Radio Free Earth by ditam
Take control of the galaxy's last long-range relay to spread the broadcast of Radio Free Earth.
How to play
The goal of the game is to reach all of the population with your radio signal. Upgrade your ship, hire locals to carry or install relays, and avoid (or convince) the law to let you go where you're not supposed to.
You passively earn money in proportion to your listener coverage. Reach 100% coverage to win. Keep in mind that some of the population lives on ships rather than the planets or moons.
Controls
- Move the Dusty Dodo with right-click.
- Use the Comms list in the top right to open dialogs with ships and planets in range.
- Purchase installations and upgrades on these dialogs.
The map is scrollable with the mouse, you can press space to re-center your view on the Dodo.
I recommend the post-jam version due to its bugfixes and QOL improvements; it does not contain any new features or assets, so it's close in spirit to the original. Either way, the original submission is also linked below.
| Link | https://github.com/ditam/ld59-signal |
| Link | https://tamas.xyz/temp/ld59-signal-jam-version/ |
| HTML5 + post-jam updates | https://tamas.xyz/ld59-signal/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/radio-free-earth |
Ratings
| Overall | 224th | 3.854⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 282th | 3.604⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 260th | 3.646⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 125th | 4.229⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 599th | 3.333⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 352th | 2.955⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 165th | 4.083⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 42🗳️ | 25🗨️ |

Thank you too @olegator0270 - I've added a few instructions on this submission page now, maybe that helps with the barebones UI.
If you'd like, give it an other go now, it should be a less frustrating experience :)
But all small things. I really liked the idea of spending more to create more broadcasts, and the visual representation of doing so. The upgrades felt impactful and it was really neat seeing a network being built. Well realized, good game!
Thanks for giving it an other go @t-c! I'll look into that % population bug, especially because it made you skip the final planet,
!> which you actually can't bribe!
Changing the colour of bribed planets is something I simply forgot to do, I've just fixed it in the post-jam version (for now I've made their area markers green, maybe I could even remove them altogether to be less confusing, as bribes themselves don't provide signal coverage).
The core idea of building a radio network across space is very cool, and it feels great to see your coverage and income grow over time. The atmosphere and music also add a lot to that cozy feeling.
If I had to point out something, I think a bit more clarity/feedback in the UI would help a lot, especially to better understand what actions are successful (like relays or bribes) and how they affect the network.
But overall, great job — really enjoyable experience!
Minor points that could be improved (for the post jam version):
- I don't earn any credits at the beginning if I have a too small audience.
- Highlight the ship/planet I want to communicate with.
- I couldn't finish the game because the hostile planet destroyed my ship too quickly. (i was able to do it in the jam version)
These are very minor points; it's a great game! :D

- their levels are not set up properly, so they are hard to hear behind the music
- the core issue is that the UI allows unsuccessful actions in the first place. Time is paused during the dialogs anyway (so it's not like you can wait to have enough money for the action), I need to simply display a "Not enough money" message instead of allowing pressing the button. I'll add this to the post-jam version soon! Beyond this, it's hard to visualize the action effects, but this should already get rid of a lot of confusion.
Thank you too @gurtek, extra kudos for playing through both versions - I'm really happy that you enjoyed the game enough to bother with that. Regarding your suggestions:
- The fractional credits issue you need to bring up with SpaceGoogle AdSense ;) Jokes aside, I will push a small fix for this, I think it'll make for better UX (and the mechanic clearer to understand) if you always earn _something_ after listeners.
- Highlighting the ship is a great idea, I'll try to add this too.
- It was possible to win in the post-jam version, as evidenced by @xparker's comment below :) But I took a close look, and did find a relevant bug that made it much harder to win, because it broke
!> multiple range upgrades, which is probably the easiest way to victory.
This is now also fixed in the post-jam version! (I just did a playthrough manually, I can confirm it's possible to win :))
@xparker thanks a lot! You managed to win despite some bugs increasing the difficulty, so congrats!

Thanks for the compliments @asieke @venomousmouse and @nordin!
@murumart did you play the post-jam version? I had some bugs related to this in the original submission, but after the post-jam fixes you should only be able to buy multiple times at the 2 moons that also offer upgrades to your speed or your range.
Thank you too @alexandr-gerya!