RADIO CORE Last Signal by attentionadmin
A unique Tower Defense + RTS hybrid for Ludum Dare 59
🎮 About
The signal is your only weapon. All buildings, turrets, and generators work ONLY inside the radio signal zone that follows your cursor. Keep the signal alive. Protect the core.
✨ Features
- 🖱️ Dynamic Signal Zone - Your cursor activates buildings
- 🏗️ Building - Place turrets, generators, walls and factories
- ⚡ Energy Management - Keep your defenses powered
- 🌊 Wave System - Survive increasingly difficult enemy waves
- 🔧 Upgrades - Expand signal radius, base HP, energy capacity
🛠️ IN DEVELOPMENT / PLANNED:
- 🎮 * RTS Unit Control* — select units, give orders
- 🏭 New buildings - Amplifier, factory, robots
- 🐉 New enemy types — tanks, flying units, bosses
- 🔊 Sound design — music, SFX
- 📊 Advanced statistics — detailed combat logs, achievements
🐛 KNOWN ISSUES:
- Balance adjustments needed (economy, wave difficulty)
- Some UI interactions need refinement
- Upgrades menu — currently under development
🕹️ Controls
LMB- Build (in signal zone)RMB- Cancel BuildingUTAB- Open/Close Upgrades MenuK- Spawn more enemiesT- Open/Close Debug PanelWHEEL+-- Zoom in\out
🎚️ Game Speed Control
0- Set speed to x0.1 (slow motion)1- Set speed to x1 (normal)2- Set speed to x23- Set speed to x44- Set speed to x8
👤 Credits
- Idea & early prototype - Den Terentev & Daniel Melekhov
- Code & Design - Den Terentev
- Made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 59
My record without cheat codes and without slow-mo :D
| Link | https://attentionadmin.itch.io/radio-core-last-signal |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/radio-core-last-signal |
Ratings
| Overall | 769th | 2.935⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 625th | 3.045⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 606th | 3.068⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 656th | 3.205⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 707th | 2.952⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 479th | 3.075⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 463th | 2.658⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 733th | 2.976⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 63🗳️ | 13🗨️ |
Also, is there a language toggle?
[Untitled.png](///raw/7b6/34/z/70c65.png)
I considered the best apporach is to have 3-turrets in a corner since they have no range issues, to maximise DPS, and use other corner to maximise energy with the very limited hover-zone.
Increasing juice is a must have for such a game, and I really think the mouse-over is a great way to make TD-games more active!
Well done!
Happy to play again if you get fixes alive, so let me know if update!
- **Upgrades** - fixed and working (press U). Balance still needs tweaking, but technically everything works
- **Time control** - use 1-4 keys for speed (x1/x2/x4/x8), 0 for slow motion
- **Debug panel** - press T (if you want to test things)
- **Signal radius** - now expands properly with upgrades
- **Build perimeter** - you can now expand your building area
- **End game stats** - now shows waves completed, enemies killed, and survival time on game over screen
Thanks for the motivation - couldn't wait until Monday! Ended up coding through the whole night - couldn't stop once I started.
Let me know how it plays now :video_game:
I removed systems like Factory, Robots, Amplification, and some RTS mechanics (they were in from day one) because they were too buggy.
I didn’t want people to play a broken version, so I kept only the core mechanics and made it more stable.
I’ve heard about The King is Watching, but haven’t played it yet - I’ll definitely check it out, I think there’s a lot I could learn from it.
I feel like the core gameplay has potential. If there was a proper save system and things like signal amplifiers that automatically activate nearby buildings, that would be a real game changer.
I also think the wave system needs more work - adding bosses, tanks, drones, etc. could make it more interesting.
For now I’m just waiting for the rating period to end and collecting ideas. I actually like the project myself, so I might keep developing it for a while - maybe even turn it into a proper game someday 🙂
When I was able to build new turrets, they were able to fire, but it was too late.
So the turret mechanic seems buggy.
Apart from that I really like the idea of an expanding building grid. The upgrade menue is a nice addition. Having a button at the bottom to open it would be even better, so you can just play the game by using the mouse.
The song is fitting and is a good background track.
The overall UI is neatly arranged. :)
The idea of playing with just the mouse (and having a button for the upgrade menu) is already on my to-do list :)
> yeah, adding full mouse-only control will also let you eat pizza or chips with your left hand while building your base with the right 😄
About wave 6 — maybe you ran out of energy? I’ll need to check that, could be a bug.
I’m planning to rework the wave system and enemy progression in the future.
Also, the music is original - made by my friend ;D
I unlocked basically all the upgrades, but still didnt manage to find a way use robots. Not sure if those are even needed as I unlocked everything and the towers destroy everything with no issues.
If this is to be developed into more felshed out game I'd consider these
- Balancing the game to more predefined levels, and keep the existing "endless mode". Make endless mode considerably more difficult
- Music gets really repetitive, the high pitch violins especially. Also the loop is not perfect.
- Game Juice is really needed; particles to be added when collisions happen
- killed enemies can drop resources => adds layer to game: "do I want to collect it and risk inactive towers?"
- Enemy variance: some more bullet-spongy, some more faster.
I really think the active-inactive towers activated by the player signal is surprisingly good! It works as a really good balance mechanism of resources with the energy.
Well done!
> but still didnt manage to find a way use robots.
Yeah, I disabled robots before the end of the jam because they were too buggy. I’m currently working on a big update (planning for June) where they’ll be reworked.
> killed enemies can drop resources
That’s a really interesting idea - I was thinking about something like short-lived drops or even a “magnet” mechanic to pull resources to the base.
This is my first time seriously balancing a game, and yeah… it’s way harder than I expected 😅 Adding new enemies and structures means a lot of balancing work.
Right now I’m working on a scenario system (configs for waves/difficulty, shareable via JSON) + save system. I’ve already moved the wave manager into it.
I also added a simple tutorial scenario - I noticed some players don’t fully get the mechanics at first.
I feel like with proper balancing and scenarios, this could grow from a short 10–20 min experience into something much bigger.
The next version might be PC-only due to browser limitations - this one will stay as a demo.
Thanks again for the detailed feedback and motivation — really appreciate it! If this ever makes it to Steam, I’ll send you a key 😉
One thing that I didn't like is how projectiles disappear when the target enemy dies and lack of animations in general.
Still, the game is easy to learn and very enjoyable to play!
I liked the tower defense style a lot, and it actually reminded me of another jam game I played before that started with a very similar idea and eventually became a commercial game (The king is Watching). I could see the same potential here.
There’s nothing I can really complain about considering this was made for a game jam, I’m only talking from the perspective of maybe turning it into a full commercial project someday. With more time to polish things and especially with stronger art and visuals, I think this could become something really interesting.
Good work, and keep going! :tokyo_tower: