Rescue Signal by emrod

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

Oh no! We are stranded!

Aim with arrow keys and press space to release Bouys to extend the boat signal so we can be rescued!

screen1.PNG screen2.PNG

Ratings

Overall 800th 2.762⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 827th 2.275⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 723th 2.81⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 671th 3.167⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 510th 3.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 557th 2.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 236055
Apr 21st · 11:10 UTC
I love the art style, it's such a cozy vibe! A suggestion would be to make them move *slightly* faster, I know making them too fast would kill the vibe of the game, but it seems just a little bit too slow for me.
demian4ik
Apr 21st · 16:30 UTC
The concept is great, but one level feels a bit too little — unless it’s just a bug on my end.

I really like the game’s style.
ArtemGet
Apr 21st · 18:11 UTC
Cool game! Is there a way to unlock the next levels?
DryDiamond
Apr 22nd · 09:41 UTC
Nice concept ! Struggling a bit to know where I should send beacon though
goodwayman
Apr 22nd · 15:58 UTC
The concept is really cool! Wish there was more levels!
EDoubleyou
Apr 22nd · 18:18 UTC
To be honest I was not sure what to do. Would be nice to have a indicator about how much bouys you*re allowed to use in a level. Also zhe "ocean" sound gets anoying over time. But i like the concept an potenial of the game.
🎤 emrod
Apr 22nd · 22:37 UTC
@universeflow @demian4ik @artemget @drydiamond @goodwayman @edoubleyou
Thanks everyone for playing our game! Sadly that was the only level that we could finish on time. We had tons of ideas, such as adding obstacles, currents, eddies, and sharks.
We are not saying that we will continue it, BUT if we decide to, what would you would like to see?
As it is right now, we think it could work as a mobile game
ArtemGet
Apr 23rd · 00:18 UTC
@emrod I guess obstacles would be fun
LDJam user 236055
Apr 23rd · 07:37 UTC
@emrod adding currents that take them off course so you have to take it into account when sending them, sharks that periodically appear so that you need to time when to send them to avoid them being eaten - sound like good ideas to add some difficulty to the game :)
Fendri
Apr 24th · 09:37 UTC
The graphics are really stylish! A mobile game would be awesome, with lots of varied levels, obstacles, and ocean currents that carry the buoys to the right spots...
JoeGreen
Apr 24th · 09:44 UTC
The artwork is very pleasing. It looks like a finished mobile game :D Just fix the background wave sound a bit (it cuts off very abruptly) and it's ready for release.
murilojones
Apr 24th · 21:34 UTC
Hey, I just played your game. It looked a very interesting theme, but it was not so well executed. maybe if hidden sea currents affected the buoys in some way, so you could spawn one and watch it follow the current to the shore, so far there is a level selector, but I think there is only 1 level. And the only way I have found to clear the level is to spawn a lot of buoys, so they can push the already spawned ones. So I need to spawn like.. 50 of them as they go a little bit and stop after a while.
Yanato
Apr 25th · 16:14 UTC
Cool graphics, but yes, one level is not enough of course
Ryrumeli
Apr 26th · 04:16 UTC
Definitely feels like the prototype or demo for a mobile game, and I would see myself spending hours playing it. Dig the style. Definitely the bouyance looked amazing.
smilewood
Apr 26th · 15:53 UTC
Well executed. The game looks good and I thought that it was an interesting implementation of the theme. My only gripe was that it was a bit unclear when the beacons were considered close enough to count as extending the signal, a couple of my attempts to get my score down I thought I had them lined up but it didn't count it; leading to having to throw out a bunch more to nudge them into position. A little more visual feedback on that front and, as you had already mentioned, a few more levels and I could see myself spending a bunch of time in a game like this. Well done!
VenomousMouse
Apr 26th · 19:26 UTC
Nice idea and style. Pity there is only one lvl.
McBaker
Apr 26th · 20:07 UTC
I think I'm missing something. I used 3 bouys and waited for like 2 minutes and they didn't seem to move much - ![Screenshot 2026-04-26 at 21.58.19.png](///raw/a8f/76/z/72c64.png). Am I supposed to push them, or wait for them to start moving again eventually?

It wasn't clear to me that they were supposed to form a line of bouys that were close to one another - I only learned it while reading the comments here.

In the end, I just spammed bouys, because well, why not? :P ![Screenshot 2026-04-26 at 22.02.19.png](///raw/a8f/76/z/72c66.png) - the level complete message left me confused - I used 145 out of 5 bouys - so... shouln't I fail? If there are only 5 bouys to be used, I would suggest to indicate it somehow, maybe fail the level if the player keeps sending them, or just don't let the player send more.

I'm curious about what the intended way of playing you were aiming for? Pushing the last bouy with the next sent? Having them float around and taking currents into consideration when sending them, so they eventually line up? It's just not clear to me and it would be nice to have a deeper mechanic than sending bouys towards the harbor, so the player needs to make some decisions when using them.
Aleksey Salion
Apr 26th · 20:16 UTC
I love the sea shader (this wobbly texture, not sure). It would be nice to see move visual feedback, e.g. a bouys turn green when connected, and so on. Overall, it's a nice prototype :v:
LDJam user 423872
Apr 29th · 10:27 UTC
The game's concept is actually quite good. But there weren't enough levels. I also wanted to understand exactly what needed to be done per level, for example, limiting the number of buoys.