LudumData

Ignorance is profitable by Zirrrus

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

Protect the status quo from meddling aliens by blocking their messages using satellites.

Play (Web, Linux, Windows) on itch.io

Controls

Mouse only. Click and drag on satellites to move them.

About the game

Try to survive for as many waves as possible. Forget about balancing. It's not great. You might notice that beams sometimes get bigger (wider). They are supposed to interfere with each other... it sort of works, sometimes.

About development

Spent the first day developing a completely different game, and it was going horribly. I just couldn't do anything. I felt entirely betrayed by my brain. So I scrapped that project and started a new game on the second day. This one.

Screenshot from 2026-04-19 23-57-20.png

Link https://zirrrus.itch.io/ld59-signal
Link https://zirrrus.itch.io/ld59-signal
Link https://zirrrus.itch.io/ld59-signal
Link https://zirrrus.itch.io/ld59-signal
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/ignorance-is-profitable

Ratings

Overall 232th 3.132⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 218th 2.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 166th 3.289⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 54th 4.184⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 143th 3.5⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 127th 2.632⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 215th 3.053⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 13🗨️

Feedback

paracorn
Apr 20th · 08:54 UTC
Great game. I love this idea
hotaloca
Apr 20th · 09:03 UTC
Well, a great game for a one day jam!!! I like the idea of capturing waves, the satellites felt too slow but I guess that's the point of the game :) It was interesting duality that the waves also can feed your research - so serves both as attack and benefit. Anyway, nice entry!
graebor
Apr 22nd · 01:53 UTC
Cute art style! I like the wonky shapes, and it was fun to drag stuff around and make a mess while trying to progress. Nice job putting this together in only one day :open_mouth:
NE-Aquilon
Apr 22nd · 22:13 UTC
Game froze after this screen. Otherwise pretty fun little game.

![ld8.png](///raw/f91/86/z/72622.png)
LDJam user 407703
Apr 23rd · 23:38 UTC
Really cool idea and great controls, it feels very smooth to play.

For my taste, the progression moves a bit too quickly. I think it would be even more engaging if upgrades required catching signals for a bit longer, so you can sink more into the loop.

But overall, I really enjoyed it!
kanity
Apr 24th · 13:34 UTC
Morally speaking, this is the game you want to lose; that's what I thought after seeing the "losing the game" message; it didn't show which wave I died on, and I guess I didn't pay enough attention to the number to remember myself. It got challenging relatively quickly, but the upgrades were coming in often, and they were lovely (especially the speed, since satellites move pretty slow). That was certainly an interesting experience! Also, I love the pretty night sky and how you drew the planet ^^
LDJam user 409682
Apr 24th · 19:06 UTC
An interesting idea. It’s quite difficult though, or maybe I just didn’t fully get it. Could use some sound effects too!
Longfall
Apr 26th · 12:26 UTC
great game, especially given the time left you had to develop it !
ruruie
Apr 28th · 19:13 UTC
This is great given the circumstances! I did run into a bug where when the research menu popped up while moused down, my cursor continued dragging a satellite around after coming out of menu.

Shame about the post-scarcity utopia!
kr4ft3r
Apr 29th · 18:46 UTC
My experience was I got spammed by upgrades every 3-6 seconds, not sure if that was bug or intended but I managed to roleplay that this is due to may unfair favors from the government. The story / premise is very good, the gameplay idea is fine and I could feel getting a bit hooked into the idea of blocking signals, but lack of time available to put into the final game idea is evident. Considering you had only around one day the result is damn impressive.
SinusQuell
May 01st · 13:34 UTC
Pretty neat idea! Handling the satelites was kind of hard, but I assume that's part of the game :D
Loig
May 02nd · 09:08 UTC
Nice game idea! I agree that it is quite hard to handle the satellites. I had fun playing.