Phantom Hunt by Jesús González

[raw]
made by Jesús González for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

2026-04-19_21-54.png

Enter the dungeon, triangulate phantom signals and hunt them with your rifle.

Largely unfinished, levels make little sense currently, but is playable to the end of existing content.

Built with a custom Rust-based engine. I used my first day just getting the turn/undo system working, second with the rest of mechanics, audio and graphics, had to rush levels in less than an hour, so there is very little room to explore the moving antennas to triangulate mechanic.

Ratings

Overall 256th 2.95⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 239th 2.825⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 210th 3.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 279th 2.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 248th 2.875⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 183th 3.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 253th 2.725⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

TasakaSama
Apr 20th · 17:21 UTC
It's a shame that the steles block the collision, otherwise it was fun to do, on the other hand I find it light on the theme, but congratulations to you for your participation
SteveOfStevesGames
Apr 21st · 20:31 UTC
interesting puzzle game.
tricky but easy with the undo.
Not sure how i could triangulate but trial and error worked.
cool graphics, nes/snes style.
AJ Atkinson
Apr 22nd · 00:24 UTC
Cool idea! I didn't know until the last room that you could pick up more than guns XD
richjbaron
Apr 22nd · 04:29 UTC
Super interesting puzzle game! I liked this interpretation of the theme though I found shooting randomly to be easier than using the signal thingies haha :)
Really polished and nicely put together, complete game. Super impressive!
Helagos
Apr 22nd · 13:35 UTC
The conceopt is nice. I maybe wouldn't have add collision with stones but it increases the puzzle dimension.
Graphics and audio are nice (especialy the shooting sounds).
Well done !
Oleksandr Marynenko
Apr 22nd · 13:41 UTC
It’s an interesting idea that I have to predict the enemy’s moves using sensors - I like that. However, it’s a bit inconvenient that items placed on the ground can block my path, and sometimes I can’t pick the sensors back up. I also like that I can’t shoot the barrels directly, which forces me to play more carefully and stay in zones where I won’t hit them. But I think it could be interesting to add some barrels that actually help defeat enemies. For example, I shoot and then have to quickly get into cover while the bullet is traveling, timing it so that when it hits, the enemy is near the barrel and it explodes. That’s just the first idea that came to mind. I’m not sure if this is intended, but the controls only worked with the arrow keys — WASD didn’t work. If WASD controls are missing, I’d definitely recommend adding them, as WASD + space feels more comfortable than arrows + space. Overall, the game turned out interesting.
gdman
Apr 22nd · 14:26 UTC
Interesting take on the theme, where you need to track ghost positions using some laser beams. Ideally, first you recon level, you can pick up those detectors and place them, then return for a gun. However, with some patience, you can predict ghost positions and just fire them blindly. There are some unexpected rules in this game, for example that ghost turns into impassable block. But those are just rules of game after all! Keep up good work!
MaggardJosh
Apr 22nd · 16:31 UTC
Cool idea for a game, I did find that I mostly just used trial and error to kill the ghosts. I like that you also have to be aware of where they die so that you don't get blocked in. Audio was very good. Great work!
GettingRekt
Apr 22nd · 16:36 UTC
The game has really good atmosphere and after reading the comments here I kind of understand what I actually was supposed to do. It didn't ever occurred to me that the lines were detecting enemies. I was just shooting in random directions. Its mostly on me for not reading the instructions. Great entry!
LDJam user 234567
Apr 22nd · 19:16 UTC
Well done on your game, and well done on building your own game engine. The music and sound effects are brilliant.
🎤 Jesús González
Apr 22nd · 19:21 UTC
@gettingrekt that's on me actually, should have been clear from just level design. Thanks for playing!
Matt Giuca
Apr 23rd · 01:25 UTC
Cool idea of a "turn based shooter" where you can think precisely through the moves, and undo is a great addition. It almost has a Superhot feel.

I couldn't really figure out what the blue/red lines were for. The first level with that laser it went off when I killed all the ghosts, but I got stuck on this one:
![phantomhunt.png](///raw/52a/36/z/72663.png)
I figured you had to kill the ghost to block the laser with its grave, but it didn't block.
LCStark
Apr 23rd · 12:46 UTC
Pretty cool idea! I'd agree with previous comments that it could perhaps use some more info on what to do in the game, but I did manage to figure it out after a couple of levels. Though I haven't figured out you could pick the signal antennae until the final level - I thought the puzzle was to use what was in the level and didn't even try it. :P

One thing that I would change / add is the ability to turn in place. You can only pick up items if you approach them directly, and while that wasn't really an issue for me here, I can see it becoming a potential problem when levels get more complicated. And I remember that sort of "mechanic" always felt to me like it was just an annoyance. If you could spend one turn to just rotate your character without moving, I think it would be great.

The undo system works pretty well, nice job on the implementation! Having it instantly return you to the previous state instead of reversing the animations and forcing you to wait makes it really smooth to use.

Also, I really like the background music track. Gives you this nice feeling of something dark and mysterious.

And well done on making your own custom engine in Rust! Everything seems to be working pretty neatly, I didn't notice any bugs or unexpected behaviour. I've been looking into learning Rust a bit more and maybe figuring out how to use it for gamedev, so I might look at your source repository for reference when I get the time. ;)

![screen_scaled.png](///raw/3cc/31/z/72725.png)
LDJam user 243193
Apr 23rd · 14:17 UTC
I'm not sure how to use the signal beams to reveal the ghosts. But I find it easier to just shoot in the dark literally to win.
With control fix and mechanic update, this gamecould be better.
Thos10son
Apr 23rd · 19:23 UTC
A really neat puzzle game and the mechanic of moving the sensor/receiver is a cool idea! Was fun to play and puzzle out.
marudziik
Apr 23rd · 21:12 UTC
I also did not figure out that I can pick up the sensors. And I didn't really understand what they do at first - I think I figured that out quite late, like on the last level. Btw not sure if that was intended, but I did something and was able to walk around that last stage as well:

![rec.gif](///raw/d51/2/z/72834.gif)

Anyway, even though the game feels a little bit rough, I wouldn't call it "unfinished". Graphics work well, the audio is really good, and I had fun playing. The only thing it really misses is some in-game tutorial, though now that I think about it the ghosts are visible in the beginning, but become less and less visible, so I guess that was exactly for the tutorial purposes.

Great entry, congrats!
fgreeman
May 03rd · 04:59 UTC
I guess this game is out of theme, cause i can't see any signals. The game is good, like the pixel graphics.