Phase Signal by goodwayman

[raw]
made by goodwayman for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

Phase Signal


Play on itch.io: Phase Signal


The Plot

A deep-space relay is failing. Its three carrier signalsSTRUCTURE, MEMORY, and FLOW — have drifted out of phase, and every wall, door, and path in the station now exists on a different channel.

You are the station's diagnostic subroutine: a spark of light that can retune itself to any of the three signals at will. Where STRUCTURE is a wall, MEMORY remembers a path. Where FLOW holds the door open, STRUCTURE has already sealed it shut. Nothing is solid everywhere.

Late in the descent you gain Echo — the ability to record a short loop of your own motion and deploy it behind you. A ghost of you walks the path forever, pressing plates you cannot reach, holding open doors you need to step through. You collapse reality into a single repeating moment so you can finally slip between its layers.

Five levels. Three signals. One shard per level. Align the signal. Unlock reality.


How to Play

| Key | Action | | --- | --- | | WASD | Move | | TAB | Cycle signal (STRUCTURE → MEMORY → FLOW) | | E | Start/stop recording · deploy echo (unlocks at level 4) | | R | Retry level | | ESC | Back to hub / level select | | M | Mute |

Each level tracks signal switches, clear time, and a hidden signal shard. Beat the par targets for all three medals.


Thanks for playing! Align the signal.

Screenshots

1.png 2.png 3.png 4.png

Ratings

Overall 268th 3.8⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Fun 275th 3.611⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 303th 3.567⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Theme 471th 3.667⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Given 46🗳️ 76🗨️

Feedback

JulienLussiez
Apr 20th · 12:40 UTC
I liked it, with a good sense of progression. It’s hard to make this kind of game during a game jam because it requires a lot of work on progression. Well done.
Tanjou
Apr 20th · 16:59 UTC
I really like how the UI effects pop. The vibe reminded me a bit of the bullet hell mode of Nier Automata. REALLY COOL game!!!
🎤 goodwayman
Apr 20th · 17:26 UTC
@julienlussiez @tanjou thank you for your kind and constructive words!
Julia Nistel
Apr 21st · 05:11 UTC
Cute game! I enjoyed the puzzles and the vibes
robin_schmitz
Apr 21st · 10:39 UTC
Fun puzzlegame, I enjoyed phasing from signal to signal, dodging the presumably enemy orbs and opening doors with my echo :) Took me a second to get used to the controls, because they feel 45° rotated compared to what happens on the screen :D Other than that, great entry! Well done :)
RadekVRS
Apr 21st · 10:51 UTC
I really enjoyed this game. At first, introducion the game is made very well it was all clear what to do. The mods which I am able to change using tab key are great idea and i like it a lot! It was nice to play your game.
For me best idea and mechanic which I saw is the recorder you made. That's stunning feature :)
I also liked, but don't know if it's not misstake, but I used it many times -> if you step on a block that disappeared and it comes back, just wait for it to disappear again and I can continue. Someone can call that bug, but if it is bug, it's still fine because you have done stunning game!
5/5 from my side to be honest.
kotovnav
Apr 21st · 11:40 UTC
A fun and cute game. Tiles that change the signal cycle are challenging.
Enryu Mirik
Apr 21st · 11:56 UTC
Neat game, the only thing I would add is for the game to move the player slightly so that he can enter the door if he is wrong by a couple of pixels.
🎤 goodwayman
Apr 21st · 12:19 UTC
@julia-nistel @robin-schmitz @kotovnav thank you for your kind words!

@radekvrs the game allows you to record one echo at a time, but you can do it multiple times - so it's a proper behavior :)

@enryu-mirik yes, that's something that needs fixing, my 8-year daughter also pointed this out ^^
limpch
Apr 21st · 14:02 UTC
It's a cool game, but I'm not a fan of puzzles :(
I liked the idea, graphics and sounds!
JHax
Apr 21st · 14:10 UTC
This has a super cool look to it! Really solid puzzle design and the mechanics all like fit together really nicely! I did find the perspective a bit confusing at times because the movement's sort of rotated from a straight forward up/down/left/right but managed to get used to it enough to play the whole game!

