LudumData

Panic! at the C.I.A. by antbrl

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

:redcircle: DEFCON1, DEFCON1! :redcircle:

The dangerous organization of the Groove Brothers, also known as the Dangerous International Syndicate Criminal Organization (D.I.S.C.O.) are growing their influence in the country.
Their dark project is to spread disco all around the world, and to brainwash our innocent kids with funky ideas...

You are a fresh rookie in the transmissions department of the C.I.A.
Your job is to intercept suspicious communications and determine if they are harmless, or if they contain secret disco messages.

How to play

You have to process a series of unknown signals.

  1. You have to figure out if each signal is a Text, an Image, or an Audio signal. cipher_type.png

  2. Then, you have to use the left sliders to descramble the signal descrambled.png

  3. After that, you can play with the different steganography tools to find any hidden messages!

  4. Finally, press the green button if everything seems normal to you :greenheart:
    Press the red button if you detect any suspicious disco element :red    circle:

example.png

example2.png

Make sure to use the web version if you can!

Link https://wakobu.itch.io/panic-at-the-cia
Link https://wakobu.itch.io/panic-at-the-cia
Link https://wakobu.itch.io/panic-at-the-cia
Link https://wakobu.itch.io/panic-at-the-cia
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/panic-at-the-c-i-a

Ratings

Overall 49th 4.167⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 112th 3.889⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 47th 4.13⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 32th 4.481⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 124th 4.357⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Audio 44th 4.212⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 31th 4.259⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 73th 4.259⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

passalong
Apr 21st · 08:50 UTC
This game is awesome, the title immediately grabbed my attention and it lived up to it. Super funny premise and execution, simple and snappy gameplay loop with a ton of fun and silly content to fill it out, including background audio and storytelling. I just love this sort of thing. The tone is great and the mechanics make me feel like I'm a kid going through an I Spy book.
Wakobu
Apr 21st · 10:09 UTC
@passalong Thank you so much for your kind review :heart_eyes:

I hope every feature of the game is understandable :smile:
Ray Dino
Apr 21st · 15:14 UTC
Wow, what a well done game. I appreciate that the gameplay starts simple at first, which helps soften the learning curve, then introduces more elements as it goes on. It's perfectly on theme, funny, and fun. Good job!
Lukas Leder
Apr 21st · 15:17 UTC
I love the visuals, such a nice vibe. Also love all the references, very cute!
I must say i was a bit confused at first, it took me a few tries to figure out how to play :P
carterjbx
Apr 21st · 15:18 UTC
Very cool! I love the tactile nature of picking up the different tools. Great submission!
DZO
Apr 21st · 15:19 UTC
Wow! i really enjoyed it, it was a bit to easy. Art was awesome, Sounds where good Overall a amazing game!
Melomaner
Apr 21st · 15:21 UTC
Overall, I actually really like games like this. The core idea is fun, and I’d definitely be interested in playing more of it.

I did run into some issues with the sound though. At first I thought I couldn’t control it at all, but turns out I can at least turn it off — so that’s on me 🙂 Still, it would be really nice to have a proper volume slider, because right now it feels a bit too loud, and I can’t comfortably adjust it to my preference.

In terms of gameplay, it felt a bit on the easy side. You can mostly rely on visual cues (like watching for the checkmarks) and then just fine-tune things from there. Maybe I’m missing something, but it didn’t feel very challenging.

That said, I don’t want to focus too much on the negatives — the game is still fun, and the idea is interesting. I hope you keep developing it further and find success with it!
glem-fumeno
Apr 21st · 15:21 UTC
MAN, DISCO... I VOTED FOR HIM!
graphene
Apr 21st · 15:31 UTC
I really like the visual design related to DISCO! The game was a bit confusing at first, but it was a lot of fun once you figured it out! I can feel that there is an interesting worldview.
FLOWERFIELD Games
Apr 21st · 15:31 UTC
This game is an alien. So bizarre that makes it great. At first I had a hard time figuring out what to do, and then I remembered the title and all made sense. Still too many quirks I don't get to appreciate at its right value. Well done anyway!
Wakobu
Apr 21st · 15:32 UTC
@melomaner Thank you for your feedback :grin:

I guess that the later levels are way harder to deal with because you have to carefully listen to audios, and have to deal with misleading image clues
Ungew0llt
Apr 21st · 16:39 UTC
I love this kind of games, and the variety of gadgets you have to use make it really enjoyable!
draki
Apr 22nd · 10:33 UTC
@wakobu Perfect game, it's impressive, there's humor, a good story, rich gameplay, top-notch music and sound design, et une Téloche haha !
Bien joué à la team vous être trop fort
Wakobu
Apr 22nd · 12:39 UTC
@draki Merci pour ton retour! :grin:
On savait que la TELOCHE allait te plaire :tv:
PeterLeBagarreur
Apr 22nd · 20:39 UTC
I had a hard time at first trying to understand what to do but after a few tried, I got the hang of it and it was really fun! Bien joué ! :dancer:
Wakobu
Apr 22nd · 22:42 UTC
@peterlebagarreur Merci beaucoup l'ami ! Ça fait plaisir :grin:
nextnoon
Apr 23rd · 16:25 UTC
Really cute and vibey! I played for quite a while. I do wish there was some way the game would let me know when the transmissions were correct or incorrect; the text was a little confusing and I wasn't sure which way to interpret it sometimes. Otherwise, incredible job on the style!
Solar Vita
Apr 23rd · 18:15 UTC
I love this spy vibes. A bit confused at the beginning what to do, and I'm not sure I used all stuffs correctly like glasses or lens. Having some more instruction will be great. From the other side we are secret agents we have to intense brain:D Anyway it's superfun and stylish. One more thing: I couldn't find a way to do the radio more quiet it's too loud
Wakobu
Apr 23rd · 22:56 UTC
@nextnoon @solar-vita Thank you for playing and for your kind review :grin:

@nextnoon You can listen to the SFX when you press the green/red button to know of you were correct, but I totally agree that it should be more obvious :bow:

@solar-vita I totally get your point. Having a sort of mini-tutorial/hint for each tool would have make everything more understandable :thumbsup:
Regarding the radio volume, you can use the controls on the bottom right of the screen to tune/mute the radio (maybe you already used it and it's bugged, though :sweat_smile:)
apt_prose7
Apr 26th · 08:34 UTC
Great fun and easy to get into.
LDJam user 389319
Apr 27th · 19:27 UTC
I see there are fellow spy fans alongside us here <3 What a beautiful executed entry, i got so captured by the small puzzles and the amazing visuals, i occasionally forgot to breath when i fiddled with the sliders haha. cheers!
igorekkedziorek
Apr 29th · 12:50 UTC
cool idea however i would consider changing the meaning for the buttons because green being color for negative is kinda counterintuitive
Wakobu
Apr 29th · 15:04 UTC
@igorekkedziorek That's true! Even me I'm confused sometimes :sweat_smile:
LDJam user 276593
Apr 30th · 20:17 UTC
This is jaw dropping stuff. I usually leave long comments on the games I review and do a compliment sandwich with them, but I literally have zero crit of this. It looks great, the audio is unbelievably polished for a jam game (props for hiding the Bee Gees in the US national anthem lol), the central idea is fun and well executed, and it's actually laugh-out-loud funny which is rare.

Probably the best jam game I have ever played.
LDJam user 276121
Apr 30th · 20:37 UTC
Handily the most I've laughed playing through a jam game, astounding work across all axes. I especially appreciate the ongoing mini-narrative in the radio announcements but every puzzle gag landed which is very impressive!
Wakobu
May 01st · 06:27 UTC
@teddyreid @hexyvexy Thank you so much for your hearthwarming review guys, we sincerely appreciate 🥹
Jvdwijk
May 05th · 20:27 UTC
Really cool concept! It took quite a while to understand what I had to do and what counted as disco but once I got the idea it was really fun to figure out. It could've been nice to have some information about disco somewhere tied to the game, so that the player doesn't have to go out of their way to research any bits of info about disco. Maybe something like the manual in Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (but you already have an insane amount of content for a jam game to even think about making this).

The voice acting and story were also really well done!
kiddie
May 06th · 19:28 UTC
Wonderful game! I really enjoyed spoiling all the funky fun. And the Earth WInd and Fire joke was hilarious. Here is a cute little duck for you: 🦆