Sonar Ping

Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.13
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.95
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.82
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.32
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.84
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.63
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.05
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.55
​You're lost in total darkness, your ship doesn't have any functioning weapons, and the only way you're going to be able to see a way out is giving your trusty sonar signal a ping. Unfortunately, you're not alone. Any hostiles about can pick up your signal too, and they even have faster ships... to track where they think you are. Can you out-maneuver or out-stealth them to the goal?

WASD or arrow keys to move; space bar to ping your sonar.

All art and code by me. All sound by my mouth and also a clarinet.

Comments16

binroot
binroot19 Apr 2026, 18:43
This totally engulfed me! I was not expecting the music to hit so hard (almost sounds like Boléro). The sfx also meshes so well with the music, and it all feels so cohesive with the minimalist art style, too! Progressive difficulty in level design was spot on :dart:. Minor feedback: I was a bit confused by the red enemy markers: where they bullets? Anyways, AMAZING GAME!
cupofmilk7
cupofmilk720 Apr 2026, 09:03
I got really hooked on this game :) it feels simple, but that’s what makes it so engaging
Kyanoss20 Apr 2026, 15:36
Nice graphic and audio! The mechanic is also pretty innovative.
LDJam user 40968220 Apr 2026, 15:38
I finished the whole game! I liked the variety of levels and the core idea. Was there anything you didn’t have time to add, or wanted to include?
darkshadow
darkshadow20 Apr 2026, 18:45
Amazing! really strong entry, engaging enough for me to keep going and push through to the finish. Though one level I couldn't quite tell if I was cheesing it or not having learnt where the finish was I could the just go straight for it without making any pings or if that the idea!

Not being able to tell what exactly the enemy ships are is a little scary, I couldn't tell if they were ramming or what and narratively cohesive. Would love to see more of a world through nothing but sonar pings

Music is good and funny but could do with a longer loop the avoid it getting repetitive.

As Fassenberg said is there anything you didn't get to add? I feel like your concept could do a lot more, more enemy types, falling debrie, some sort of jammer, or field that makes the ping move slower.
graebor
graebor21 Apr 2026, 01:31
I don't think I've ever come across a clarinet-based soundtrack on an LD game before! The only thing that felt missing was some kind of cooldown for the sonar, once I realized I could press it as often as I liked it removed a lot of the challenge (plus performance gets a bit rough if you spam it quickly!) Nice job tho :)
CoastersPaulauthor21 Apr 2026, 01:39
I'd wanted more enemy behaviors/types, yeah, and considered spending more time improving their tracking. (My code has a STATE.PATROL that's just #TODO!:sweat_smile:) But towards the end of Day 1, I basically imposed a feature freeze; figured it'd be better to spend my remaining time making more levels with the tools I had, and it gave me a clearer path to finishing.

There's also some *really* unfair setups I found during level design - instant deaths; zigzags through even tighter gaps that don't look possible to get through, and only barely are - that I cut for the better. Though I'm tempted to go back and release, like, a "troll level" pack someday.
poddub21 Apr 2026, 07:15
nice sonar implementation, like it, wish enemies movements to be more obvious, because it's not clear for me, are they moving or standing still, so it makes to feel them little bit scary 👻
Shoalmuse
Shoalmuse21 Apr 2026, 21:16
I really loved this one! Fantastic idea and the pings revealing enemies getting closer and closer sets a great vibe. Also really fun music and homemade sfx. :)
mahalis
mahalis22 Apr 2026, 12:42
This is fantastic! It’s so tense. Love the sound effects (I’m always extolling the power of mouth-Foley) and the music, and the aesthetic is sharp—I think the combination of high resolution + high frame rate + bloom really elevates the simple graphics. The levels are challenging but don’t feel unfair (thank you for not including those). Terrific work.
Isaac Hisey
Isaac Hisey26 Apr 2026, 00:54
I think either the enemies on move toward you last ping, or only move when your ping is firing. Either way I made it the end and only died twice on the last level. Pretty fun! Audio was very loud for me so I couldn't here my discord group while I was playing XD

Definitely one of my higher rating this jam!
Le Don
Le Don1 May 2026, 09:53
Great game and also one of my favorites so far! I really like the ping gameplay and the simple art a lot. I am not sure how I feel about the tank controls and I thought the more open levels were more fun than that one with the small corridors.
Madbarron
Madbarron5 May 2026, 03:04
I love it! A perfect jam game. Simple, engaging, and on-theme. And a 5/5 audio experience as well. Great job, be sure to get enough ratings this week!!
cagibi
cagibi5 May 2026, 10:42
Cool idea! I never died because of the enemies, mostly because of the terrain especially in the maze-like section. It'd be funny if you could harmlessly bounce off the walls and that creates its own ping wave. Also, nice sounds :D
BrahGold6 May 2026, 16:08
Definitely one of my favorite games of the jam. The audio was a delight as well. The tiniest critique I have is that when messing around in a second playthrough (because it was that much fun) I did discover that you can just mash the sonar and lag yourself silly. Honestly, it was a blast to play!
freamdev
freamdev7 May 2026, 11:22
This was pretty fun, really curious how the sonar effect works.
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