. Good job guys! The muffin and dog captcha was hilarious.

Cool!!!

Nice and cozy game! I Like it!

It's a good game. I felt like a spy!

A cool concept, and I like the overall presentation, but having to solve a captcha every time gets pretty tiring

I also ran into a situation where I was hiding behind a unit and a box, yet the target moving toward me still spotted me—even though, judging by the vision indicator, it shouldn’t have been able to see me

Nice game! I didn't notice the goo and while guessing the password and found out going different way haha! Good job!

@pipetto Yeah I encountered that bug as well and its frustrating. I thought I had fixed it but it looks like my fix wasn't good enough. You can hide in that spot but you have to really push yourself into the hiding spot.
Thanks for playing though!

You broke my brain, hope you're happy now. Good job.
Be careful going back home. I'll follow you while struggling to solve muffin captcha

Hello! ^v^/ Is there a way to download the game instead? HTML refuses to work for me :(


Gives this error and stops loading the game.

@kanity I don't think I've seen that error before -- maybe try refreshing?

the task with number-password was so hard for me))
but the game is awesome, you guys made a really cool core-feature of the game

@ordineu I've tried a few times, gives the same mistake :(

I liked the artwork a lot. Humor and music reminded me a little of "Golf Story". Would play a completed game like this. Also 10/10 on theme, not an easy task.

@kanity I've compiled to Windows, please find it here: https://ordineu.itch.io/signal-sleuth-windows

One of the most complete feeling games submitted to the jam; bravo! The sense of humor is great

Wow! The hacker game! The vibe Watch Dogs game, I think you were definitely inspired by it! Fascinating gameplay and interpretation 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 👏

@ordineu Thank you!! I was out of it cause of bad flu but now I can finally play ^^

COMMENT #1:

Love the Pink Panther-like music and the whole vibe right off the bat. The visual style is neat too, and I especially like the detective's animation (he sure did go through a lot of cigarettes while I was reading terms and conditions and executing my right to move with WASD after the target). Also, this is probably the only terms and conditions in my entire life that I actually did read in its entirety (also also, love the funny parts) (also also also I am not 100% sure I did in fact select correct dogs versus muffins in that test but oh well, it did let me pass; I did NOT realise before how similar dogs are to muffins)

Second level was already much harder :D This is a really good practice for doing two things simultaneously. I failed one time and on the second had a nice surprise that the password I have to guess is def different now xD It's lovely though that the movement pattern of the TARGET didn't seem to change so I've completed my second try without any more failures. (Also this game is trolling me 100% but in a fun way)

The third, sludge level is nefarious ;_; But ok I admit I did it on second try. The blue goo confused me too much on my first xD

I have to say trailing mechanic in itself is so cool. You really feel like you are doing some detective work (the downside is that you don't actually learn anything, maybe if you had like three more days you could add more plot and lore and stuff, that would be super cool =P)

Ok that (4th?) level was way harder. I had like 4 tries maybe? Also I did count the (tutorial?) level as a level and scrolling through comments saw you refer to the one with the cops as 4th. In my universe it's 5th and yes, it IS brutal, thank you very much.

(I have to note on collision: I can get kinda "underneath" the boxes, for example, which I think shouldn't happen)


I've tried the cop level a bunch of times now so I lost count. And most of my hope. On a better run got stuck in a fence where I thought I could go through :') No screenshot because I was still fighting for my life and then screen went black with "You've been spotted"

Now I do wish the "intro" for the level was shorter :')

I've set a strategic position to start the level in:


I have to say even without the "second screen" this level would be challenging enough. I'd say in some sections you have to go REALLY FAST, FRAME PERFECT in the "opening" that you get. Also I regret starting to play it at like 2 am. I've also got caught on the very edge of the "red vision" miltuple times ;_;

Got the fence screenshot! Honestly this is the farthest I've gotten.


It's been like a million tries by now and I've lost all hope. I don't have much strategy for this spot. Then I got there again and felt like I am in a safe spot behind the box, no red light, and got SPOTTED somehow... Now I want to cry tbh :D

Tried another time and yeah, I have no idea how to get through that spot. Sorry :') I really would love to play through the whole game but after like 20 tries or however much that was I don't think I can make it (especially because I have no idea how to get through that cop) When I try to play it safe I get out of bound (of the signal). When I try to risk it I get spotted. When I try to hide I still get spotted or get out of bounds.

OH MY GOD I DID IT T_T I swear it was 40th try

As soon as I got through that horrible cop I did manage to finish the level on that try ;_; My heart was pounding like crazy but I did it!!!

I feel like I had to execute everything *perfectly* to do that. Follow the guy as close as possible too and catch JUST the correct millisecond to be able to swoop into the "hiding" spot out of sight of that cop, after the second set of boxes in a "triangular" space that always stayed gray.

I feel accomplished now ^^

COMMENT #2 xD

I’ve ran out of space in the previous comment xD

I did decide to try the next level as well, inspired by my success. It was so much easier lol. The hardest part funnily was the very start of the route, I couldn’t quite catch the pattern of the cop there. I guess my most hated part of the game is the cops? But I cheesed it by making a huge loop right through the busy street (did find out a car can give me a fast ride too, very lovely of you not to make it a death screen :’)) I’ve noticed also the strategy with this toad guy is to stay far away, while with the sloth on the cursed level I had to stay very close (have to note I love the designs of the TARGETS, all of them! :3)

Last level. Cute doggo! I felt like it’s so easy and smooth (cool way to make it a bit different btw, since the dog flies over the building so you don’t follow it directly like others) and then THOSE DAMN COPS AGAIN!!!! I mean, just like in life, right??

Doggo is for sure unpredictable too, but hey, I did it on my second try!

Well, final thoughts:

Clearly, I did enjoy the game since I sat through all my (40?) tries with the cop level despite feeling frustrated and considering giving up, AND also made it to the end. Though last two levels are much easier. Difficulty wise that one should’ve been the last xD

Proof:


It was actually really, really fun. And I hate stealth btw. But I did enjoy this game, and I did feel very determined to complete it (clearly). It does give you a lot of satisfaction to actually manage to complete the route after so many tries!

There are a few things to iron out ofc, like how our head disappears behind stuff, more on findings (what that spying gives us), shorter intros in the start of the level, etc. But for a jam that's a bunch of work that you did, it feels overall like a complete finished game, just - hmm - in Early Access? xD But very pretty and fun and should I say, ADDICTIVE? It's 3:28 am now and I am sorry for such a long comment. I should go to sleep, really, and thank you for the game and for compiling for Windows. I enjoyed it a lot, looking forward to Steam release with lots of levels and more story >:)

@kanity first of all, thank you so much for being patient while we got up a version that you could play and then ALSO leaving such a great and detailed review!

I am the one responsible for the difficulty of the 5th level (the cop level) and dont worry, it haunts my nightmares as well.

I designed a good portion of the levels before we had some of the mechanics implimented (like the goo and the cops). So by the time the stuff was working as we intended, it was fairly close to the deadline. Naturally that was when I realized some of the levels were really difficult.
I found it was much easier to try and tweak the rest of the level instead of the cops since they were animated, but that created some unintended jank. The vision cones sometimes interact inconsistently with some of the rest of the level assets which creates some very frustrating areas.

I went back and tried to make level 5 a bit more manageable and thought I did, but there is that one area you mentioned near the bottom that is hellish. For whatever reason the vision cone there is so unforgiving and I really wish I had noticed that in one of my playtests, because when we finally released and I got to that level I also struggled for like 30 attempts before I finally figured out I have to wedge myself in the corner to get past him.

That and the goo are definitely things I would adjust/change if I could go back, but oh well.

As for the player going through the boxes, yeah thats kind of an annoying visual bug and issue that has to do with the characters collision only covering about half his body (this is so that your head isn't consistently bonking into things while walking.
It mostly has to do with what layers things are on and sometimes I couldn't figure out a good way to avoid it.
For example, in your last image in your comment #1, the fences are all on layer 3 while the player is on layer 1. This is so that the player can walk behind the fence and you get the illusion of him being actually behind the fence. However, when he gets down below, because his head has no collision, he ignores the collison on the bottom of the fence and so the illusion is broken as his head passes through.


ANYWAY
There is definitely a lot I wish we had time to go back and fix, but overall I think that if you can beat level 5, you are a true gamer and have a great amount of determination, so I applaud you!

Thanks so much for playing and glad you enjoyed it!

@thedugnutt Ok it makes me feel a bit better you also had lots of tries :') And I think I understand about the fence. I am not much of a programmer myself so not quite sure how to solve this. But what I did want to point out about the fence, is about that moment where I wrote "I got stuck", and to illustrate it I've made this helpful visual commentary:


It shows that it SEEMS like I could go between the boxes and the fence there, but it is just an illusion and in fact I couldn't. On the right I've added an illustration of a happy triangular place.

Also I wanted to add that the goo by itself isn't too bad, tbh. The cops were the main problem, the goo was a minor inconvenience :'D

And, thank you :) I think it also shows that the game turned out well if a player is willing to try and try again to complete it ^^

@kanity yeah I am not sure what it was with that spot, especially because it looks like the vision cone isnt hitting you and you just lose. Feels very bad as a player.
You can survive in that corner where you put the arrow if you do wedge yourself in there really well and keep walking towards the boxes when the cop is coming, but it definitely isnt very player friendly and is definitely a bug and not a feature :laughing:

@thedugnutt yeah I just blacklisted it as a hiding spot and managed to sneak through to that blessed triangle in one swoop, now that I look back at it it's a miracle how I did that xD