Signal Surfer

by chewiecb

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.58

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.43

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.85

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.60

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.39

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.82

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.20

Keep the signal alive and as intact as possible as it speeds along the power lines towards a satellite uplink.

A simple little side-scrolling/on-rails platformer I built for my first Ludum Dare.

Mechanics

- Speed up or slow the signal with "D" and "A"
- Jump with "W"
- Drop down to the wire below (if there is one) with "S"
- Being off of a wire (jumping or falling) loses signal strength
- Hitting a bird loses signal strength (and score)
- Being on a wire regains signal strength, the faster you move the faster it restores
- End score is multiplied by the signal strength % for a final score

Happy With

- Finally managed to properly scope a game for a jam and actually finished on time :smiley:
- The telephone pole and electrical wire generation code actually worked out pretty well.

Not So Happy With

- Realising the web version on itch.io is fairly broken with 2 hours left till submission, for both our sakes just download it for your OS.
- The controls could be a bit tighter.

Screenshots

Credits

Code, Music & Additional Art: Jack McCaffrey

SFX/Sound Design: James Bridges

Art:
- *Character Sprites:* elthen
- *Backgrounds: https:* dyLESTorm

Tags: #autoscroller, #on-rails

Genres: platformer

Comments18

OldKnivesTale21 Apr 2020, 14:20

This really reminded me of games I play in my head while looking out a car window.

Tero Pulkkinen21 Apr 2020, 18:22

nice music, speedy action, and cool phone lines. What else could you hope for?

mbrezu21 Apr 2020, 18:25

So much fun! I really did not expect to like it that much!

About the web version, give the rules another look, IIRC you can fix bugs after submission.

JBDEV21 Apr 2020, 18:25

The game was very addictive and fast. Port it to mobile and it can be a hit!!

toby-klauder21 Apr 2020, 18:28

fast paced, easy for quick play sessions, i was a little confused on if I should hit the birds or avoid them, but overall great game!

kitjenson21 Apr 2020, 18:29

Really like the concept, art, and overall vibe of the game.

The controls are a little bit jarring. And the music could have been a little more subtle.

All that said... I really loved this game. Nice work.

J_C - One Bit Studio21 Apr 2020, 18:29

Loved the artstyle and the music. The gameplay is simplistic, but I can see people getting addicted to it to beat their highscores. Nice.

Jonrei21 Apr 2020, 18:30

Very impressive and I agree with @JBDEV, this game can totally be a hit on mobile. The "s" button to drop down didnt work for some reason, but then a gain, I played the HTML build which you warned us was a bit broken. All in all a very good jam game!

damian1ilin21 Apr 2020, 18:33

Nice game! I liked it, reminded me of some android games, its a solid mechanic and a good use of the theme. I used the windows version and sometimes it crashed when hitting play, that may be an issue to solve, besides that, I really liked it!

Also, check out my game! I would really appreciate it

hulien2221 Apr 2020, 18:35

Short and sweet game! Gameplay felt really smooth, and the artwork + audio were great! Nice job!

shark610021 Apr 2020, 18:36

Simple, fun, love the seamlessness of the wire transitions. It feels very natural and you feel like you have a lot of momentum. The music and art are both great too.

devilqube21 Apr 2020, 18:37

Nice tunes and gameplay. Good fun.

jrf21 Apr 2020, 18:43

Superb game, really well done! I like how fast-paced this is. The music really nice as are the graphics. Addictive! Great work!

Sushiy21 Apr 2020, 18:43

Amazing job! I really liked the graphics and audio and the feeling of zipping along the lines was great.
slow down and speed up felt a bit abrupt and wonky, so i didn't end up using it a lot

xeno-software21 Apr 2020, 18:44

The gameplay was super smooth, a really nice twist on an infinite runner. Loved the final signal received animation. I think there could've been a few more obstacles (maybe a lightning strike?) though I'm sure you would've implemented if you had more time. I enjoyed the game even though I played it in my browser. I was also thinking if you could implement some powerups, EG super speed. Thanks for making this, and I look forward to seeing what else you've created. Good luck!

curleyrach21 Apr 2020, 18:56

Felt smooth to play and a little bit addictive! Graphics and sound were good. Nice job!

cristi_aby21 Apr 2020, 21:06

Interesting concept! I scored 5700. Nice job!

PhilStrahl11 May 2020, 01:56

Strong Canabalt vibes right off the top but this game is even faster! I enjoyed the simple and streamlined mechanics quite a bit although it took me a couple of tries to finally be transmitted, so I hope I wasn't a crucial data packet. Only thing that felt a bit unforgiving was the bird placement sometimes... Here's my latest stream featuring the game, by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP012VKTPV8

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