traceroute

by wles

co-authored: @ajores, @bearcage, @jver422

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.88

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.90

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.57

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.95

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.90

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.16

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.13

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.54

Navigate the signal through cyberspace, bouncing through switches, routers, and firewalls.

- Switches are cyan, the signal bounces off of them.
- Routers are yellow, they redirect you to always bounce perpendicularly.
- Firewalls are red, they drain your remaining bounces.

Connect the signal to a node and hold for three seconds to inhabit it, then relaunch from the
new terminal.

Each node has maximum number of bounces that it can transmit through, displayed at the bottom
of the screen.

Your signal color will change depending on the node you transmit from, and will travel
through walls of matching color.

NOTE: The CRT shader doesn't display well in Safari, if playing the web version please use a different browser for best experience.

Comments25

Big Nose21 Apr 2026, 03:00

wow very nice. I like the vibes and it was very intuitive as i didnt even read the instructions

smilewood21 Apr 2026, 03:10

I enjoyed this one, great design and use of the theme to go along with a fun puzzle game. The puzzle mechanics were fairly unique, I especially liked the changing of the playing field when the color of the node I connected to changed and the walls suddenly behaved differently. My only complaint for the puzzles is that, more so at the end than the beginning, there wasn't a lot to puzzle through, it was just a matter of lining up the obvious target. Overall I thought this was a lot of fun, well done!

TarikMoguchel21 Apr 2026, 03:11

Nice game! In some levels I had a feeling that I cheated or found unintended solution. For a puzzle game it is very important to show to the player, if he solved it right
But on other hand if I managed to pass level with less steps than available - it is great, isn't it? In any case it would be nice to have a clear "rewarding" feedback

thelasttankmage21 Apr 2026, 03:12

This is great, I love the graphics, very intuitive and fun puzzle game!

dan-whiffing21 Apr 2026, 03:14

Nice work! Cohesive graphics and approachable gameplay. The camera drifts around a bit too much in a way that hurts your ability to aim. I also thought 3 seconds was a bit long for switching nodes. Other than that, feels pretty good!

Isaac Hisey21 Apr 2026, 03:15

Same here! jumped it played around, made it the end. Enjoyed the whole experience!

astraltraveller21 Apr 2026, 03:17

fun puzzle game, was able to finish it!

Lemma21 Apr 2026, 03:19

Very fun experience. I just wish there wasn't a big black thing blocking part of the screen. Apart from that, great game.

Rinevard21 Apr 2026, 03:24

penagwin21 Apr 2026, 03:25

This is a really fun puzzle game! I would recommend removing that overlay though, its difficult to see whats going on.

Other than that this is pretty unique, and the style is great

wlesauthor21 Apr 2026, 03:28

@lemma If you played in Safari, there's a compatibility issue with the CRT screen shader. If you have Chrome, give that a try!

If we do a post-jam update it's on the to-do list to add an option to disable the CRT visuals.

khaotom21 Apr 2026, 03:29

Fun as heck. Love the visuals. Never have I had so much fun aiming at balls before.

wlesauthor21 Apr 2026, 03:30

@tarikmoguchel as far as we're concerned any solution is a valid solution. We've managed some weird ones during development and I think it's even more fun than solving it the intended way. Thanks for playing!

LDJam user 25910321 Apr 2026, 03:33

This was a lot of fun, and I love the aesthetic! I do think it was perhaps a little too easy, though - the bounce limits were almost always at least twice as large (often more than that, even) than I needed. Some of the later sections involved some more precise aiming, though, which I enjoyed. Nice work.

LDJam user 42721221 Apr 2026, 03:33

Really awesome once you get the hang of it, great concept and great execution!

Roboolet21 Apr 2026, 04:53

Really unique game! Was easy to understand and i like the gradual introduction of new mechanics. I really liked the yellow walls. SFX were nice and tingly as well.

Chaseplays21 Apr 2026, 05:58

Had a lot of fun with this one! Visually I love the style, the puzzles were really interesting, and everything felt really mechanically intuitive on its own!

There were some puzzles where I felt frustrated with how long I had to wait - any time where something was spinning was especially rough - but I did get all the way to the end, and did thoroughly enjoy my experience getting there. Great work!

LDJam user 42432621 Apr 2026, 08:43

I really like the mechanic—it feels fresh, and the sound design really helps emphasize it

Nidoprince21 Apr 2026, 09:02

When I try to open the game I get this error. Using Firefox.

Mikan21 Apr 2026, 18:43

Cool concept. Sometimes observation and aiming can be hindered by camera zoom and movement. And sometimes I feel that the ray speed is very slow.

playthrough: https://youtu.be/pG4UEXnSwVw

wlesauthor22 Apr 2026, 03:26

@Nidoprince we narrowed down where in the development history the Firefox issue cropped up, and it may be related to the engine settings for window resizing. Oddly it's Windows specific, Firefox on Mac works fine.

Probably won't be able to fix this on our end, but I hope you were able to check it out in another browser or with the Windows version!

In other browser compatibility news: for Safari users getting large black areas from the CRT shader, you can try the Director's Cut version where so far the only change is an option in the video settings to disable the CRT shader. Wanted to add that on Monday night but ran out of time.

LDJam user 42628822 Apr 2026, 06:18

I really love the gameplay design, and the controls are also very simple and easy to understand. I especially like the art style of the cover presented with code🥰🥰🥰