Semaphore

by helagos

Semaphore is a game about using a telegraphy semaphore.

Monsters are coming to the village, you have to send telegraphy messages so that villagers can prepare to defend with proper equipment.

Monsters are coming faster and faster. When they arrive at the gate, you still have some times to send the message.

You lose when the village strength reaches 0 or there are too many monsters attacking at once.

There are 4 elements in the UI :
- Top : coming ennemies
- Top right : the village and the village strength (when you send the right message strength augments, and when you don't send the right message, the strength reduces)
- Bottom left : controls to operate the semaphore
- Bottom right : a cheat sheet

Some notes about the game development :

Of the themes in the final round, this was the one that inspired me the least. I still end up with a game, and it was fun to work on, so I’m happy with how this jam turned out.
I planned to add more mechanics, but i wouldn't had time to implement them all so I reduce the scope. The game balancing is a bit light.

Tools :
- Engine : Godot 4.6.1
- Graphics : Photoshop and Paint.net
- Audio : FL Studio and Audacity

No AI was used (neither for assets or code)

Game done in about 21 hours.

Comments10

Gevernus19 Oct 2026, 13:06

a semaphore telegraph as the main mechanic, read the codebook, set the arms, pull the send lever, clear loop. the hand-drawn codebook is a nice touch. went through the tutorial only

henk19 Oct 2026, 17:18

I feel like a town shouldn't need a semaphore warning about a giant monster *after* that monster has already reached the town :P

The game is pretty solid, and I managed a score of 26. The difficulty doesn't appear to reset properly when you restart from a loss so I had to refresh the page each time.

CupofCuppuccino19 Oct 2026, 22:00

Really enjoyable when bats and fireballs come in a row, cause then I don't need to change the orientation a lot. Cute drawing! Might be my luck issue or interest as dnd lover, but seems like I'm getting a lot of fireballs. Considering the logic, it is slightly puzzling to warn the villagers about a fireball when it is already at the village gates. Other than that, the semaphore fits the old tech theme really well and good job with the tutorial! I like operating with the signals and it is fun to twist twist then wuush, signal sent

shimmerscale19 Oct 2026, 23:11

Took me a moment to realize what was going on, but once I did, it was pretty fun! Wish I could use the keyboard for adjusting the signal.

PokeyDem20 Oct 2026, 01:20

Never thought such a simple mechanic could be that captivating. If you add some post-jam polish, I would definitely play it again. It would also be cool to introduce new features over time to ramp up the difficulty - for example, new segments or extra enemy lanes so you have to split your attention.

vorondesan20 Oct 2026, 13:42

Hi, pretty neat take on tower defence, theme-wise it fits. Nice Work!

sebbernery20 Oct 2026, 16:45

I really liked the concept ! (My best score is 20 monsters) It was quick to understand what to do and it's an innovative way of fighting waves of monsters :).

(Note, there is a small bug, if you replay a new game, it don't reset the spawn rate of ennemies so it's very hard)

Nice entry, congratulations !

Nnnnneeeedddd20 Oct 2026, 21:54

Would've been great for the 'Signal' theme a couple LDs ago too! 🤣

rekk1d21 Oct 2026, 11:40

Really interesting mechanic! I knew what a semaphore was, just never knew it was called that :) Such a cool idea and concept, nice work!

Wouter5221 Oct 2026, 14:04

Had fun playing yours, I'm not really good at it though haha

The levers on the far left and right didn't look like levers to me. The middle ones did, so I was confused all the time. I like the little thumbs up, like you're saying "this signal is the right one!"

Other games by @helagos

★3.58

★3.20

★3.13