Lagworld Relay 59 by alisher_fazilov
Part of the user interface may not be visible, please open in full screen or download the build for Windows
You're an intern at the Mars Rover Control Center, and your first mission just went live. There's one problem: signals take time to travel 225 million kilometers.
Build command sequences, send them into the void, and watch as your rover executes them with frustrating delay. Scan uncharted sectors, gather valuable crystals, and navigate treacherous terrain — but remember: you won't see what's happening until 2 transmissions later.
Can you complete the mission before your rover's systems fail?
🔹 Available Commands: ↑ ↓ ← → — Move across the grid. Scan — Reveals fog of war in a 3×3 cell radius. Gather — Collects crystals from your current position. Repair — Restores damaged rover subsystems (consumes resources).
🔹 Signal Delay: Visual feedback occurs every 2 transmissions. Between updates, the rover executes your queued commands blindly — you only see text-based status reports.
🔹 Martians: Local creatures move randomly after each of your turns. If you end up on an adjacent cell or the same tile — they attack and damage your subsystems.
🔹 Terrain Hazards: Cliffs and craters deal damage when entered. Craters can be crossed, but require a double command and increase the risk of wheel/engine failure.
🔹 Damage & System Failures: Each malfunction degrades rover performance. Damaged systems may cause the rover to skip movement commands or shuffle the order of queued commands. If 2 or more critical subsystems fail (Camera, Antenna, Wheels, Engine) — communication is lost permanently. Game Over.
Your goal is to collect all crystals in the Mars sector.
| Link | https://fazilovdev.itch.io/lagworld-relay-59 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/lagworld-relay-59 |
Ratings
| Overall | 483th | 3.5⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 505th | 3.273⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 144th | 3.841⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 228th | 4.068⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 352th | 2.955⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 544th | 3.432⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 10🗳️ | 21🗨️ |
I especially like the mechanic where not all commands go through — it adds an interesting layer where you have to remember which inputs failed, especially as you progress. Keeping track of which signals were sent and which weren’t becomes really important, and that’s a nice twist.
It wasn’t immediately clear how everything worked at first, but once it clicked, it started to make sense.
One thing I’m still a bit unsure about is what exactly you can and can’t step on. At first I thought the squares were meant to be interacted with directly (like digging or activating them), but it seems that’s not quite the case. It feels more like you’re navigating around the edges and searching, but then it’s a bit unclear what the purpose of some other buttons is. I get the idea with the chest acting as an obstacle, but beyond that I’m not entirely sure how everything ties together.
Still, overall it’s a really interesting concept — nice work!
The only thing I would like to have is the ability to move the camera slightly upward, zoom in a bit, and so on. However, this is not part of the gameplay, so I don't think it's worth mentioning.
I like that not all commands can be executed—it's a bit random. It's addictive!
I'm on my fourth playthrough, and I still can't get all 5 crystals—it's a challenge!
Thanks for the tutorials both in the game and on the page. I still had to figure things out through trial and error to understand how it works in practice, but it’s convenient that you can always go back to the description if needed.
As I understand it, there’s no way to attack the martians — you can only avoid them. I’m missing an attack option)