Ludum Dare #60compo
Sound of Night
Sound of Night
Ludum Dare 60 Compo Game, Theme: Old Tech
Learn Morse Code and decode messages to unravel a mystery. Play here on itch (_web build is now v1.1, original can be downloaded_):
https://mikeware.itch.io/sound-of-night
Game contains complete in-game tutorial to learn Morse Code. Highly recommend playing through the entire tutorial if you have little experience with Morse Code before playing game. You can also watch the YouTube video to see most of the tutorial:
Made by hand in less than 48-hours with C# and Godot. Web Export thanks to 2dog.dev. Sounds made in BFXR.
Jam dev log here.
Theme is based on a few things, older tech ala Morse Code, low-res/pixelated graphics 640x360 resolution, and also grabbed some of my prior old code from my game Incrate for the background shader and dialogue display.
Changelog v1.1 - 10/29/2026:
- Add _a_ letter to the tutorial to help aid/reinforce game puzzle decoding
- Simplify a puzzle structure slightly based on player feedback
- Fix mouse spamming skip bug.
- Update Bootsplash Icon.
Known Issues v1.0:
- Rapidly clicking will skip messages and parts of game, please just follow along the journey, thanks!
Copyright 2026 Mikeware. All Rights Reserved.
Code shared for educational and learning purposes for Ludum Dare 60.
Please contact questions at mikeware.com for any requests.
This code cannot be used to train AI.
Comments21
20261018_bug_morse.gif
I couldn't get past the (SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T PLAYED) "TIME IS ETIOST"? level, but I actually did learn Morse code from this, and it was really cool.
So did a bit of googling. I think there is a flaw in your tutorial, you never thought the letter L. I guess that was the point too it seems but how could one figure it out without any prior morse knowledge really as it also matches other letters that were already thought?
Kinda smooth sailing after that. The N was a lot easier to figure out as it was just in the end of the word and I kinda knew to expect unknowns.
And I was just getting accustomed to it, hearing the difference in timing of for example `... . .`
Looks and sounds great. Plays well too. Only issue is with weird timing quirks when trying to skip messages or going too fast. Also managed to somehow fully restart the game when trying to erase. And it couldn't have been backspace registering to browser as it just restarted the game, not the whole page. And after that I tried to go too fast and weirdly somehow ended up in credits. Learnt my lesson there I guess. 😂
Anyways, fun proto. Dunno how long legs would a longer game evolving just on deciphering morse have but at least it'll teach you something. Could easily have gone a bit longer at least. I was just getting started. Good job! 👍
@brimstone and @antti-haavikko this came up in testing but is intentional. It is a puzzle/mystery game too. The message on that screen hints at _something new_ and the tutorial at the end talks about the difference in the gaps between letters as important. The "ETI" bits are not all separate letters but a single one based on that fact. If you can make that deduction, then it becomes a "Wheel of Fortune" puzzle, what letter makes sense to put there (there's only a few), and thus you've learned a new letter.
I wanted to be able to clue the player into what parts they had right or wrong as they were going vs. as a whole but didn't have time to sort that out.
Yeah, I only started working on the game bits for the last couple of hours before I had to submit. All the time was figuring out the systems and the tutorial. But, I'll think about coming back to this for a post-Jam version that adds a few more helpers and expands upon this idea. Thanks for the feedback!
The text animation was a little slow and I found myself clicking to speed it up a lot. Perhaps having reveal the text being on a separate button to go to next text box would be nice.
Perfectly fits the theme and has a nice minimalist aesthetic, great stuff!
Well, it's way harder than it looks/sound ^^
But it's quite pleasant to focus on the sound.
This totally could become a way to learn the full morse alphabet.
I'm a bit disappointed however that...
!> the credits were not in morse 🤣
@perrarancino the tutorial was where everything started and what I focused the majority of my main development day on. It felt straight-forward to start with all the 1-3 dot and dash letters, especially as I had in my mind the initial SOS as the common thing most folks think about when someone mentions Morse Code. From there, I just dug into thinking about what messages I could create from those letters. It's definitely something I want to spend more time on, and already within these first couple of days after I have just as many notes as I did when working on the game! I definitely intend to continue using the mystery/puzzle aspect as I continue to develop things.
@sevansevan I had wanted to incorporate the morse font for hints and things as a quick thought, but the credits roll was a 10-min add and is just a giant text block, but I can investigate re-working it and sprucing it up for a full game. Thanks for playing!
Thanks @eugenik! I'm glad you picked up that this is a twist on a puzzle game! It's something I definitely want to explore and lean into a bit more too. I'm glad tutorial and game seems to take about 30min to play, seems like a good length for a jam like this, probably a lot, but it's been fun to see folks get sucked into it and not realize they've been playing for so long. 😅 That's a good sign right?
Congratulations for your entry and thanks for the lesson !