Fading Signal

by rushb
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.44
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.15
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.62
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.14
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.61
Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.00
Fading Signal
"The signal is the only thing keeping you here. Don't let it fade."

You find yourself in a vast, minimalist structure where every step echoes and every shadow tells a story. Something is calling out to you from the void. Your goal is simple: find the source, follow the rhythm, and stay connected.

Key Features:

Atmospheric Exploration: A journey through a stylized world where less is more.

Audio-Driven Narrative: The story is told through soundscapes and subtle environmental cues.

Deep Immersion: A short, focused experience designed to be played in one sitting.

⚠️ IMPORTANT:
Headphones or high-quality speakers are strictly required. To fully experience the atmosphere and hear the "signals," playing with audio is essential.

Music: "Icarus" by Ancients / "Path 5" by Max Richter

Controls:

WASD — Move
Space — Jump
ESC - Exit game
Mouse to look)

Comments39

Sylvic
Sylvic21 Apr 2026, 17:01
Definitely some great graphics and audio, great implementation of both.
RushBauthor21 Apr 2026, 17:08
@crispypear sry, I am on mac, so cant do the straight to linux, even windows build gave me the pain in my ass, i try to solve the problem but actually dont have any win pc or laptop right here for now...
Jo Bettaque21 Apr 2026, 17:08
Great Atmosphere, Love the look aswell. After a while i got lost, maybe some subtle hints would be nice :)
RushBauthor21 Apr 2026, 17:10
@sylvic Thank you) the main idea was to make an environment which you can explore and have fun just walking around)
RushBauthor21 Apr 2026, 17:17
@jo-bettaque Thanks! First time I was prototyping i hide the ducks so even i cant find them, so i decide not going so crazy and make the ez level, but still you can get lost)
jk5000
jk500021 Apr 2026, 17:29
The voice over and the visuals is good. It's great little story. The ducks was perhaps hidden a bit too great, and this slowed the story telling a bit too much. But overall a great game. Well done.
RushBauthor21 Apr 2026, 17:36
@jk5000 thanks for playing, this tiny balance of too easy and to hard always make me crazy, but to be honest the first version was almost impossible to find, but that’s the core gameplay of exploring and searching the memory fragments)
penagwin21 Apr 2026, 18:46
Any chance of a web build? I'd really like to try it
RushBauthor21 Apr 2026, 18:48
@penagwin sry the Unreal Engine dont provide web builds in the latest versions, but why you cant download it straight? You are on linux?
Luumi21 Apr 2026, 19:21
Got more emotional over this one than I would have expected, haha. There were a few ducks that it took me a while to find; maybe the heartbeat cue could be more salient. Other than that, really nice atmosphere, and I was motivated to play through to the end. Enjoyed it. :)
RushBauthor21 Apr 2026, 19:46
@luumi thanks for playing! I ended the project 1 hour before the deadline, so I am happy that it can be as it is, of course a lot of things need to be fixed and tuned, but anyway big thanks for your words, it means a lot to me
5n4k3
5n4k321 Apr 2026, 20:44
Great job of creating the immersive ambience!
RushBauthor21 Apr 2026, 20:49
@5n4k3 nice to hear that my plans come to life with this theme! thank you for playing!
RushBauthor21 Apr 2026, 20:49
@5n4k3 nice to hear that my plans come to life with this theme! thank you for playing!
2Inkling22 Apr 2026, 02:11
Love the simple blocky visual style and atmospheric fog.
snk22 Apr 2026, 18:17
I love story driven and atmospheric games so so much. This one's very good. Graphics is definitely very nice and also the girl narrating is a great dub. One of the best I've tried, no doubts.
RushBauthor22 Apr 2026, 18:52
@snk big thanks and from the narrating girl as well) what do you think walking simulators with a storyline has the future?)
snk22 Apr 2026, 18:56
Well I think there's always place for a good narrative driven game. Years ago (around 2012/13) I think came out To The Moon that was basically a walking simulator but had an insanely good story, and kind of set a new standard on how narrative videogames could deliver.

So why not trying :) this world always needs a good story! :heartbeat:
Arnage22 Apr 2026, 20:02
As already stated, well done story! Very polished experience for a jam game.
RushBauthor22 Apr 2026, 20:07
@arnage really appreciate, big thanks, i try to do my best, even it was hard and i finished the game 2 hours before the deadline to give you the best expirience of visuals and story!
Rionisse
Rionisse22 Apr 2026, 20:28
I already commented on the other post, but I'll repeat it here in english for visibility sake.
The level design is a bit confusing, sometimes it feels like the game is guiding you to jump onto certain boxes, but in reality you can’t jump on them and you’re not supposed to go there. That said, I understand it, we didn’t manage to polish everything in our own game either. But the visuals and atmosphere are amazing! Congratulations on the game!
RushBauthor23 Apr 2026, 06:58
@rionisse I agree, a beta test group said me the same, when they have found almost all the ducks, people are trying to climb or to jump where they shouldn’t, I think it happens when they are out of ideas where to find the duck, but I think the ez find placement of the ducks will solve this problem, but anyway what kind of option you know of telling the player that it is a wrong way? Maybe add some 3d objects so he we will see he can’t jump there? Big thanks for playing and for your warm words, big hugs!
Andrian23 Apr 2026, 13:35
Great use of UE5! I didn't have any performance issues at all, which is impressive. The ambient sound was a bit too loud, but the heartbeat sound really helped with finding the ducks. It would be cool to experiment with spatial audio in the future to make the tracking feel even more immersive. Nice work!
RushBauthor23 Apr 2026, 13:56
@andrian Big thanks buddy! sound correction needed agree) Very happy that the heartbeat mechanics works and helped! Can you tell me your specs of pc or laptop please?)
krakadushka
krakadushka23 Apr 2026, 15:57
Amazing game! A captivating story and a beautiful location with great lighting! I got a bit stuck on the 11th duck and ended up walking in circles a few times. Honestly, I’d appreciate some kind of guidance or markers.

I’d love to just listen to the story, walk to the next fragment, look around, and not stress too much about finding the ducks.

Despite that, I collected everything and it really moved me :)
RushBauthor23 Apr 2026, 16:22
@krakadushka Thank you for playing! Really appreciate! Very happy that you was able to finish the game! In the beginning there were 2 versions, like ez way, that all the ducks were very easy to find, but gameplay was like 3 mins (1 min is speedrun mode=) and the hard way when the ducks are hidden very very good, so i decided to make a mix of both) smth middle difficulty level, but anyway big thanks for the feedback!
Andrian23 Apr 2026, 16:29
@rushb

Ryzen 5 3600
32 GB RAM
RTX 3080 10 GB

I know my rig isn't weak, but I've seen plenty of UE5 devs make even the simplest scenes laggy
RushBauthor23 Apr 2026, 16:56
@andrian you have got a good setup) but optimising is a key, the best solution is to make on the low end pc and test in editor, so you will see the lags by yourself)))))) And the settings of the graphic is quiet a mix of so the player can see the godrays, but not as cinematic to get 15 fps))
hotaloca23 Apr 2026, 17:20
Oh, a very polished game. Very moody, beautiful art, nice narration and story. The map was really cool and it kept me playing till the end. And great motivational text in the end! Congrats, so good!
RushBauthor23 Apr 2026, 18:24
@hotaloca big thanks, it means a lot to me)
Cat In Hat games
Cat In Hat games28 Apr 2026, 18:41
I never managed to find the 13th duck… 😅😅😅 Overall, from the very first frame I understood what the story was about. And regarding the theme—it’s interesting, thank you. It doesn’t even feel right to “rate” something like this; clinical death is a heavy subject.

On the downside, objects are placed quite close to each other, which leads to overlapping or interrupted lines from the protagonist. You either needed to shorten the texts or increase the distance between objects. As it stands, the player can accidentally limit their own access to the content.
RushBauthor29 Apr 2026, 08:51
@cat-in-hat-games so sad you cant find the 13th duck, i think you are the first who didnt get it till the end, but anyways thanks for taking time and for the comments!
VenomousMouse4 May 2026, 13:13
Nice story and good visuals. Cool mood.
Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord