Ludum Dare #59compo
Sound Signals
In Sound Signals, you are met with an entity that needs your help to locate four different sounds. Look (or listen) for the sound, and use your Focus to pinpoint where it's located. Once found, you'll be transported to a new, mysterious place with a new sound. Find all four sounds and hear them all come together!
Movement - WASD or arrow keys
Focus Mode - F (explanation below)
Pause/Settings - ESC
When in focus mode, you won't be able to move, but you can check if a sound is in a given direction. The signal will beep faster if the direction points towards the sound.
Everything was created by me during the Compo time frame for LD59. I used the following tools:
- Godot 4.6.2
- Aseprite
- Reaper (for music and some SFX)
- Audacity (mostly for cutting audio clips, but also for recording mouth noises for SFX)
- Phone (for recording SFX - the entities in the second level make noises I recorded using a wet hand rubbed on the side of a bathtub . . . squeeeeeeeeeeeee)
I know it's not October, so I apologize if people weren't ready for the creepiness of the second and third levels. I've been on a Backrooms kick lately, and the second level of my game shows it . . .
My main goal of this jam was to focus on audio because that's usually the component I focus on least during jams and is haphazardly added if time allows. I wanted to make a game where you hunt down "signals" using Godot's spatial audio nodes. I think it ends up working pretty well. I added "Focus Mode" fairly late in my development when I decided aimless wandering until you get into earshot of the sound was a bit too boring. The last thing I did was add the spooky entities in level 2 and the blinking eyes in level 3 just to make the environments feel a bit less empty (don't worry, they don't actually hurt you). Overall, the gameplay isn't that exciting, but I got to make some music, play with spatial audio, and have fun making sound effects, so I feel I accomplished my goal.
I look forward to your feedback and will happily play and rate your game in return if you leave a comment!
Random fact: fluorescent lights hum at 120Hz (in North America, at least) which is a B flat. All my music and sounds are based around this.
Controls
Movement - WASD or arrow keys
Focus Mode - F (explanation below)
Pause/Settings - ESC
Focus Mode
When in focus mode, you won't be able to move, but you can check if a sound is in a given direction. The signal will beep faster if the direction points towards the sound.
Dev Notes (optional reading)
Everything was created by me during the Compo time frame for LD59. I used the following tools:
- Godot 4.6.2
- Aseprite
- Reaper (for music and some SFX)
- Audacity (mostly for cutting audio clips, but also for recording mouth noises for SFX)
- Phone (for recording SFX - the entities in the second level make noises I recorded using a wet hand rubbed on the side of a bathtub . . . squeeeeeeeeeeeee)
I know it's not October, so I apologize if people weren't ready for the creepiness of the second and third levels. I've been on a Backrooms kick lately, and the second level of my game shows it . . .
My main goal of this jam was to focus on audio because that's usually the component I focus on least during jams and is haphazardly added if time allows. I wanted to make a game where you hunt down "signals" using Godot's spatial audio nodes. I think it ends up working pretty well. I added "Focus Mode" fairly late in my development when I decided aimless wandering until you get into earshot of the sound was a bit too boring. The last thing I did was add the spooky entities in level 2 and the blinking eyes in level 3 just to make the environments feel a bit less empty (don't worry, they don't actually hurt you). Overall, the gameplay isn't that exciting, but I got to make some music, play with spatial audio, and have fun making sound effects, so I feel I accomplished my goal.
I look forward to your feedback and will happily play and rate your game in return if you leave a comment!
Random fact: fluorescent lights hum at 120Hz (in North America, at least) which is a B flat. All my music and sounds are based around this.
Tags: #ludum-dare-59
Comments46
For what it's worth I didn't use headphones so might have been missing out on the directional cues. Still a neat game :)
@debugman18 @yueyao-wang @alex-mulkerrin I'm glad you all enjoyed the concept! It was a thought I came up with having recently improperly used Godot's spatial audio nodes and wondering "why the heck is sound only coming from this direction?" When the theme came up as "Signal", I wanted to utilize those nodes to have the player search for items as it was fresh in my memory. Thanks for playing!
As said above a little more obstacles could be a good addition :D
I love the monters, good job :D
Mission accomplished. Solid atmosphere for each level, different too. Loved the take on the backrooms with the overwhelming hum (I encountered "them" too and that was fun), third area being dead silent made it real unnerving. The use of positional audio is really nice here, and the song at the end is nice too!
Player walking sound also very appreciated, reminded me of Commander Keen.
I really like the audio games :)
focus mode is really helpfull
While playing and around the third tune I thought to myself "uh, wouldn't it be nice if they played all together at the same time?". And they did! It brings a satisfying conclusion conclusion to the whole affair.
Congrats for the game and surviving the compo format :)
Left you a rating :smile:
You almost gave me a heart attack with the shrieking sound whenever that "entity" showed up. The second time I even knew what to expect but I still jumped. The audio works quite well indeed - I agree it's usually not the focus during the compo, and it's always nice to see (hear) something new. The empty levels didn't bother me too much, it actually moves the player focus to searching for audio cues (which is why I got jump-scared, hah).
Even with the scare, it was quire fun. Thanks, and congrats!
And nice backroom ref
Regardless, cool little game! It's just a bit short, and totally didn't expect spooky twists on the 2nd and 3rd levels either haha.
I like the concept, but I would personally prefere if there had been some enemies to avoid.
Really cool concept, and well composed music.
I waited a bit each time to see how the music continues playing before going into the next level.
Would also be cool if the sounds of different levels somehow stacked or such.