Small detail but I also really liked the sort of buzzing sound that the enemies make!
Antti Haavikko
Apr 21st · 14:11 UTC
Dang, that was short. Felt like only a tutorial, could have easily taken these mechanics to a more mind bending puzzles.

![Screenshot 2026-04-21 at 16.41.55.png](///raw/1e4/3/z/71f98.png)

I accidentally played with my computer muted and thought there was no sound at all. After finishing I saw the mute button in game and realized my mistake. That was a good enough excuse to go for speedier runs and collecting all those shards.

![Screenshot 2026-04-21 at 16.52.31.png](///raw/1e4/3/z/71fb4.png)

The look of the game was absolutely fabulous. Pleasant harmonious colors with a clean and cohesive art style. But of course that also comes with the downside of kinda awkward camera angle somewhat obstructing visibility and more importantly suffers from a horrendous control scheme. Could be just my personal problem but I've always been extremely confused about these isometric rotated views where you press down and don't know whether the object moves SW or SE. Of course with lengthier play time one could probably get more used to it. And one way to fix this could maybe be to rotate the view a bit more towards either side so it wouldn't be exactly 45 degree angle and one way would seem closer to orthogonal directions. And another way too would be to not lock the movement to diagonals only so the movement would still be perpendicular to camera.

Sounded great too! Nice and various sound effects on at least all the things that I've noticed and the ambient sound scape was awesome to fill up the void without the need for music. Nicely done.

As I mentioned, it was only kinda scratching the surface with these mechanics. It pretty much only introduced the mechanics and didn't ever build on any real puzzles around them. And even less so a combination of them. On my first go I kinda breezed through even not fully understanding all the mechanics. But even finding the shards afterwards posed no big issue. Except for that one shard that was surrounded by those red pressure plates and needed the green mode to gather. For some reason it took me way too long to realize that you can just swap manually to green in that level too. Maybe I only tried when I was standing on the plates and it was locking my manual change. Other than that the shards were a joke really, just tab through all the colors to find them. But a nice addition nonetheless as a means of offering a bit more replayability to otherwise short experience.

Anyways, that's all I've got. The game left me wanting for more, some devious more complex puzzles. Good job! 👍
DzejPi
Apr 21st · 15:47 UTC
Amazing visuals, very pleasant artstyle and very pleasant UI, probably the best one I've seen so far! Moving with WASD like is implemented in this game didn't feel very intuitive at first, but then it clicked, because moving boxes would not be as easy.

Talking about boxes; for some reason, it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out in the second level that I can move the blue cube by myself, I just assumed it was stationary. However, once I figured this obvious thing out, it was a smooth sailing afterwards!
Woooo
Apr 21st · 15:54 UTC
A really fun puzzle game that strikes a great balance between playfulness and tension. It's easy to grasp what's going on in the space and just start doing things, and it leaves you wanting more. It looks simple on the surface, but once you play you can really feel all the care and effort the developer put into it.
Suki Shao
Apr 21st · 15:58 UTC
The overall game visuals are fantastic, and the gameplay experience is great. I'm amazed by the completion time of just 72 hours; the design is excellent, and the combination of puzzle elements is very interesting. Sometimes the WASD controls feel a little strange, but overall it's really great!
mattlevonian
Apr 21st · 16:05 UTC
The aesthetic is simple but effective. The mechanic is well-executed. The last level was a bit of a skill check after the tutorial sequence. Another really hard level after that would have been great. The secondary collectible objectives are a nice touch, and the UX and theming on the level menu is solid.

I did struggle a bit with the diagonal movement tied to orthogonal arrow keys, and the color mixing with the fullscreen color filter for each phase/signal made some of the colors a bit muddy.

Overall a solid entry!
FlameSeer
Apr 21st · 16:36 UTC
Nice job! Smooth, clear, good puzzle design going on. Very solid and fun little game I'd love to see more of, the metrics give a nice self-challenge too.
Only slight niggle is the perspective making it a little hard to tell what's going on behind the walls as you approach the camera but that's a very minor thing in a solid game ^_^
no_firing
Apr 21st · 16:47 UTC
Good Game!
Dywanix
Apr 21st · 17:57 UTC
fun and cool idea!
Mikan
Apr 21st · 18:01 UTC
Interesting idea.
Some parts are a bit trivial. The button for switching colors and actively switching colors are repetitive. And the exploration of recording ability is not deep enough.

playthrough: https://youtu.be/Cmze4P1WA58
xotraz
Apr 21st · 18:25 UTC
Very good puzzles, secret shards are well hidden and the progression is neat.

I just wish for more levels so that I would get to carry a box from one area to another!
LDJam user 312900
Apr 21st · 20:29 UTC
Great puzzles with easy to understand mechanics. Really liked the sound as well. Sometimes I felt it was a little hard to see where you were however, so I sort of got stuck walking through the doors. Nice job on the entry!
ouhiiiii
Apr 21st · 21:52 UTC
Art style is good and unified throughout the game. It's really well-functioning. The map is tilted, which is a little bit confusing when using WASD. And sometimes I get stuck at the corner of walls.
🎤 goodwayman
Apr 22nd · 07:24 UTC
@limpch @jhax @antti-haavikko @dzejpi @woooo @suki-shao @mattlevonian @flameseer @no-firing @dywanix @mikan @xotraz @cloverfall @ouhiiiii

Thank you all for your kind words! It really gives me a kick to create more!

Also, thank you for your very constructive feedback! I'll take that into account when creating new games or maybe, perhaphs I'll improve and extend this game!
Andret0701
Apr 22nd · 18:38 UTC
Cool game! Simple but it works:)
frozenfire92
Apr 22nd · 19:59 UTC
Great work, I really liked the echo recording but wish I knew how long it was/how much time was left
🎤 goodwayman
Apr 22nd · 21:50 UTC
@frozenfire92 thanks for the feedback! There is a text in top-left corner saying how much recording time has left in %. Next time I’ll try to make something like this more visible.
pro4
Apr 23rd · 05:07 UTC
Really fun puzzles! I enjoyed the last level with the recording and timing of things. Nice work piecing together this game!
vikingx84
Apr 23rd · 12:51 UTC
It's well done, but it's hard for me to play it - it's not my thing, but it's well done.
clymm
Apr 23rd · 14:10 UTC
I really enjoyed this one! Appealing graphics, and the game was pretty easy to pick up and understand. I got slightly stuck towards the end, but overall really clean and well done! :clap:
Dimonasdf
Apr 23rd · 20:13 UTC
Nice puzzle!
plutonicrock
Apr 24th · 13:45 UTC
Pretty incredible play and really interesting thoughts put into it!
andruid
Apr 24th · 23:30 UTC
Cool mini game! Nice entry, specially doing it alone.
I had just a little difficulty seeing some things and particularly reading as my eyesight is not great. If you plan on developing it further, an option for higher contrast would be nice.
Congratulations!
unfavorable_enhancer
Apr 25th · 20:19 UTC
Game is very well done and I liked additional achievements in levels, but the movement is quite weird and doesn't feel good.
Coro_yy
Apr 26th · 17:20 UTC
Probably the best one I played yet. Simple but very cool style, matched the theme perfectly and the difficulty was just about right for a small game jam title.
Deraxus
Apr 29th · 00:07 UTC
I love this amazing visual, idk why but this design looks so polished. The main idea is really interesting
But control feels a bit hard to playing
dqso
May 01st · 08:13 UTC
Great puzzle mechanics and a really nice UI! Just wish there were more levels to explore them :disappointed:
Jiawen_hu
May 08th · 00:41 UTC
Nice game, the movement is fluent, and the UI is simple but fancy, easy to play and have fun!! :)
Sarah
May 08th · 15:23 UTC
This is super polished, even if the graphics are very simple. I like the puzzles with changing the colour signals around. Great work!