Planet Defender

by sarenei
Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.54
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.46
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.08
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.69
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.58
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.35
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.12
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.54
​Planet Defender is an unfinished game made for Ludum Dare 59: Signal. My weekend got derailed pretty hard, but I still wanted to share the concept.

The game is a basic wave defense where you build structures to defend from asteroids. The twist is that you have to detect them first! There are five structures you can place:

- Survey Radar - Slow pulsing radar with full coverage.
- Lock Radar - Tracks a single object until it loses the lock.
- Turret - A gun that will fire at whatever it's told to.
- Signal Splitter - Replicates an input signal and sends it to all outputs.
- Signal Merger - Aggregates all inputs and sends them to a single output.

​The structures have ports that can be wired together. Outputs (green) can connect to inputs (red) by clicking them with your mouse, dragging the connection, and dropping it onto the desired port.

I would have liked to add:
- Actually finishing win/loss.
- Menus
- Laser turret
- More asteroid types
- More/better effects
- Larger planet
- Camera scrolling/zoom

Comments12

tenthousandfireants
tenthousandfireants21 Apr 2026, 04:32
I think it could use some more clear feedback on how i'm doing something right, or more ways to earn currency to buy the upgrades? I wasn't sure how to get the gun thing to fire at the asteroids at first try. but good concept you have something nice here.
TBK_David21 Apr 2026, 04:52
I *really* love this concept and did enjoy the runs I did of it. Great use of the theme.

I'd love a bit of a gentler difficulty curve, though ;)
Sareneiauthor21 Apr 2026, 05:07
Yeah the game is definitely incomplete. It's not balanced or set up to be intuitive. Maybe over the next few days I'll publish a finished version. I appreciate that you like the concept and can see what I was going for!
LDJam user 374028
LDJam user 37402822 Apr 2026, 18:43
I managed to play it through Proton. What a neat concept! I liked the Elektroplankton-like sound design.
andriybyelikov
andriybyelikov22 Apr 2026, 18:43
I managed to play it through Proton. What a neat concept! I liked the Elektroplankton-like sound design.
vikingx8424 Apr 2026, 07:06
A timeless classic with new features, the idea is great, it's a pity that we couldn't develop it to the end. I wish you successful implementation in the future.
JamesGames100025 Apr 2026, 04:04
See the potential but was a little confusing and not much to do, that said it is a game jam so you did good!
jelch27 Apr 2026, 03:03
Really cool concept. Couldn't really get a defense built beyond one setup. Great prototype, I'd love to see a fully featured version!
Allax29 Apr 2026, 20:43
I liked the idea, but I didn't immediately realize that the objects needed to be connected. I hope you finish the game!
Theo Ratkin
Theo Ratkin30 Apr 2026, 05:19
I love the take on the theme, quite original! Though I feel like the difficulty ramps up a bit too quickly. 😅

Other games by @sarenei

Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord