Out of Signal RTS by quasilyte

[raw]
made by quasilyte for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

Play online: quasilyte.itch.io/out-of-signal

An RTS where you only ever control your buildings. There is no unit-level micro here.

The for of war is deadly - your units lose the control and become helpless when they're out of your radar-scouted area. Keep your radars safe, and never get out of its signal.

Play in full screen! The button is in the lower right part of the game.

Controls:

  • Left mouse button: selects a building
  • Right mouse button: performs an action for the selected building
  • A crosshair cursor means "can right-click here with this building"

How to play:

  • Build an economy - harvest minerals, generate power
  • Setup a defense - enemies will come at you soon
  • Do a counter attack - destroy their bases and win the game
  • Press "Help!" for a contextual help, also hover over stuff for hints

https://youtu.be/7BPtksUt5mk

untitled-ezgif.com-optimize(1).gif image<em>2026-04-20</em>02-13-59.png

Ratings

Overall 15th 4.15⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 36th 3.85⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 53th 3.816⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 61th 4.15⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 12th 4.375⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 14th 4.125⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 11th 4.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

Jacat
Apr 20th · 05:24 UTC
Stylish visuals and satisfying controls.
Sergey Kuznetsov
Apr 20th · 10:24 UTC
Full RTS in 2 days. Good job. The atmosphere is worth mentioning too.
kanity
Apr 20th · 21:16 UTC
I really like the hauntiness of the music, there is a special feel to it that fits the game well and creates a lovely dystopian atmosphere if I can put it this way :)

It does feel cozy and slow-paced, at least on the Normal difficulty. And everything looks neat and polished! You did so much in 48 hours and it feels like there was a lot of care put into the game.

To be honest, this is not my genre at all, so I did feel a bit lost while figuring out what to do, what to build, how to go about it. I watched a bit of your video on YouTube though ^^

The pink enemies and their den look so cute. Their house looks like a flower bud <3

![cute.jpg](///raw/c93/65/z/70fc5.jpg)

They are working hard in there, living their life and not touching me (so far). Can I be a peaceful nation? :D
drtizzle
Apr 21st · 10:33 UTC
Very atmospheric entry, i like it! The CRT effect really works for this game, and the graphics overall are very nice. I love how the little guys walk around. It feels very complete, with all the mechanics you were able to put in this. It took me a while to understand that i had to select a building, and then i could do something. My only gripe is that building and generating takes a bit too long for a small gamejam game. A lot of the time i just was waiting until i was strong enough to attack.
Overall a very polished and complete entry!
Nikiroz
Apr 21st · 10:46 UTC
I like this art style! And it’s always nice when someone brings back those old-school RTS genres.
Loig
Apr 21st · 12:10 UTC
Nice graphics, nice atmosphere. This is not really my type of game (i.e. I am not into RTS in general) but it seems quite nice and well polished. Congrats!
GARYglhf
Apr 21st · 13:53 UTC
Я в восторге, люблю стратегии. Игра сделана на высшем уровне - класс!
LDJam user 424964
Apr 21st · 15:40 UTC
It’s truly impressive that a single person was able to create an RTS game in just 48 hours, and the game is very polished.
🎤 quasilyte
Apr 21st · 16:23 UTC
@reimi every once in 3-4 game jams I try to make an RTS-ish game. And it's usually not a good idea as there is not enough time to balance it and they end up either too hard or too easy. It's still better than not making one as there is 0 chance of me trying to make a commercial RTS any time soon.
woona
Apr 21st · 16:56 UTC
The game is very fun. I really liked building the economy and watching my base grow. I also like how vital the radars are, if your radars are destroyed, you're basically lost, it links to the theme well.

It was easy to learn how to play but decision making of managing different resources and choosing what to build next really made the game stand out to me. I also really enjoyed the variety of different units. Overall, stylistically the game reminded of Dune. Sounds and music are very fitting too.

But the enemy felt more like an afterthought, they spawned at edges of the map (which felt like cheating) and mindlessly walked around.
🎤 quasilyte
Apr 21st · 17:07 UTC
@woona I think the easiest and quickest fix would be to only spawn the "out of the map" enemies outside of the radar range. That would make it less annoying and more fair. Defending would also be easier. But oh well.

I didn't get that simple idea during the jam. And now it's too late
NinjaCatz
Apr 21st · 18:52 UTC
Не, ну это очередной RTS шедевр. Жанр и так не простой, но каждый раз удивляюсь качеству проработки. Хотя признаюсь честно, по началу тупил - не понимал, что к чему коннектить. По итогу - слил все ресурсы в солдатиков, которых потом снес вражеский шагоход или что-то типа того xD
Alex Mulkerrin
Apr 22nd · 19:12 UTC
It's always a joy to see someone attempt something as challenging as an RTS in the compo and you've pulled it off so well. I really liked the idea of focusing on buildings and having units assigned to command centers. That and the constructions requiring resources to be sent over to them really put me in mind of the Perimeter games.

The art and music are excellent adding to a desolate feel. I don't know what kind of post processing effect you had on the screen but it was cool to see.

In my playthrough I found gold to be the most sought after resource as a single cyborg factory would use up nearly all your supply. Of course with that many cyborgs you could then steamroller everything :P

It was a bit slow to move the camera around so a clickable minimap would have helped or perhaps smaller grid squares. The buildings did seem to have a lot of space around them.

All in all one of the most impressive entries I've ever seen in the compo. If you ever change your mind about making a commercial RTS I would definitely play it :)
🎤 quasilyte
Apr 22nd · 19:34 UTC
@alex-mulkerrin the cyborg factory is the only factory you can stop completely as it does not produce units when conntected to itself - so the cyborgs are a way to dump gold into the furnace to build up your raw power, but it will hurt the expansion as most buildings cost gold. :D But the game is still far from being balanced, I got very limited time to test it. I think I played the game around 2 hours in total during those 2 days and it wasn't enough to check things out enough.
VenomousMouse
Apr 23rd · 20:03 UTC
First rts i see here. Needed a bit of time to learn the ropes, but it`s great! For me, it got the feel of Dune for sega.
Caer
Apr 24th · 01:41 UTC
I'm blown away that this game is a Compo entry! I loved the atmosphere, art style, and unique take on the signal concept--and the RTS genre as a whole. The one thing that confused me during gameplay was the left/right click behavior. I admittedly don't play many RTS, so these controls might be standard...they just confused me. :see_no_evil:
LDJam user 428640
May 08th · 13:30 UTC
Unbelievable that this is a Compo entry. The polish level is really impressive—atmosphere, art, audio, effects, gameplay, and even the theme integration is cleverly done. If the enemies had a few more mechanics to work with, it would be even more perfect. With some extra polish, this could be an even stronger piece. Overall, well done!