Crashout by leenoi
It is a busy, sunny day in Crashville and you are but a simple Traffic Light Operator. The embedded here doesn't seem to work but you can also play the game in your browser at itch.io :)

| GitHub | https://github.com/leonie-wargitsch/Crashout |
| Itch.io | https://unilee.itch.io/crashout |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/crashout |
Ratings
| Given | 5🗳️ | 5🗨️ |
I wish the game also mentioned that arrow keys were also valid controls in addition to WASD. I'm glad that there's dual support regardless.
## Fun
At first, I found myself spamming the WASD keys to keep the lights red, but I like that the first day is very open to allow the player to get used to the controls before introducing the warning of the power usage. I found myself being quite on edge while playing, so I do think the gameplay was generally engaging in that sense, and it helped that it was easy to understand how to play and focus more on having to play well.
Was there a limit to the power usage? I didn't quite understand it as the game would show the total amount of times the lights were used and that accumulated through levels. The way the tutorial presented it made it seem like there was a power bank limit, but there was no UI showing what that limit was.
## Innovation
I think the general presentation of the game is memorable enough, like there's a distinct enough style with the recorded audio.
## Theme
As far as being direct to the theme, this is a game about controlling traffic signals, and I think it executes that well.
## Graphics
The colour palette is cohesive, and I like the design of the roads and cars. I like the freehand drawn lines on the traffic lights. The cars have a nice little animation as they drive.
## Audio
It sounded like the menu music was a live-recorded acoustic guitar, which I really enjoyed. I kind of wish there was in-game music, or at least some ambience like sfx for the cars driving on the road to fill the empty space left when there are no other actions occurring. It did sound like there was some sort of hum while there was supposedly no audio during gameplay, which was a little strange.
The crash sound felt a bit like a plastic bag being crinkled. Is that what it is? I struggled with coming up with a good crash sound effect and tried using a plastic bag and heavily processing it, but I couldn't get it to sound right.
I did only get up to day 3 and was having some trouble with timing those traffic lights for the ambulance - I might come back to this entry later to try it again. Personally, I think the siren sounds could be panned in the direction that the ambulance would be approaching from, since that sound appears to be the cue before the ambulance approaches - at least for the left and right directions. I even think with some dynamic changes, you could possibly imply top and bottom cues. In addition to the sfx, it would be nice to have some visual cues of where the ambulance will appear at the same time as the sfx plays - maybe some of the lights of the ambulance appearing on the side it's approaching briefly before it drives through.
## Humor
Were the ambulance sounds your voice simulating a siren? I really like that; it's very funny. I did laugh out loud when I first heard the siren.
## Mood
Things do feel a bit ominous without music during the gameplay. I guess if you really wanted to enhance the mood, some ambience could have been nice here, like road sounds. But I think for what was done in the timeframe, the mood is cohesive enough and no element of the game felt overly distracting or at odds with the other elements.