STATIC by Solis

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

In a time when noise fills everything and the truth is diluted among borrowed voices, there are those who still listen… truly. Fragments, interference, patterns that seem like errors… but aren't. Something is hiding within the waves, waiting to be deciphered.

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Tuning in is no longer just about listening. It's about finding what others don't see. And when you understand enough… you can respond. Because there are codes that don't inform. They nullify.

And maybe, just maybe… if you hit the right frequency at the right moment… the noise will stop for an instant. Long enough for something to change.

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🎮 The Game

A fast-paced 2.5-minute game where you scan radio frequencies to find key information at the exact right times.

You'll need to manage overlapping signals, decode Morse, answer and make calls, and send transmissions—all within a strict schedule. Since not everything can be captured in a single run, replaying is essential to uncover every clue.

🎲 Click here to play 🎲


🖱️ Controls

  • [Mouse] Look around
  • [Left Click] Press & hold to interact with objects
  • [H] Show hints

📻 Radio

The radio is the core of the experience.

An old analog receiver that lets you tune into different frequencies, uncover hidden signals, and capture crucial information buried in the static.


☎️ Phone

The phone is your lifeline.

An old rotary phone you must stay close to—missing a call could cost you vital information, and dialing the right number at the right time can change everything.


📨 Telegraph

The telegraph is your voice in the dark.

An old key device used to send coded messages—timing and the right frequency are everything if you want to be understood.


📓 Notebook

The notebook is your guide.

Filled with essential notes and Morse references, it's indispensable for decoding signals and making sense of what you hear.


🕰️ Clock

The clock is your timing anchor.

An old digital timepiece you must constantly watch. Using it to fast-forward time can change everything, but only if you know when to do it.


💡 Cheats

⚠️ Spoiler Level LOW ⚠️ => To unlock 106fm !> Tap CAOS on the telegraph

⚠️ Spoiler Level HIGH ⚠️ =>To get the attack code !> You can listen to Wolf News FM, around 0:30, and the code will be leaked in 103FM

⚠️ Spoiler Level MAX ⚠️ =>To complete the game !> Write the attack code after calling Horizon FM at 2:00


Ratings

Overall 337th 3.69⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Fun 587th 3.121⭐ 64🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 324th 3.54⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Theme 86th 4.306⭐ 64🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 29th 4.606⭐ 68🧑‍⚖️
Humor 489th 2.6⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Mood 99th 4.214⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Given 306🗳️ 114🗨️

Feedback

Mekuire
Apr 21st · 07:54 UTC
The graphics and audio are excellent. But I don't understand how to play it. There's no tutorial.
vlaflya
Apr 21st · 07:57 UTC
Really cool horror atmosphere! Maybe less of knocking would be nice - once its cool, but it gates kinda irritating after a while. Still a cool game!
j3m
Apr 21st · 08:03 UTC
The web version seems to be a bit broken? My normal cursor appears next to the in-game cursor, and it's like the game isn't properly capturing mouse input. When I click and drag the whole screen goes blue, as if I'm selecting it in the web page.
Mr.Relanium
Apr 21st · 08:03 UTC
The graphics, audio and atmosphere are very cool!
jk5000
Apr 21st · 09:16 UTC
The game is looking great and sound is overall really good. How to play is needed. And web version has some issues as already mentioned. But else seem to be a very well made game.
Ficho
Apr 21st · 10:12 UTC
We are working on some fixes, specially the cursor bug for the webGL version @j3m. Will publish ASAP.
7uc4s
Apr 21st · 10:13 UTC
The ambiance is really well done, I was really tense 'typing' a phone number and playing with the radio, but the controls were hard to use I find, which really broke the immersion imo :( but you got me immersed, so good job on that one :ok_hand:
Enryu Mirik
Apr 21st · 10:38 UTC
Wow, how did you manage to make it so beautiful during the jam duration?
VLAD_LEN
Apr 21st · 13:55 UTC
Love this graphics and atmosphere
Zwi Zausch
Apr 21st · 14:25 UTC
impressive, most impressive! Love the artstyle, audio work, general vibe and the polish!
I did not fully understand what I'm supposed to do, dialing 9358 did not work and the morse tapper did not do anything either... mh 🤔 time did reset at some point, so i guess i can just try it again over and over ?
pacific14
Apr 21st · 14:47 UTC
Very good and atmospheric game! Well done!
TheDugnutt
Apr 21st · 17:08 UTC
Really great looking game.

When I first played I immediately hung up the phone on accident because I didnt know I had to hold down the button to answer. Enjoying this one though, great job!
Someday Not Today
Apr 21st · 17:35 UTC
so polished, nice work
awalone
Apr 21st · 20:23 UTC
Voices of the British
Dywanix
Apr 21st · 21:32 UTC
great vibe
nyxkn
Apr 21st · 21:35 UTC
I call in at the right time but they never put me through. UGHH I NEED TO KNOW, HELP?

Game looks and feels great, atmosphere is incredible. All the little sounds and visuals are just perfectly unsettling. So far the gameplay has been cool but very unintuitive, and can't seem to be able to figure out how to continue :cry:
Enriranjan
Apr 22nd · 05:51 UTC
@mekuire @zwi-zausch @nyxkn If you are having a hard time finishing, we have added the H button that gives you clues about the morse you send, the radio chain, and the phone you are calling. Additionally in the description we have put clues in case people need it!

Thank you very much to everyone for the feedback, we hope you enjoy this experience :)
Enriranjan
Apr 22nd · 05:54 UTC
@j3m We have already put in a bugfix and you can play without leaving the cursor of the application.

Thank you all very much for the feedback!
Helgust
Apr 22nd · 07:33 UTC
Very nice, well made game. I really like the way how interactions works, so immersive!
But during the play some king notepad where i could write down a listened beeps and boops from radio. Because not every time you have physical notepad next to you.
Danibeve
Apr 22nd · 08:00 UTC
Hi @helgust, thank you very much for your comment! We actually have in mind incorporating some kind of mechanic to capture relevant information in an immersive way for future updates :)
LDJam user 426288
Apr 22nd · 08:06 UTC
I really love the atmosphere of the game and the sense of urgency brought by the time limit. ⏱️🎮✨
PPKO
Apr 22nd · 11:14 UTC
Great art work! Cool SFX! I love the 101fm
Alexander Stepanov
Apr 22nd · 11:14 UTC
TOO LOUD!
Kenneth Gibson
Apr 22nd · 11:17 UTC
atmospheric as hell, great work
Accelerate0814
Apr 22nd · 11:18 UTC
Cool game!!!
ManTou
Apr 22nd · 11:34 UTC
The environment feels very immersive, and the interactions are smooth and believable. The ambient sounds and the radio really help pull you into the game.
anaastaska
Apr 22nd · 11:35 UTC
I really enjoy visual and audio of the game but it would be great to add some tutorial maybe, as i spent time to understand what i need to do and how game works. Otherwise interesting idea!
stuckne1
Apr 22nd · 12:14 UTC
I thought it looked great, but yea I didn't really know how to play it.
VenomousMouse
Apr 22nd · 12:25 UTC
Very polished and atmospheric game!
AWP
Apr 22nd · 14:14 UTC
I tried playing the web version but it appears to be broken (Linux - Firefox). As soon as I click on an object (phone or morse code paddle) my screen freezes and I get an annoying buzzer that doesn't stop. I tried your game twice before giving up.

I do like what I saw and hear so I think the theme is solid but the play is lacking
Jimox
Apr 22nd · 14:14 UTC
NICE vibe, audio and visual design. Amazing all of the game! I Love it so much
Enriranjan
Apr 22nd · 14:37 UTC
@awp We haven't tested the Linux-Firefox combination yet, but we've tried several browsers and haven't encountered that issue.
We'll try testing it that way to see if we can identify the error and fix it. Thank you very much for the feedback!
Pavel Goncharov
Apr 22nd · 15:56 UTC
Looks nice, but I don’t understand how to play. I wish it has onboarding tutorial or something. ☺️
Stormdrill
Apr 22nd · 19:28 UTC
The vibe is great and using actual radio equipment was a cool touch. However, as a beginner, I struggled a bit to get the hang of it
WormKingBoo
Apr 22nd · 22:14 UTC
Very impressive depth for a jam game! The atmosphere is great - especially the way the lighting was set up 🔥 Beautiful work
Pimeko
Apr 22nd · 22:28 UTC
The mood is really really great. Pretty immersive. Kind of struggled to play on my end as it was very laggy on the web version, but nice entry!
LDJam user 387548
Apr 22nd · 23:47 UTC
Great work on visuals and atmosphere
Chaseplays
Apr 23rd · 03:31 UTC
I love so so much about this! The atmosphere you guys have managed to create is so perfect, the audio and dialogue especially is so much fun. The puzzles are really interesting, the concept is really cool, and once I realized that you could fast forward I liked it so much more.

I somehow wasn't able to finish the game, though. Even knowing (removed bc spoiler tags don't work).

I'd love to know if I'm missing something. If so, it would be a huge help to add it to the hints.

But seriously - amazing work. Seems like I'm just having a hard time getting the game to properly end.
Enriranjan
Apr 23rd · 06:56 UTC
@chaseplays Yes, it is a bug that we are investigating because it happens, in principle you got it since sending the code after the call the game ends, with which you got it. But it is true that there is a bug that makes the credits not shown, we hope to solve it soono
kauri J
Apr 23rd · 07:53 UTC
Cool! A highly polished game! I like the scary atmosphere the game creats. Great job!
Soul Grinder
Apr 23rd · 11:57 UTC
Really cool and creepy, I kept thinking something was going to sneak up on me whilst I was messing with the radio lol. Excellent work, very unique jam entry too!
Kabbi
Apr 24th · 13:18 UTC
I really enjoyed the physical interactions with all the controls. In fact, I'm jealous of them)
JoeGreen
Apr 24th · 17:30 UTC
The look and feel of this is just amazing! The way you interact with objects is not something I'm used to, but it's super interesting. Actually brought me back to using phones like this 😅

But honestly, I'm just not sharp enough to beat the game… Still — fantastic work!
Shram
Apr 24th · 19:18 UTC
This is a fucking awesome game, but I'm too stupid to beat it. It's the best thing I've seen so far.
IRKAR
Apr 25th · 18:14 UTC
Cool visual style like in "Fears to fathom" and i like this scary atmosphere. Nice job!
MicleFirst
Apr 26th · 10:46 UTC
It seems the game is a bit lacking in gameplay explanation. I really liked the atmosphere and execution, but unfortunately I didn’t quite understand what I was supposed to do.

Still, it didn’t ruin my overall impression — very nice work!
3blackpixels
Apr 26th · 15:31 UTC
Great video and audio, but damn, I don't know what to do.
Scottyartt
Apr 27th · 11:01 UTC
Need a tutorial, I really don't know what to do, nothing intuitive, but visually - perfect!
Kandvise
Apr 29th · 22:56 UTC
I was told to listen to music on the phone, so I did, it was great. Cool game! The idea of catching signals and rewinding time is awesome. It solves the problem in VOTV where you can miss an event. Here, you can't miss anything. Overall, I don't really get what's happening, but I like it!
Enriranjan
Apr 30th · 07:23 UTC
@scottyartt @miclefirst The appeal of the game lies in playing it over and over again; it’s impossible to hear and understand everything that’s going on in a single playthrough. That’s why players discover new mechanics and dynamics as they replay the game—which is why it automatically restarts at 2:30 if you don’t win.

Thank you so much for the feedback, and I’m glad you liked the visuals :D
steinhks
Apr 30th · 14:27 UTC
It's cool, but it's really hard to understand what the game wants from you. Nice interaction mechanics and interesting concept, very atmospheric, good job!
Wallted
May 04th · 19:51 UTC
Brilliant take on the theme. You achieved a great narrative with the use if the rewinding and fixed time frame, unusual for a jam game and setting is winded up to perfection. But this was pretty hard for me. I brought the book with myself, I wrote everything on the paper, but I am still stuck at, I presume, the last bit. The spoilers do not help me, I am unable to solve this, sorry
kack3y
May 04th · 20:25 UTC
Very polished entry here. Really fitting atmosphere.

Even with the hints and the H menu I still don't understand how to get the attack code ^^'

Love all the content in radio and graphics ;)
AO-85
May 04th · 21:17 UTC
I really enjoy visual and audio of the game but it would be great to add some tutorial maybe, as i spent time to understand what i need to do and how game works.