Herdware Signal by Seravlac

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

Cold night on the prairie with a fuel shortage. No sign of life or some shelter nearby. But you hear some signals. Follow them.

Herdware Signal is a truck-driving adventure about seeking the exit from a natural labyrinth.
Who sends you audio signals? Will you ever find the way out?
Do you want some milk? Answers don't matter - they are all just moo points.


Controls

  • WASD - Move
  • Mouse - Look
  • Shift + R - Respawn (in case you got stuck)

1.jpg

Ratings

Overall 392th 3.607⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 514th 3.262⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 478th 3.31⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Theme 199th 4.107⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 303th 3.976⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 175th 3.55⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Mood 107th 4.195⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 69🗨️

Feedback

mantaraii
Apr 20th · 23:45 UTC
The atmosphere is absolutely maxed out, but the vehicle speed is a bit too fast for my mouse-driving skills—I often couldn’t react in time and ended up crashing… The chase later on was pretty intense too. In the end, I got stuck when my car drove straight into the center of a fork in the road, and then I got crushed by falling offal. I have to say, that death was actually hilarious 😭
Rinnnzy
Apr 21st · 09:53 UTC
It has a really tense and terrifying atmosphere! I hope some guidance can be added.
TheLink
Apr 21st · 10:22 UTC
Outstanding visuals for a 72h jam! Light is very well done, controls are good, atmosphere is fantastic. Good job!
GYGOL
Apr 21st · 12:58 UTC
I CANT DIE BTW
chicaka
Apr 21st · 14:59 UTC
It's a cool game, it keeps you in suspense, and it's quite an action ride.
Kandvise
Apr 21st · 15:22 UTC
The intense music and my lack of driving skills definitely made this game one of the scariest horror games I've ever played. Awesome graphics.
fabelay
Apr 21st · 15:25 UTC
Wow, what a ride!

What was amazing:
- the drive mechanics! Even though i got stuck a few times it felt pretty natural
- the atmosphere generally. very thick. also a huge fan, because its somewhat similar to our game haha
- graphics. very beautiful and detailed.
- map size: seriously, how big is that thing? i felt like driving forever
- Music creeped me out in all the good ways.

What felt off:
- I couldnt find the exit. I was hunted for a long, long time and eventually got killed. Maybe some clues would be helpful.
- There were some shadow artifacts, somewhat glitchy
- in the HTML version the mouse wasnt properly captured

Moo:

![Screenshot 2026-04-21 at 17.10.14.png](///raw/6f0/32/z/72046.png)
Tundra
Apr 21st · 15:28 UTC
The atmosphere was great! The signal detector being attached to the look direction was cool. The cow beam confused me though and I ended up forgetting about following the signal and drove straight back to the start on accident.
Raivk
Apr 21st · 15:36 UTC
The chase was a little bit weird as you easily get semi-stuck but it seems to not catch you even if you stop..! Though, the game was really cool with a great moo-d. The ending is... It's definitely something! hahahahaha
MicleFirst
Apr 21st · 15:51 UTC
Lol, that twist was unexpected. I like the eerie audio. And although the gameplay was a bit trivial, I still liked your idea![chrome_45ETl35sJ3.jpg](///raw/5cc/76/z/72089.jpg)
kremlebot
Apr 21st · 21:40 UTC
Great game, I really wanted to finish it, but in the end I got completely lost.
thomas-olsson
Apr 22nd · 01:56 UTC
GJ with this one. Was hilarious. I got my car stuck on top of tree trunks and I laughed hard when I saw how the game over unfolds.
EdgyHusbando
Apr 22nd · 01:58 UTC
Y'all nailed the vehicle handling & atmo in this game! It took me a few minutes to realize that I was driving in circles inside of a maze, but I imagine that was the intended effect, so great job
WhoIsEthan
Apr 22nd · 02:01 UTC
i got lost and couldnt find the end but i liked a lot
Igor Silva 19
Apr 22nd · 02:13 UTC
I liked it, unfortunately I got stuck in the terrain multiple times during the chase part and it was a little bit frustrating but overall is good!
Maksim Terskov
Apr 22nd · 04:12 UTC
I ran into a bug right at the start :D It seems that if you press movement during the cutscene, all controls stop working afterward. Maybe that’s how the bug gets triggered.

