Signal Space by ping78

[raw]
made by ping78 for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

Place relays. Survive. Establish signal.

Ratings

Overall 158th 3.417⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 131th 3.396⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 127th 3.458⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 86th 4.021⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 107th 3.667⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 191th 2.957⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 187th 2.079⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 141th 3.478⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

Helagos
Apr 20th · 16:29 UTC
I love the DA. I feel like the relays range is too small but it's also good to make us move with precision. Well done !
TasakaSama
Apr 20th · 16:40 UTC
I like the idea and the art direction, but it's incredibly difficult, especially since the relay isn't always properly attached. Good idea, well done!
mathemagics
Apr 20th · 17:13 UTC
Very cool idea, and it's also done really well! The relay spam makes for a great grid xD
Thx for the game!
xotraz
Apr 20th · 17:59 UTC
![Capture d'écran 2026-04-20 195738.png](///raw/daf/2/z/70c52.png)
Nice idea, but the link breaks too fast, before I can find a relay.
darkshadow
Apr 20th · 21:00 UTC
Asteroids with wifi, brilliant. I love the physical feel of the rocks and the enemies are delightful the way they move!
graebor
Apr 21st · 01:41 UTC
Interesting idea! Once I realized what was going on I liked this. In practice I found it super difficult though because you have so little leeway, and it can be hard to get the relays to actually connect. I wasn't sure when they were out of range or just not working sometimes, there were lots of cases for me where they were very close together and still not creating a line.
Nanamaki
May 01st · 15:33 UTC
I really enjoyed the feel of controlling the spaceship, and the web-like visual effect you created looks like weaving a spider’s web. Nice catch on the theme and quite engaging.
bentglasstube
May 01st · 17:56 UTC
Wow this was a spectacular entry. The visuals with the glowing line were an awesome retro vibe. I really loved that everything was simple lines. The controls were exquisite and that was very important for a game like this. The signal management was really cool with the line of sight requirement and with the ability to push and spin the rocks, it was surprisingly engaging. It was well balanced, being difficult but not feeling unfair. The subtle sound effects suited the game well. All around just a great entry, thanks for sharing.
binroot
May 01st · 20:02 UTC
The level of polish is unreal! There's so much you've done with so few pixels, that it feels every pixel was justified for a space shooter!
ditam
May 01st · 20:54 UTC
Very cool vibes - the visuals and the movement feel are great! The core mechanic is easy to pick up on without any explanation, and it's very engaging - when the relays work, that is. I struggled a bit with relays often not connecting, and I couldn't figure out what causes this. It didn't _seem_ to be just based on distance or angles (sometimes the closest, and straight facing relays wouldn't connect), so I just considered it bugged, and unfortunately it was "bugging out" a lot.

Despite this, I had quite some fun. Having the "live" network of relays on free-moving asteroids was very satisfying, and a very nice take on the theme.
0kura018
May 02nd · 10:05 UTC
The idea is interesting and well executed. The enemies seemed too fast and crazy, but I liked it.
stuckne1
May 02nd · 13:12 UTC
This game looks really cool and the controls are nice. I am struggling to win this though lol.
K4su
May 03rd · 12:25 UTC
Really enjoyed this game a lot! Thank you! I really enjoyed that I can move asteroids to my liking! :)
Afro.Code
May 04th · 15:22 UTC
It's a great game with a hard potential for fun. I like the vector game style so much, like the "Asteroids", the Atari game of arcade... the connection is too short, and the game doesn't have more signal antennas for long navigating... It would be great to implement a speed booster to avoid the enemy bullets. Congratulations, it's a fun game!!
LDJam user 301711
May 06th · 04:07 UTC
Spaceship control is great, well done!
CreeperXD
May 06th · 11:00 UTC
This is the fastest I managed to achieve.
![Screenshot 2026-05-06 184148.png](///raw/5c9/86/z/73234.png)

Short but fun game, though I wish that I can continuously deploy relays just like I can continuously shoot.
Ava Skoog
May 07th · 21:02 UTC
Nice and clean game! Simple but fun and polished through and through :)

Looks and sound nice, feels intuitive. Was unsure about the single life at first, but it made it very tense every time a ship showed up (immediately being able to spot the red is great, works even with sound off) and it wasn't so difficult to fight them off that it made it impossible to progress, so I think it was a good choice.

I did feel the acceleration was a bit fast, I ended up flinging myself around and bumping the rocks away before I got more used to it, but maybe that's actually a boon too for the difficulty. Being able to move rocks is nice in general, to make sure your relays are close enough, so there's a bit of risk-reward there if you can also bump them in the wrong direction I guess.

I did eventually seem to randomly die from all my relays suddenly disconnecting even tho I was right next to them, don't know if that's a bug or me misunderstanding something.

Overall very good game and a bit addictive, makes you want to retry when you die. Got a couple hundred relays!