LudumData

Blackmail.exe by ildfuglen

[raw]
made by ildfuglen for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

🕵️‍♂️ Blackmail.exe

In a city that never sleeps and always watches, you're the ghost in the machine.

Welcome to Blackmail.exe, a roguelike puzzle game where you eavesdrop on a surveillance-soaked world, package secrets into profitable scandals, and sell them to the highest bidder—before the system finds you.

Your terminal is your weapon.
You are a freelance hacker-for-hire, and business is booming.

🎮 Gameplay Loop

🛰️ SNOOP

Intercept a stream of chat logs, phone calls, and data files.
Each piece of gossip is a card with a suit
(💘 Romance, 💼 Finance, 🧠 Politics, etc.)
and a type (Common, Bombshell, Deepfake).

🗂️ COLLECT

Combine related clues into powerful blackmail dossiers.
Create combos like a Pair of corporate secrets or a Full Leak of political corruption —
inspired by combo-building games like Balatro.

💰 CASH OUT

Sell your dossiers to meet your round’s cash quota.
The bigger the scandal, the higher the payout.

⚠️ EVADE

Every action raises your trace level.
Powerful evidence and bigger combos attract the authorities faster.
If your trace hits 100%, the run is over.

Do you cash out now and lie low — or risk it all for one more big score?

🔮 UPGRADE

Between runs, use your earnings to buy Charms — persistent upgrades that modify your next hack.
Examples:
- 🕶️ VPN Mask – Clears a portion of your trace.
- 💘 Love Magnet – Increases chance of romantic scandals.

💻 Tone & Style

With a neon-noir terminal UI, the hiss of modem whines, and the frantic click of your keyboard, the mood is cynical, satirical, and tense.

You’re not a hero — you’re just profiting from everyone’s dirty laundry.

Can you survive in the data stream,
or will you become just another ghost in the system?

Link https://ildfuglen.itch.io/blackmailexe
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/blackmail-exe

Ratings

Overall 318th 3.611⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 565th 3.056⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 175th 3.63⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 588th 3.315⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 172th 4.167⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 183th 3.667⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 143th 3.66⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 214th 3.827⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 37🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

GreenApplePie
Oct 03rd · 13:32 UTC
Can't wait!
Wanabi
Oct 07th · 20:18 UTC
The idea is really cool.
Ultraviolet
Oct 07th · 20:21 UTC
The game won't launch on the Ludum website :( but everything works fine on itch.io. Cool sound design and interesting graphics.
LDJam user 314423
Oct 07th · 20:23 UTC
The game looks really good, especially the CRT aesthetic, but I don't understand the game mechanics and the readme is a bit unfulfilling in this regard. The icons in the readme also don't line up with the ones in-game which is doubly confusing.

The sound effects are really on-theme.

Overall I'm just thinking that it would have benefited from a bit more hand-holding/tutorial and maybe some tooltips on the controls (like the Juice slider).
LDJam user 379094
Oct 07th · 20:23 UTC
Graphics and sounds are great. The game was kind of confusing at first but does bring that balatro feel when you get into it.
Yatsu
Oct 07th · 20:35 UTC
excellent sound design
nuzcraft
Oct 07th · 20:36 UTC
This is really cool. I think it's just missing some information feedback on what combos and mults do - seeing the number tick up would be really satisfying. Sounds are great, juice is great.
Awanami
Oct 07th · 20:39 UTC
it looks cool
Justine D
Oct 07th · 20:45 UTC
The game seems very interesting, but I spent a good 30min trying it and not understanding much of what I was doing. It lacks explanation on what is a good combo, what gives more money. Your description mentions "combos like a Pair of corporate secrets or a Full Leak of political corruption", but no explanation on how to do that. I suggest updating your description with more concrete explanation on the gameplay. Your current description while very narrated provides very little in game context, and the game doesn't have a tutorial.

The graphics are very good, and the mood works well. I got a bit annoyed at the sound effects after a while, but it was fun at first.

If you update the description, don't hesitate to ping me, I'd love to give it another shot.
PoshDan
Oct 07th · 21:34 UTC
I appreciate the CRT effect, though it did make some of the text a bit harder to read. A higher internal resolution or less intense effect would help perhaps.
Like others, I struggled to grasp what I was really doing. The terminal aesthetic is pretty cool
antax02
Oct 16th · 20:34 UTC
Fantastic sound effects!
rhewid
Oct 17th · 22:13 UTC
On the graphics side of things its very pleasing but I didn't quite get the game in itself. Also when hitting 100% trace, it didn't end my game.
heytherewill
Oct 18th · 05:25 UTC
Really good aesthetics. Quite self-explanatory corporate ladder, which carried a lot of weight into understanding the combo. I must agree with others when they say that the game didn't quite explain itself; less content and more explicit feedback about what each action is doing would've made a better Jam game (although, as it stands, I do see this evolving into a bigger, more polished game!)
n.feofentov
Oct 18th · 15:49 UTC
Fun setting and lovely art style. Also admired funny sounds! The idea is very interesting, I wish I had more time to explore it more. Great entry!
Threeli
Oct 18th · 22:21 UTC
Right off the bat I love this, speaks to some design choices which (as @heytherewill said) might actually be better suited to a larger, more feature rich version. It took a bit of messing around before I really ascertained what I was doing, and even then only had a tenuous comprehension. Visually it's excellent styling, if a little cluttered for my tastes. Any plans to keep working on this? I for one would love to hear if so, great effort!

[I had hoped my rating would put you over the 20, but it seems like someone failed to rate in all the categories so you might need one more -> @littlegamer, if you have a second maybe try to figure this one out?]
gamebuilder
Oct 18th · 23:04 UTC
You've done a fantastic job with the terminal simulation. The sound effects are also well done. I didn't really understand the game mechanics — that is more of a comment about me than the game — but I had fun trying different combos. In any case this is, sadly, a realistic commentary on corruption in the Anglosphere, the devil's playground.
Miku
Oct 19th · 01:36 UTC
Those sound effects are absolutely amazing and I love how this game was styled! Definitely use these powers for good, not evil :P
LittleGamer
Oct 19th · 14:49 UTC
This is well executed in terms of graphics and sounds, there is a nice UI and the presentation is cool, but I don't understand how the game works after two tries :/
zactyl
Oct 24th · 04:14 UTC
Thanks for uploading! A really coolly styled game, and the sound and visual effects really helped it pop and feel fun to play. Unfortunately, I don't really know if I was playing it correctly. It seemed like I was advancing, but I can't really tell if my impromptu strategy was actually working out, or if I was just managing to stumble through the thresholds. I could definitely see this being something super easy to get sucked into once I actually understood what I was doing, though. Since we're dealing with tech and people, it could also be fun to get more of a blurb of how some of this stuff we're getting blackmail went down too, if that's something you would be interested in exploring.