Signal City by cax

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

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Signal City

You're the city's internet provider. Run cables from the main antenna to the towers, distribute the signal to homes, and expand the network before the locals get angry.

How to play

Glyphs above buildings mark quests — story, ? optional, ! trouble. Click a glyph to open the offer. Save up $100 000 after the hub reaches its top tier and the big operator buys you out. Stay broke too long and the run ends in bankruptcy.

Controls

  • Left-click: pull / finish a cable, cut an existing one, click quest glyphs
  • Right-click: building menu (upgrade / sell) on a building, build menu on empty ground
  • WASD / arrows / screen edge / LMB-drag: pan the camera
  • ESC: pause and settings

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Ratings

Overall 249th 3.826⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 196th 3.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 368th 3.477⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 27th 4.5⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 56th 4.5⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 358th 3.455⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 432th 2.75⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 437th 3.609⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

luckix
Apr 21st · 18:33 UTC
Really nice game! The fact that you have a tutorial is a very good thing. The system is simple, yet you have to think a bit to complete it.
Congratulation!
LDJam user 280189
Apr 21st · 18:42 UTC
Cool game! The graphics are really pretty and the internet mechanic is a nice concept! The game got a bit too hard and overwhelming when lots of quests started popping up and also at some point there was a spy quest that just made me essentially gain no money because I was losing $50 so I couldn't expand further. Not sure what I did wrong.
Dwang
Apr 21st · 19:19 UTC
Very interesting idea. I'm a bit tired of all the constant events everywhere, but I still enjoyed playing.
kayrum
Apr 21st · 20:25 UTC
The events are a nice way to make you rethink your network. sometimes it is hard to find the building scpaces that are still within range of other towers.
Pacelin
Apr 21st · 21:27 UTC
#### EN
Work on the balance. And it will be super cool. It's just cool now)

#### RU
Поработать над балансом. И уже будет супер огонь. Сейчас просто огонь)
RenD
Apr 24th · 12:37 UTC
That polish level is impressive! It looks like a finished game you could find on Steam. I really like the notification system with all the small side quests, it keeps the player engaged from the get-go. Well, until there are a bit too many and it becomes overwhelming... it just needs a bit of balancing/pacing rework and it'd be a great game.
LDJam user 423872
Apr 28th · 12:23 UTC
Nice game. Great visual style. But I would like more variety. For example different buildings
Cat In Hat games
Apr 28th · 19:36 UTC
Overall, the game really hit those nostalgic notes of the early SimCity titles.

But I still don’t understand why the towers have to be placed so close to each other. In that sense, upgrades seem to matter only for throughput, not for increasing the radius.

Also, something feels off with the task spawning. It gets overwhelming to the point where it quickly stops being enjoyable.

But a big thumbs-up for the visuals and emotions you give me
Kahztein
Apr 29th · 08:08 UTC
Very nice job on making this a proper game experience, it reminded me of playing old flash games online. Even though there's a limited amount of content what's there felt quite polished.

I do think the camera needs to be able to move further to the right than where the houses can spawn, when I built up into the top right corner the notifactions blocked me from being able to manage things in that area.

Also definitely a range indication when building would be a nice feature, since you naturally want to optimally space apart your towers.

But overall great job to your team, it's a very charming game!
slay a stone
Apr 29th · 17:40 UTC
Absolutely top notch graphics and solid gameplay loop. It was a bit frustrating too see how far apart the towers can be placed.

Maybe a different tower for long range travel, but no coverage would have been nice.

Due to the camera angle it was sometimes a bit finnicky to detach a wire
miltage
Apr 30th · 11:14 UTC
I really enjoyed this. After my first run ended in bankruptcy within 2 mins, I played again for like 15 mins and had a proper network going.

The game does have some issues though, which you could iron out post-jam if you wanted to turn this into a full game:

1. The pixel graphics are great but the arbitrary scaling looks bad. Make sure you lock the game to integer scaling division (check the project settings menu).
2. The isometric perspective kinda locks you from building towers behind existing towers.
3. There's no indication of tower connection range, you can only see this after building a new tower and not being able to reach.
4. I expanded to the bottom right of the map but the notifications covered the area and prevented me from building/interacting there.
5. The spy equipment storyline completely gutted me and stopped all progress. At that point I was only making $52, so adding -$50 dollars slowed my income to a crawl and I couldn't manage any other requests.

Quite fun though! I'd love to see a longer version.
Thoth
Apr 30th · 14:20 UTC
很棒的游戏,有很丰富的内容,休闲但是不乏深度的规划体验,且与信号结合的很不错。甚至感觉这个玩法做成更为完整的游戏都充满前景。Great game, with very rich content, casual but not lacking in in-depth strategic planning experience, and it integrates well with signals. It even feels like this gameplay has a lot of potential if developed into a more complete game.
Mezaka
Apr 30th · 22:20 UTC
This was super fun! Played it for way longer than I wanted :D I love how it slowly turned from economy sim to political satire to customer service hell. Superb!
VenomousMouse
May 02nd · 10:33 UTC
Very solid mechanic, could be a bit overwhelming by the quests but that's minor neanse. Also very nice art and great mood. Nice job.