MISSION 404 by KALABHERS

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

1010.png helper.png We've picked up signals from the survivors. They're still breathing — we can pull them back from the other side. Fortunately, we have a dummy: mindless, obedient, ready to get his hands bloody with just a nod from you. Only your orders. But make sure you don't mix up the ampoules. One mistake — and they'll turn into a detonator. A mutant will be born that will explode so violently that all that's left of us will be a wet spot.!

Снимок экрана 2026-04-25 022341.png Снимок экрана 2026-04-25 022603.png

attantion.png If you have performance issues or tick lag, download the Windows version of the game.

Let's be real - we kind of fumbled the browser build. Rhythm input gets... quirky there. The game is technically playable, but the Windows version is how it's meant to be experienced. Oops. We recommend downloading it.

code: Nikita Fliegen

art: Dima KALABHERS

soundtrack: Damian Stern

end.png

Ratings

Overall 186th 3.905⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 241th 3.667⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 94th 3.95⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Theme 212th 4.085⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 56th 4.5⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Audio 86th 4.1⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Mood 149th 4.103⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 424535
Apr 21st · 04:08 UTC
It was funny! :D
criatura_nocturna
Apr 21st · 05:19 UTC
Very cute, I loved the overall presentation.
Trav
Apr 21st · 07:21 UTC
I like the art work and the general vibe is great. I really struggled to get anywhere though. I saw the code on the sticky and was trying to press the buttons the right way but I had such a low success rate. I'm not very good at music games though so it's probably me.
LDJam user 428140
Apr 21st · 07:26 UTC
Absolutely loved this one! The art style is gorgeous. The premise of commanding a dummy through binary signals is such a creative take on the theme, and the dark humor had me hooked immediately.

The rhythm-based input is a cool idea. I found the timing window a bit tight for me personally. Maybe make it slightly more forgiving in the beginning? That said, the concept is solid and I can tell it'd feel super satisfying once it clicks.

Great atmosphere, clever mechanics, and tons of personality. Awesome work!
penagwin
Apr 21st · 07:29 UTC
The art is great, the gameplay is fun and the ending was a fun twist :D

I wasn't sure but there might be a bug with the audio syncing?

Either way, awesome entry!
MuzzLove
Apr 21st · 07:32 UTC
great game, i like it.
rezonanc
Apr 21st · 07:52 UTC
amazing
mc shopot
Apr 21st · 07:59 UTC
That's a really cool feature. The game perfectly conveys the jam theme. Thanks for the experience the gameplay is great!
LDJam user 297990
Apr 21st · 08:40 UTC
Cool ending twist!
Very nice atmosphere and use of theme!
The timing was super hard and frustrating though...
bigfatgua
Apr 21st · 09:22 UTC
This is such a gem! The gameplay is incredibly catchy—gives me major Patapon vibes. I also really liked the ending! One small tweak: it would be awesome if we could keep the beat going without being interrupted by the animations. Having to re-find the rhythm can be a bit jarring. Still, I’m totally hooked!
Tkap1
Apr 21st · 13:00 UTC
Great graphics. The gameplay gets repetitive quick
Slowline
Apr 21st · 16:40 UTC
very cool little rythm game, art is looking really good!
Tykki19
Apr 21st · 17:50 UTC
Cool and unique style and so nicely minimalist controls. Well done!
LDJam user 425464
Apr 21st · 18:06 UTC
Cool idea! Sometimes I feel like animations were kinda breaking the flow where i thought i could press button and it didnt register or that i was doing the sequence offbeat. But quite quickly i just learned to wait for the next bar after anything i did and there werent that much pressure in the game anyways so it wasnt big problem. The flow state you could get in this felt really nice.
Winbion
Apr 21st · 18:16 UTC
An unexpected ending. But there seems to be a problem in the game that pressing the buttons, although it gets into the rhythm, needs to be pressed with a delay. (Maybe it's a problem with me because I'm bad at rimt games)
Dywanix
Apr 21st · 21:32 UTC
very fun and lovely artstyle!
Myokka
Apr 21st · 22:09 UTC
A great idea to implement a rhythm game. However, I found the keypress windows to be too small, and the game isn't very forgiving of mistakes.
II-P
Apr 22nd · 19:52 UTC
Wow, that's a good one! Well polished and really fun to play! However, I think game shouldn't `pause` once player gives medicine/shoots. It really ruins the vibe, and, the most important, **the rhythm** T_T
Still, very decent entry!
bobanko
Apr 22nd · 22:54 UTC
5star graphics for me, but totally unplayabe in web. can't pass second code, when you need to cure the guy.
ps
played again, sometimes it works, sometimes not. lack of feedback on bad inputs for me.
fkjaha
Apr 23rd · 12:17 UTC
Artstyle is amazing, the gameplay is nice and creative, the only thing I'd change is how big the time frame for input is, it was just a little too hard to click at right moments in my opinion
YugiMuto
May 02nd · 12:57 UTC
Игре за один визуал уже первое место можно давать
Tetracold
May 02nd · 20:53 UTC
love the presentation and the mood here. I think the theme is used in a pretty creative way too! it took me a bit to get used to the timing inputs but I eventually got the hang of it and I did semi decent. it would be nice if the input window was a little more forgiving.

also liked the ending, I thought it was fun and slightly unexpected twist
🎤 KALABHERS
May 02nd · 22:16 UTC
***Thank you to everyone who played our game and took the time to leave a comment. We finally sat down, read everything carefully, and wanted to reply. As a small team, every piece of feedback means the world to us.***

![itchtxhx.png](///raw/244/46/z/7308f.png)

@toshiy @muzzlove @rezonanc @mc-shopot @dywanix @yugimuto — thank you for the kind and positive feedback! It really energizes and motivates us.

@criatura-nocturna @slowline @tykki19 — as the person behind the visuals, it's especially nice to hear such warm words about the style and atmosphere. This is exactly why I draw)

@trav @jpat @fredrik-andersson @myokka @fkjaha @tetracold @winbion @penagwin @bobanko — huge thanks for the honest feedback. We really did notice the input response issues in the web version too late. We've already widened the input window a bit, so it feels more responsive now. That said, the best experience is still the Windows build if you download and play it, those issues aren't there. Honest feedback like yours is incredibly valuable.

@bigfatgua @geeni @ii-p — thank you for the feedback. This is our first attempt at a rhythm game, and we couldn't quite nail a smoother flow of actions without breaking the rhythm. Something to learn from.

@tkap1 — thank you! With just three days for the jam, we only managed to get the core in, a lot stayed out of scope. Glad you liked the visuals though)
zidan-banan
May 03rd · 21:00 UTC
Great game. The goal and gameplay are immediately clear. Everything is responsive and tactile, good polishing

Even though I hate the rhythm of the game, I really liked this one. Cool mechanics with different combinations

It was a bit distracting that the rhythm stops when the action happens. I would have liked more continuous gameplay once I got the flow

Very stylish art
And I really liked the ending
![2026-05-03_23-36-38.png](///raw/cc3/66/z/730f8.png)
🎤 KALABHERS
May 04th · 10:18 UTC
@zidan-banan Thanks for the feedback! This is our first rhythm game – we stumbled upon a lot of pitfalls. Never thought about mechanics like this, but when else to try something new if not at a jam? Glad you liked the style and the ending. Thanks for the note about the rhythm – we'll keep it in mind!
AO-85
May 04th · 20:42 UTC
If polished, it could become a quite interesting and fun game, similar to "Papers, Please" with monster checks—to be honest, the style is quite similar too. Cool game, definitely finish it and release it on Steam; I think it has every chance of success.
Alexandr Gerya
May 04th · 22:41 UTC
that ending twist caught me off guard lol super clever way to tie everything together!
Madbarron
May 05th · 04:57 UTC
Pretty cool! I wish that doing an action didn't interrupt the flow though. It wasn't challenging so I wanted to keep ticking through it. Maybe if there was more of a puzzle to which pattern to use, or if there was a time pressure to pick the right one quickly. I dunno. But as a jam game I think it's great.

PS my last jam game was also a rhythm instructions game and it was fun to see your totally different take on it :grin:
🎤 KALABHERS
May 06th · 00:46 UTC
@ao-85 Thank you so much! Honestly, we'd also be curious to see a polished version of our little jam idea. Feels like you believe in this game's potential even more than we do) **Thanks again for the kind words - it means a lot.**

@alexandr-gerya **Oh, thanks!** I personally felt so satisfied when we untangled all the ideas and they came together into such a tight, cohesive story. Glad you appreciated it.

@madbarron Yeah, once the jam was over and the feedback started rolling in, we realized a few ways to make the gameplay feel better. This jam taught us a ton - we've definitely taken notes) **Thanks for the kind words!**
And I made a note to check out your game from last jam too
LesDremlet
May 06th · 09:04 UTC
Damn good concept and a brilliant ending, congratulations guys!
quietchili
May 07th · 03:00 UTC
very cool game but it took a while to get the timing right
LDJam user 424943
May 08th · 22:03 UTC
Very interesting concept and beautiful design!

But I didn’t immediately realize that you’re supposed to follow the rhythm (yeah, I didn’t read the message on the wall).

It’s also frustrating when you clearly hit the rhythm, but the game doesn’t register it. Maybe there’s some kind of synchronization issue. I played the downloaded version.
LDJam user 413537
May 09th · 10:38 UTC
Залип на очень долго)) Отличная идея и исполнение, особенно визуал и звуки :)

Сначала было сложно понять как попасть в ритм, но как дошло, игра пошла как по маслу. При этом требуется не мало сосредоточенности и внимательности, даже когда кажется что все стало легко!

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