LudumData

Smoke Signal Officer by Tundra

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

NOTE: The first task has a programming error. It does not require a starter signal. Just send the colors of the cities.

You are a smoke signal officer in the Holy Military Industrial Complex and you translate letters from soldiers into smoke signals for your divine rulers. Do the right colored smoke sequence to summon heavenly fire support for your comrades.

Best played full screen as UI elements get cut off. No audio. Controls are in the top left. Open the hand book (TAB) to get mechanics info the (A) and (D) to turn the pages. Full table of smokes in the back of the handbook. Instructions for tasks can be found from the cans on the radio desk. Do them left to right.

Sadly not finished fully. If the game runs poorly, be sure to close the door by clicking it again after opening it. That culls some parts of the level.

Spoilers for the answers:

Task 1 TRIANGULATE: yellow, cyan, blue, in any order

Task 2 ARTILLERY AT NEW PENSTOCK: yellow, cyan, red, in sequential order

Task 3 ENEMY AT NEW PENSTOCK: green, red, cyan, green, sequential

Task 4 ENEMY AT BUNKER: green, magenta, cyan, sequential

Task 5 ARTILLERY AT BUNKER: yellow, magenta, red, sequential

Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/smoke-signal-officer

Ratings

Overall 710th 3.114⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 758th 2.682⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 571th 3.136⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 401th 3.795⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 560th 2.395⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 614th 3.295⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 20🗨️

Feedback

II-P
Apr 21st · 03:47 UTC
Infinite loading on web :<
🎤 Tundra
Apr 21st · 03:56 UTC
@ii-p this version isn't super optimized for web. I'll see if I can optimize this port a bit more.
II-P
Apr 21st · 04:04 UTC
@tundra, hopefully, downloadable zip still available! Game has great potential in Mood, but the sound design is really lacking :( Interesting concept, definitely a more distinctive implementation of the theme compared to many others. But... I've reread instructions several times, but still don't understand how to put colors in the oven.
CasualNothing
Apr 21st · 06:02 UTC
It's an interesting idea, but I can't figure out the first message. The instructions say to do the messages left to right. The first can on the left says to triangulate. I'm to begin a ritual with the message type. The guide says magenta corresponds to triangulation. I send up magenta smoke. I'm told the color is wrong and I have to restart. What am I missing?
woona
Apr 21st · 08:50 UTC
Good job! I liked how the scene is set up and how many interactable things there are.

The rules are quite complex though. I think it would be cool if the first message was just 'make this color' to make sure that player understood how to play. And only after that introduce more complex messages.
Rocotos
Apr 21st · 09:17 UTC
The idea is really not trivial, I'd say it's even great, but it's quite complicated to know what to do even with the explaination. It definitely needs some sort of tutorial mission, like "do this color first" to make things clear and then increase the difficulty. And the lack of any audio is unfortunate, of course.
🎤 Tundra
Apr 21st · 15:07 UTC
@casualnothing Sorry, that was a programming mistake! I didn't include a starter signal for task 1 on accident. I've updated the description to reflect that. I've also included answers for anyone else who gets stuck.
LDJam user 425464
Apr 21st · 18:48 UTC
Very nice atmosphere even without audio. Game was tad complicated and some tutorialization could have helped. But overall I enjoyed how much tinkering you needed to do to get smoke signal out.
TheGoblinGuy
Apr 21st · 19:30 UTC
Hmm. The way I interpret it, the first task should've been Grestio, Aurosia, and New Penstock. But submitting (yellow, blue, cyan) is wrong, and in your answers you say white (no colors added) instead of cyan. The handbook doesn't list any meaning for white, either. Extra logic mistake on top of the missing starter signal?

Other than that, fun little game. Would love to see an expanded version with some nice audio ambiance, perhaps distant war noises and the like, and actual radio messages to make it an actual story. Maybe somehow involve a grid coordinate system and keeping track of things on the map yourself, to spitball some ideas. It's that good of a base idea. Also would probably be nice if the bucket had multiple (3?) uses per time you fill it up, the walk back and forth gets a little tiresome over time :sweat_smile:

!> And I'm only a little disappointed there was no explosion + cut to black screen at the end when we bomb our own location :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
🎤 Tundra
Apr 21st · 23:08 UTC
Thank you all for your feedback! @thegoblinguy Yes, the white smoke is a mistake. I think New Penstock used to be white earlier in development and I forgot to change the color for that task. I actually did plan to have audio to the point that I wrote scripts for most of the radio messages but as usual for me in these jams, I overscoped and had to cut alot and neglect proper playtesting 😭.
JuanRod707
Apr 22nd · 02:30 UTC
Love the lore, steampunk holy wars! Liked the game very much, would be cool to have an external view like a camera hooked up to a TV inside to see the smoke coming out
Daliamha
Apr 23rd · 14:11 UTC
I love interaction system and all game very cool. But sounds would make it better)
alexey_bobrovskiy
Apr 24th · 08:19 UTC
5 stars on the topic. There was a serious lack of any sounds, footsteps, feedback on actions, or any ambient background music.
zhangzhimu
Apr 25th · 08:55 UTC
A mind-bending puzzle game! There are so many interactive objects in this game. It feels very exploratory. Moreover, it has carefully designed actions such as picking up, putting down, and squatting. This is something I didn't think of. If such brain-teasing games could have a little more hints, they would be even more friendly to players like me who are beginners.
fourApril
May 04th · 15:03 UTC
Web not working
LDJam user 289440
May 07th · 09:40 UTC
Cool signaling concept
F1Krazy
May 08th · 22:20 UTC
I had to read through the comments to understand why I was getting stuck on the first puzzle. With all due respect, you were told that the solution you gave in the description was wrong *two weeks ago*, and you still haven't corrected it. Why not? It would have saved me a lot of time and confusion. The description also says that the monitors are supposed to give me feedback, but they don't, they just say "asdf".

It's a cool concept, with some nice theming, but I'm afraid the fact that the first puzzle is broken and hasn't been addressed has just soured me on the whole experience. It's a bad first impression.

(I can't remember whether I played the original version or the 1.1 version, if you fixed the puzzle in the 1.1 version then fair enough.)