The car physics are really well done! I missed having a volume control or maybe making the ambient sound louder. The atmosphere is great!

PS: For some reason, it immediately reminded me of the secret cow level from Diablo II :D
ToSMaster
Apr 22nd · 12:44 UTC
Cool game and cool car physics! Love how it feels to drive! The camera is a bit too close for me, makes me feel really irky :D But in a good way!
At first I did not know what to do, but a restart cleared things up.
I got stuck on some terrain here and there, but overall had a spooky moody good time!
Luka420
Apr 22nd · 16:36 UTC
Waaah! I loved this game!! It was so easy to get lost though T_T but that was the fun of it!
Dogshroom
Apr 22nd · 21:32 UTC
Awesome. Loved how fleshed out the world is and the level design. Feels like a complete small game. And the ending!! With a cutscene!

Great entry.
JCoMcL
Apr 23rd · 09:57 UTC
I've been playing a lot of signal following games, and this definitely the most interesting framing device. I can really feel the desperation of the player character driving off into the woods with a near-empty tank and a radar dish stripped to the top of his truck. I can imagine a whole sequence of events leading up to that point.
Very well executed overall.
VenomousMouse
Apr 23rd · 11:26 UTC
Very good atmosphere and great feel of the car. Good job!
korzhik
Apr 23rd · 20:30 UTC
This is definitely a game. Very satisfying driving. Liked that the game gives you time to correct mistakes - you don't instantly lose on collision. Finding the signal is intuitively simple. Good job!
Braeden
Apr 25th · 02:37 UTC
I love the atmosphere, I didn't make it to the cows that everybody has screenshotted but the game was cool. Good job :smiley:
pragmascript
Apr 26th · 08:57 UTC
pretty big level with many different elements for a jam. tense atmosphere
LDJam user 276121
Apr 26th · 10:08 UTC
A neat concept but some things I might tweak such as making the points of interest on the map a bit tighter and perhaps swapping the dish for a directional antenna that's easier to read a direction from.
Chaseplays
Apr 27th · 01:26 UTC
What a simple, well-executed concept. Took me a bit to realize that the signal was based on my camera direction, not the car direction, but once I did it got a whole lot easier from there. The atmosphere was great, the cows were fun, and you did a great job of creating what I assume was fake tension to stress out the player without actually putting them in danger of losing. Nicely done!
CptNero
Apr 28th · 17:31 UTC
Had fun playing! The game could have used some more point of interests and a bit more torque on the car.
JoeGreen
Apr 28th · 17:49 UTC
Holy cow! What kind of fever dreams are these at 98.8°F? Ahaha, it's just like Diablo — the cow level!
LDJam user 413537
May 04th · 13:10 UTC
This was a really fun (and slightly chaotic) experience 😄

Loved the atmosphere and the whole signal-following mechanic. I definitely got lost more than once, but it somehow made it feel more tense and memorable
Alexandr Gerya
May 05th · 13:55 UTC
this thing is nuts got stuck on a tree twice and just sat there waiting to die lol still the vibe is nasty and that signal mechanic messes with your head hard
EllaS
May 06th · 06:55 UTC
Environment was really well done! Loved the atmosphere. I suck at driving though lol. I kept crashing.
Ethan Allwood
May 07th · 04:07 UTC
Was completely lost after it told me to keep going but loved the atmosphere!
metaljim
May 07th · 21:01 UTC
The graphics, atmosphere and music are all fantastic. How you managed to get a full driving game set up in the time is mad. Well Done. The mood is eerie and perfectly executed. I've seen people posting pics of demonic cows, didn't see any. And also people being 'hunted'? Did experience any of that. I basically just drove round, followed the signal as it got super loud, and then nothing. It disappeared. From what I've seen though it reminds me of some of those bizarre late 90's games where random things just happen. I played a lot of those back in the day and this game had that feel. Maybe I'll just keep playing till I find some cows. Still....excellent effort, well impressed.