After about 4 intense hours of brainstorming (and quite a few existential doubts about what on earth we were doing :sweat_smile: ), we finally found a direction we’re happy with… and we’re pretty excited about how it’s shaping up!

We don’t want to spoil anything just yet, but here’s a small screenshot to give you a glimpse.

We’d love to hear your thoughts: - What do you think about what you see? - What do you think the game is about?

All feedback is more than welcome at this stage!

It’s time to share a bit of progress!

For now, all I can show is this:

But I want you to be part of it! :smile:

Drop a number in the UHF frequency range (roughly between 470 and 860). That’s it — just a number.

I won’t explain why (yet), but some of the numbers you choose might end up playing a role inside the game.

Tune in—and if your number has some interesting meaning behind it, even better. Leave it below!

Would you finish our game? :tv: :joystick: :smirk:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/parasignal

We’re very excited to share our game for this Ludum Dare! The core idea revolves around playing a video game… inside a video game! We wanted to capture that retro feeling of figuring things out on your own, experimenting, and getting a bit lost in the mystery.

Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/parasignal

That said, there are a couple of things we didn’t quite manage to finish :sweat_smile:

For one, we really wanted to include an in-game manual, with hints and details in a classic style. We didn’t have time to implement it properly, but we at least included a small sample with a screenshot of the manual you can see in-game, presented in a more accessible way for the curious players...

And now a question for those who try it... Did anyone find the hidden ghost in the second dungeon? :ghost:

Technically, it’s a fully functional enemy, but we didn’t manage to integrate it properly into the gameplay in time. We planned to develop it further in a later dungeon… but we also ran out of time to add more levels before the deadline :cry:

Still, we’d love to know if anyone ran into it and what you thought about the idea.

Thanks for playing and for any feedback! :heart:

Here’s a small curiosity about our game that we didn’t fully get to develop in time for the jam, but we still wanted to sneak in as a little secret for players.

We originally designed a feature for a later level that is already technically functional, but didn’t make it into the final progression. Instead, we decided to include it as an optional detail in Level 2.

There’s a ghost hidden in the scene… but you can’t see it under normal conditions.

The only way to reveal it is by tuning the TV incorrectly — when the screen is distorted or “out of sync,” the ghost suddenly appears. It’s like the static is pulling back a layer of reality.

TV tunned

TV mistunned

It’s a small detail, but one we really enjoyed experimenting with. Maybe in a future version, we’ll expand this idea further.

You can check it here!

Would you have liked this mechanic to be more central to the gameplay? Would you be interested in playing a more complete version of this game after the jam voting period?

Hi everyone!

Here our game in a game!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/parasignal

I wanted to share a bit more context about the game for those who are just discovering it, as well as clarify a couple of things that have been causing confusion.

Tuning the Signal :tv: (Important!)

One important detail: The UHF dial is meant to be rotated in a circular motion.

It’s not a slider, so dragging it horizontally or vertically won’t work properly. You need to move it as if you were turning a real knob. We’ve noticed this isn’t immediately intuitive for everyone, so we wanted to clarify it here!

A Small Hint for Those Stuck :book:

We’ve also seen some players getting stuck after the first maze.

Originally, we planned to let you interact directly with the book in-game, but we ran out of time to fully implement that feature. Instead, we left a visual hint there.

Here’s the relevant part of the book:

The key action is: You need to press “L” while near the lever to open the door.

Thanks a lot to everyone who has tried the game so far — your feedback has been incredibly helpful! We’re planning to expand and polish the experience after the jam, including features that didn’t make it in time.

Hope you enjoy it! :smile: :joystick:

wanted to share a small thing we didn’t have time to add to the game during the jam.

This is our game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/parasignal

There’s a specific moment in the game (those who played it will know which one, for those who haven’t, I’ll try to avoid spoilers) where I wanted to show something on screen. However, for rather cryptic reasons, and with only an hour left before the jam ended, I kept getting an error because it overlapped with another image, and I just couldn’t get it positioned correctly in time. So at least here, in an unofficial way, I wanted to show it.

I don't know why i can't upload here the image and have errors, here a link to watch it: Please, look it after play!

I thought it would be fun to include this along with many other hints, and I think we’ll release a more complete version after the voting period. We’ll upload it to itch.io and, if it performs well enough, maybe even to Steam. It will also depend on how many things we’re able to add, since we left quite a few ideas on the table (this was one of them). We also need to figure out how far we can extend the experience without making it repetitive, while still keeping it surprising. I had several levels in mind (initially there were going to be 7), and with some additional ideas we’ve come up with, I think we could expand it quite a bit more, even including some interaction both inside and outside the game.

The jam version of the experience ended up feeling a bit cut short, since just when the most interesting part is about to begin… it ends. But we felt it was better to leave it that way rather than include unplayable sections or half-finished features, it was more important to show something solid that worked well.

To wrap up, I’d love to get some feedback: What did you think of the game? Is there anything you would have liked to see added, or any ideas you’d suggest?

I can’t guarantee that an expanded version won’t include screamers, but they definitely won’t rely on loud volume jumps. We really like the kind of “cozy unease” the game seems to have, and we’d like to keep exploring that direction.

Hi everyone!

Play our game in a game!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/parasignal

I wanted to share a bit more context about the game for those who are just discovering it, as well as clarify a couple of things that have been causing confusion.

Tuning the Signal :tv: (Important!)

One important detail: The UHF dial is meant to be rotated in a circular motion.

It’s not a slider, so dragging it horizontally or vertically won’t work properly. You need to move it as if you were turning a real knob. We’ve noticed this isn’t immediately intuitive for everyone, so we wanted to clarify it here!

A Small Hint for Those Stuck :book:

We’ve also seen some players getting stuck after the first maze.

Originally, we planned to let you interact directly with the book in-game, but we ran out of time to fully implement that feature. Instead, we left a visual hint there.

Here’s the relevant part of the book:

The key action is: You need to press “L” while near the lever to open the door.

Thanks a lot to everyone who has tried the game so far — your feedback has been incredibly helpful! We’re planning to expand and polish the experience after the jam, including features that didn’t make it in time.

To wrap up, I’d love to get some feedback: What did you think of the game? Is there anything you would have liked to see added, or any ideas you’d suggest?

Hope you enjoy it! :smile: :joystick: