Nest, this is Pilgrim by Nozomu57

[raw]
made by Nozomu57 for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

Incoming signal...

  • Nest, this is Pilgrim. We reached the orbital station, ready for launch. I will write back right after the acceleration. Over.
  • Pilgrim, this is Nest. Good luck! Praying to any gods who can hear. Over.

Make yourself comfortable and tune in to receive another message from outer space. A short (~15 min) bittersweet story accompanied by a cozy thinky gameplay.

TIP: if you get stuck on any level, you can skip it via pause menu.

Ratings

Overall 19th 4.313⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Fun 261th 3.634⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 192th 3.768⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Theme 20th 4.589⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 46th 4.536⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Audio 4th 4.556⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Mood 4th 4.636⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Given 27🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

debugman18
Apr 21st · 01:49 UTC
The vibe is awesome. I did have some difficulty with keeping the signal in the circle, I felt like completely resetting the timer was too punishing.
🎤 Nozomu57
Apr 21st · 01:57 UTC
@debugman18 Thank you for the kind words!

Difficulty will be my demise on gamejams... But at least this time I added a "skip" button in pause menu, haha. Unfortunately not resetting the timer is not viable for later stages because of level design, and it was too late to fundamentally change anything...

Hope you still had some fun!
Ming Xu
Apr 21st · 01:57 UTC
The art style is very interesting.
Reverdie
Apr 21st · 02:07 UTC
Yo, this is probably the best thing I've ever seen...
Kenoshka
Apr 21st · 02:21 UTC
art and design is really outstanding for gamejam. loved the approach with oscilloscope mini-game
Fadex
Apr 21st · 03:04 UTC
Awesome stuff!
Just about right difficulty, loved the puzzle design especially with the moving points - finding the right path.. enjoyed the mellow mood and acomppanying soundtrack.
Gamayun.Games
Apr 21st · 08:47 UTC
Loved it! Design, art, puzzles, everything. Very nice vfx touch at the end!
And also:

![New Project.jpg](///raw/288/06/z/71df3.jpg)
Kr0tyara
Apr 21st · 09:20 UTC
A really touching story. It is really, really great, I almost cried. Everything feels really polished, I especially enjoyed the music. The gameplay is pretty good, but I had to skip a couple of segments where you catch the signal with your cursor. This is my favourite games in this jam so far.
evgenii-petrov
Apr 21st · 09:31 UTC
Very nice entry! Cool atmosphere and a great connection between puzzle gameplay, art, audio, and narrative mood.

Just one little thing stands out...

![3.png](///raw/1c2/1/z/71e26.png)
Allax
Apr 21st · 09:57 UTC
The art and overall vibe of the game are great, I had to skip a couple of levels, it was difficult
LDJam user 55657
Apr 21st · 10:35 UTC
A really touching game with great gameplay. Keep it up, as always!
JuanRod707
Apr 21st · 15:35 UTC
Very neat short adventure, loved the minigame progression, congratulations on a very well-rounded entry!
whiteCloh
Apr 21st · 19:48 UTC
This game is like an episode of a favorite series, like Hemingway’s six words, like a breather in the middle of everyday hustle. One of those cases where a bug you see with your eyes doesn’t pass the filters in your mind, and the signal doesn’t go any further. A signal :smirk:
filgreen3
Apr 21st · 20:58 UTC
It was a lot of fun. A great, evenly paced difficulty. The only thing is that the 5th (I think) starts with very fast stars. But that's apparently the only hard place. It's really cool that you can make different games, yet still have a distinctive vibe
celia14
Apr 21st · 23:33 UTC
I loved this story! I liked the way the short messages still conveyed a lot about the characters, their relationship, and their situation. The art and overall vibes were great!

The stars were too hard for me, and I felt like I had to resort to a lot of trial and error on the constellation levels (could be a skill issue, I admit), so I ended up skipping it all and just enjoying the story. 😅 Still really enjoyed it!
idavoll
Apr 22nd · 10:42 UTC
Loved a story and wave-form gameplay. The stars was a little tedious, but it's fine. Great work!
Luka420
Apr 22nd · 21:19 UTC
Loved the heartwarming story and the mini-games!

Also the ending screen was so good T_T
[photo_2026-04-23_01-16-21.jpg](///raw/1b3/e5/z/725f1.jpg)
pt.
Apr 22nd · 22:44 UTC
amazing entry! such a sweet and touching story. the last message broke my heart, it was really really beautiful!!
Dylan Shumway
Apr 23rd · 01:13 UTC
Beautifully done! The vibes were immaculate and the puzzles did such a good job of combining different sets of the control parameters/star drift that I was hooked the whole time. Combined with the compact but impactful narrative and vibesmithing, this is one of my favorite titles of the jam! Thanks so much for sharing! :stars: :heart_eyes:
torcado
Apr 23rd · 01:20 UTC
oh man this was great, i really like the story you built with just these simple exchanges. i loove the main mechanic, i feel like there's a lot of directions you could take this concept of keeping your cursor over stars on invisible paths.
really lovely music, great art, and really neat story. well done all around!
sinemual
Apr 23rd · 04:42 UTC
Great graphics and soundtrack! The gameplay isn't really my thing, but it feels really satisfying to tap and switch things around!
romchikk19
Apr 23rd · 07:24 UTC
Amazing game! The story almost made me cry.
Also, I would love to see a longer game with same puzzle mechanics, it seems interesting.
OadT
Apr 23rd · 17:51 UTC
Great story game with great visuals and sound! Liked the details like the reflection in the screen. The incoming message mini games were a bit annoying at times, but still fun. The outgoing mini games were very cool though! Overall great atmosphere and a sweet end screen!
RenD
Apr 23rd · 21:34 UTC
Nice game with the perfect amount of gameplay intertwined with narrative. Reminded me of Interstellar with the messages that take years to reach the ship. My only gripe would be the penultimate level of chasing the signals, a peak in the difficulty that contrasts with the calm setting. But apart from that, the game is really cohesive, everything works perfectly together and I really liked the small details like having to match real constellations, or the fading reflection of Nest in the screen between the levels (he does seem to age pretty well!).
Mareva
Apr 23rd · 22:02 UTC
very relaxing and chill atmosphere !
VenomousMouse
Apr 24th · 06:52 UTC
Very good mechanic implementation, sound and story. Great game!
zidan-banan
Apr 24th · 12:18 UTC
The gameplay is great, you can get the hang of it in a second; everything is immediately clear, including the goal, progression, and so on. The difficulty is close to ideal for a Florence-like game.

The 3D figures on the oscilloscope are funny; I even wanted to know how they were written in formulas.

The star movement patterns weren't particularly hard to follow. There was almost always the option to jump to another star, and you were more likely to choose which one to jump to at a certain point and where to start. On the star that moved in steps, I slightly wanted to repeat myself, but the radius allowed for fairly uniform movement.

The polishing is amazing, of course, beautiful and tactilely rich. I'm once again convinced that details and their polish make all the difference. New objects appear all around in a cool, unobtrusive way.

The narrative, the music, the art, everything is awesome.

And the very addictive effect at the end; it took me longer to get back and forth than the last two levels.
LDJam user 236586
Apr 24th · 15:40 UTC
Really nice, moody game! All the elements work super well together. I definitely felt more engaged by the sine wave puzzles than the "keep the star in the circle" ones, of which I skipped the second to last as it felt a little too fiddly.

But getting the oscillator dialed into the constellations was a really nice idea, and once more controls were added, it was fun tinkering and felt satisfying to finally connect the dots.

Music is lovely and complemented the melancholy story well. Nice work, everyone!
HordorSok
Apr 24th · 22:30 UTC
I love the music - it reminds me of Space Rangers HD :D
I also love how polished the game feels. The puzzles are simple and aesthetic, and the arcade stages are really fun!
nexusasx10
Apr 25th · 11:18 UTC
What a lovely game! Atmosphere is do good. Art and music are awsome. Puzzles are good aw well, I like that mechanics. And I really love the story. Almost cried at the end.
Roroto Sic
Apr 26th · 15:43 UTC
Very great point and click ! Puzzles are not to easy and not to hard. Beautifull mood !

![Capture d’écran 2026-04-26 174204.jpg](///raw/d93/94/z/72c36.jpg)
Dogshroom
Apr 27th · 12:31 UTC
Wonderful entry.

Loved the story and how you played around with the theme. Very cool idea that the mini-games become increasingly harder as the distance between the characters grows bigger.

And the ending 😭😭😭
GARYglhf
Apr 28th · 13:13 UTC
Здорово, арт очень красивый, и сама игра очень атмосферная. Получил огромное удовольствие от игры. Она выполнена на высоком техническом уровне, это потрясающе. ![Снимок экрана 2026-04-28 160732.jpg](///raw/20d/36/z/72deb.jpg)
alexey_bobrovskiy
Apr 29th · 10:48 UTC
Great puzzle, I liked everything
LDJam user 424326
May 01st · 05:30 UTC
A very cool, beautiful, and polished game!
I love your attention to detail - especially how you can see the character’s reflection in the monitor screen.
Revetoon
May 04th · 17:51 UTC
This is a beautiful and well polished game I love it.
The writting, the art, the music helped a lot with the mood of the game, also I loved the end screen (with the shader especially)
InkyH
May 05th · 13:14 UTC
beautiful and touching game!! This is sooooo great

![屏幕截图 2026-05-05 210927.png](///raw/bc2/86/z/731c7.png)
GodDoesPlayDice
May 05th · 13:53 UTC
My personal number one on this jam by far! Очень круто сделали!
neowhoru
May 05th · 14:37 UTC
very great game!
JHax
May 05th · 20:07 UTC
Beautifully written and put together! It all feels really polished and you've managed to get so much from adding new elements on top of the signal matching and like dot following mechanics!