Cipher Tower by Teaminister
UPDATE
We've patched the game and added needed functions and QoL features! Have fun!
WELCOME TO THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD, FUTURE PEASANT!
MY NAME IS OTTO. I AM A PROUD EMPLOYER OF THE IMPERIAL STEAM COMPANY. WE SEND MESSAGES SO YOU NEVER HAVE TO LOOK ANOTHER HUMAN IN THE EYE. WHO NEEDS FACETIME WHEN YOU HAVE A PIGEON???
YOUR JOB: Receive ciphered letters, Morse code, and flag semaphore. Feed them into our glorious STDM machine (steam-powered, temperamental, beautiful). Use the Manual to crack Caesar, A1Z26, Morse, and flags. Then send it off – pigeon for long distance, paper plane for local.
THIS IS A SATIRE. ABOUT YOU. AND YOUR OBSESSION WITH MESSAGING. SO, HERE'S MY QUESTION, FUTURE PEASANT:
WHO NEEDS EYE CONTACT WHEN YOU HAVE A PIGEON, AM I RIGHT???
CONTROLS:
Left-click to interact with objects.
Press Esc or Right Mouse Button to close book.
Hold Left Mouse Button to drag and drop items.
Click on the KEYBOARD in game to enter typing mode!
Type using your keyboard!
Press Enter to enter your text.
Press Esc to stop using KEYBOARD while typing.
TUTORIAL (temporary)
There are couple of interactable objects in a game that you need to use or interact with to play the game:
- Letters
Some you can click and read. If you click and nothing happens, then you need to take it and load it into the computer via...
- Shredder
It is a mechanism attached to the computer. Hover a letter over it and it will be consumed and all the information displayed on the monitor.
- Keyboard
It is a tool to type on the monitor! To ented typing mode, just click on the keyboard and start typing! Using YOUR keyboard! Pretty cool, right?
- Book
You've probably already clicked on it and thought that it was all. But the book is important. It holds info on how to decipher signals we receive.
DISCLAIMER: Caesars Code Wheel is not working properly. It should spin and help you decipher messages. As of right now it doesn't... Messages can be deciphered, but it will be very hard. Sorry:(
- Pigeon and Tube
These are for sending messages. Pigeon - other cities. Planes - Steam Capital.
- "Choose your Paper" mechanism
To print a letter, choose what type of paper you want to use. There are 3 BUTTONS near the Monitor:
Brown button (0R) - free paper
Blue button (2R) - expensive paper
Purple button (5R) - very expensive paper.
GAMEPLAY NUANCES
Use TRASH CAN to throw away briefing letters and, if you want, letters from a story character. It is a unique letter. You won't miss it.
Send letters using Pigeons or Paper Planes:
Pigeons are for long distance messages
Paper planes are for local messages
WE SIT IN A STEAM CAPITAL. IF A LETTER IS SENT TO SOMEONE IN THE STEAM CAPITAL, USE PAPER PLANES!
Have fun playing our game! We put our hearts, souls and probably health into making it possible! We can't wait to hear your thoughts!
| Windows Build | https://teaminister.itch.io/cipher-tower |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/cipher-tower |
Ratings
| Given | 15🗳️ | 36🗨️ |
Nice art though!
I'll check back later because it looks fun
Sadly yeah, we were rushing today to publish a "working" build. For now, I will add more instruction to the description, so people can actually PLAY THE GAME! If we can patch it, we will add something to help you out in a game. Sorry for the inconvenience:((
P.S. If you simply can't decipher Caesar's Code (which requires a wheel), use this website. It will help a little bit (some oldschool vibes of reading how to beat a game in a magazine with tons of spoilers and cheats, hahahhaha)
https://groklearning.com/cyber-widgets/decryption-wheel/
Gameplay-wise: there’s a lot of mechanics, which might be a bit much for the average player who’s ready to spend 5-6 minutes, and for a 3-day jam it’s hard to properly tie everything together. Give this project another week or two of polish and it would be amazing. Either way, it’s definitely a worthwhile entry - and please add an itch.io link, I’d love to follow the project’s progress if you continue it.
But thank you. Art is probably the only thing that we did good, hahaha (no, but the best so far:) )
We will add it on itch some time later. Fix everything. And then post it there, hahahah
Thanks again for these kind words. It means a lot for me, really:)
I do very much like the concept and the fact that there is some variance every time you play it.
but I couldn’t figure out how to do anything besides check the book.
looking forward to see the final works
And yeah, all art was done from scratch. game art is 100% handcrafted as major companies like to say nowadays, hahahahah
i hope you sneak well at your work so no one noticed:)
I just had a really hard time figuring out how the game actually works :(
Start the game, take a while figuring out how to get a letter into the PC by following instructions in the description. I think it's a caesar cipher, but while testing I find out there's no backspace. I restart the game thinking I'll work it out on a second try.
On second start, I get a morse code instead. Except the morse code has characters that aren't in the rulebook (--..-- is a comma according to an external website, but not listed anywhere). Translate what's on the screen, hit enter, the first half of the message changes to new plaintext seemingly cut off by what I typed. It's all a little too messy and confusing to really want to continue.
I've bookmarked the game into a LD59 folder and will play it again in a few days since it seems you're working on updating it. You've obviously got a great hook with that amazing art, as evidenced by the amount of comments you're getting. Just needs a lot of work on the execution. Good luck
Loved the artwork
If you plan on refining the game any more the first thing I would suggest are sound effects on all the usable items
I'm going to hold off rating this for now, but if the game does in fact work and I'm just missing something, I'd be glad to give it another go! I was playing the web build on the LDJam site - not sure if there's another somewhere else.
(From a design perspective - assuming everything is working, it might be a good idea to make things animate a little when you mouse over them. It feels like pixel hunting right now and I genuinely don't understand what I'm doing wrong.)
I really tried to play the game—spending about 20–30 minutes on it—but the experience didn't go very smoothly.
As many have noted, the game's visuals are truly magnificent; they are captivating and compel you to try and immerse yourself in the game to figure out how everything works. Unfortunately, doing exactly that is incredibly difficult under the current circumstances.
- There is a lack of clarity regarding object interactivity and the initial steps required to proceed.
- In the Morse code section, I encountered a set of symbols that wasn't listed in the reference book. However, technically speaking, I was still able to type out text, hit Enter, then click the paper button to generate a letter ready for dispatch. I could then send the letter and receive the next assignment, but I saw no confirmation or feedback indicating whether the letter had been created or sent correctly.
- In the Caesar cipher section—assuming I’ve correctly identified it as a Caesar cipher—I couldn't figure out how to finalize the letter. Pressing Enter simply wipes away everything I’ve typed; no matter how hard I tried or what actions I took (and I tried quite a lot), I was unable to successfully generate a letter for sending and advance to the next stage.
- The background music is very pleasant, but it doesn't loop continuously.
I didn't encounter the circular cipher puzzle, but honestly, I no longer have the desire to go back and test it out.
Please don't think I'm just being toxic; on the contrary, I really loved the core concept—and that is precisely why I’ve dedicated so much time to providing this feedback.
I can only imagine how much effort you poured into this project. Judging by appearances, this seems to be your first major undertaking (though I could be mistaken); regardless, I can clearly see that you’ve done a tremendous amount of work—sometimes, however, shit just happens. I won't try to pressure you into finishing the project—that’s entirely up to you, and perhaps you’ve already moved on to other things—but I simply want to wish you the very best of luck in your future endeavors!