What's Wrong With My Keyboard? by Ch1k0_9kA
Introduction
What's Wrong With My Keyboard? is a platformer puzzle game. In this experience, characters typed on your keyboard fail to show up on the monitor in real time. The input signals are lost and blocked on the circuit board. You must control the protagonist to relay and connect signals in the correct order, converting them into digital output for the monitor to display properly.
How to Play
Solve word puzzles based on prompts from the NPC and type the correct answer to unlock levels.Control your character to collect input signals and emit them toward letter receivers.Press the matching keys on your keyboard to proceed with signal transmission once letter receivers are activated.Figure out the correct signal route and activate all receivers following the letter order of the target word.Guide signals through every letter in sequence and deliver them to the final output port. *Tip: All puzzle text is displayed in uppercase due to font limitations.Only lowercase keyboard input will be detected correctly.Typing in uppercase may trigger bugs and cause submission failure.
Controls
←→ : Move
Space : Jump
↑↓←→ : Adjust signal emission direction
Ctrl : Emit Signal
Enter : Toggle puzzle window
Hold R : Restart Round
Backspace : Undo last signal step
Creation Concept
This game is inspired by the clunky PC experience of the millennium era. Limited memory and unstable connections often caused severe typing lag and delays. There were times when you typed out entire sentences, yet the monitor stayed blank with only a lonely blinking cursor. After minutes of unresponsiveness, all your input would suddenly flood the screen at once. 😹The bulky old monitors, bulky computer towers and stiff keyboard controls crafted a one-of-a-kind early internet experience unique to that generation. We drew inspiration from a well-known internet meme: modern convenience and automation are not truly intelligent, but manually operated by hidden workers behind the scenes. We reimagined in-computer signal transmission with this concept. When your keyboard fails to respond, it is because digital signals on the circuit board are disconnected. Tiny workers inside the circuitry must collect your input, relay signals in strict letter order, and deliver them to the output port. This cleverly explains the classic old PC quirk — delayed text that loads all at once after a long wait.😏
Art Design
Centered on vintage millennium-era computers and their unstable signal transmission, the game adopts a Tape Punk & Tape Futurism art style. From puzzle platforms to interface UI design, paired with retro pixel art visuals, this cohesive aesthetic fully shapes the game’s distinct nostalgic and surreal visual identity.
Last
Due to time constraints, our team is still gaining Game Jam development experience.Under tight deadlines, thorough bug testing and font adjustment were limited.Thank you for playing our game.We will keep optimizing features and fixing known bugs in future updates.
| itch： | https://mokabread.itch.io/whats-wrong-with-my-keyboard |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/whats-wrong-with-my-keyboard |
Ratings
| Overall | 419th | 3.576⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 559th | 3.197⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 177th | 3.788⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 151th | 4.182⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 370th | 3.848⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 283th | 3.621⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 441th | 2.722⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 499th | 3.516⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 44🗨️ |
This ingenious 2D puzzle game boasts a striking artistic style. Players take on the role of a virtual worker inside an old CRT monitor. Core gameplay revolves around typing and keyboard interaction. Its unique stage-unlocking mechanism based on text riddles breaks conventional puzzle design and delivers refreshing gameplay.
Featuring retro pixel art, nostalgic lo-fi music, and a convincing curved screen effect that mimics vintage displays, the game fully recreates the millennium-era computer atmosphere and offers strong immersion.
While certain rough edges and imperfections remain due to limited development time, the game still provides a complete playthrough, distinctive visuals, and original core mechanics. Considering its tight production schedule, its overall polish is commendable — a unique, exquisite indie puzzle gem well worth experiencing.
Translated by AI
The bright and nostalgic visuals, coupled with the leisurely and cozy music, provide a fully immersive audiovisual experience, and the gameplay perfectly aligns with the theme! Amazing game! By the way, it would be great if WASD could be used for movement; otherwise, it's a bit troublesome to control movement with one's right hand while also controlling the direction of signals
I got stuck at GTA level. I assume I need to do "--.-.-"? It was quite easy to miss :D I'm pretty sure I followed that, but it didn't complete the level after sending the signal to the receiver. Not sure if I missed something or if that's a bug.
Would be nice to have some feedback for how much signal you finished, e.g. by changing the color on the sequence that you already finished.
Having a disclaimer that only lower-case letters work is a bit strange ;) You can just do something like "player_input.to_lower()" that would make it work with any mix of cases.
Being as it's a Godot game, it would have been nice to have a downloadable Linux build too.
But overall great work!
It took me a bit of time to understand the controls and logic, but once I got the idea of how they work, it became much easier. Excellent audio and a clean, unobtrusive visual style. Great work!
I really like how there are obvious fast ways to clear a level but then the signal is wrong so you are not only checking the best path but also have to make sure where it goes through.
The music is great!
I enjoyed the little video game word puzzles as they gave context to the levels (even though they weren't really puzzles themselves). I did find myself wishing you did more with them than just being the order you send the lasers in. Maybe the levels are themed somehow after each game, or maybe you solve the word puzzles inside the level rather than beforehand? I also thought the puzzle designs were a bit inconsistent. Some of the reflecting box ones were great (the one with three columns of boxes was my favourite) but some others were too simple (the save block one at the end was barely a puzzle). I found myself wanting a bit more challenge, but maybe you could add that with more levels in the future. The game feels like it ends after the tutorial right now!
On a mechanical note, the laser reflecting is a great mechanic, and I like how you have to hit each block in a certain order. I also appreciated the generous undo feature, since it meant I didn't have to redo levels if I hit a wrong key. In my opinion, getting the signal from the USB at the start of each level and putting it into the first block was an unnecessary step - it's not really part of the puzzle, but it's an extra mechanic in the environment that confused me a little at first.
Really nice job! I feel like I've been transported to the 90s.
Among all the puzzle levels, we’re actually most satisfied with the Morse code stage inspired by GTA and the message-themed level.As for the save block, we originally planned to expand it into more in-depth puzzles centered around this mechanic. Unfortunately, due to time limits, we couldn’t finish that design, so the current stage only serves as a simple tutorial for the save block.
We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your ideas. We will definitely consider polishing and expanding the game in future updates!
创意和玩法都很在线，把回忆和信号的趣味脑洞融合的很好，开发时限延长打磨一下会是一个不错的作品，感觉可以优化一下新手教程
- Add WASD movement controls to the character, and the ability to jump with the up arrow key.
- Make the game more intuitive; it's not easy to understand everything at first.
- Add a button to reset the game, like "R," because sometimes things happen that can't be undone, like pushing a box off the edge of the map.