Sound Signals by pres2300

[raw]
made by pres2300 for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

Screenshot from 2026-04-19 13-47-38.png

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!

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.

Ratings

Overall 224th 3.16⭐ 52🧑‍⚖️
Fun 229th 2.89⭐ 52🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 161th 3.327⭐ 51🧑‍⚖️
Theme 135th 3.76⭐ 52🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 255th 2.83⭐ 52🧑‍⚖️
Audio 92th 3.56⭐ 52🧑‍⚖️
Humor 137th 2.571⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Mood 137th 3.489⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Given 56🗳️ 79🗨️

Feedback

debugman18
Apr 19th · 22:41 UTC
Creative use of sound, having to listen to hear where the next portal is was unexpected.
Mcgank
Apr 20th · 01:45 UTC
That's heckin vibes dude, I made it to the end
Yueyao Wang
Apr 20th · 02:26 UTC
Very fun little game! I like the idea that you have to hear for the exit. It could work a lot better if there are some obstacles and landmarks in your game, to let the players know where they at/been, and the player could walk a bit slower, and that allows us to spent more time. Also, i feel like you can make the players recognize the sound of the portal first, and then put a lots of distraction sounds to make your levels even better. Overall, fun game!
LDJam user 280624
Apr 20th · 03:11 UTC
A very compact and atmospheric adventure with hints of horror
Alex Mulkerrin
Apr 20th · 10:45 UTC
The idea of hunting sounds is novel and I like all the audio use in this game. The main character looking left and right in search as an idle animation is neat. Those red eyes on level 3 sure are spooky! I understand that the lack of landmarks is to make the search more difficult but having some would make exploring more interesting. I did enjoy the song at the end.

For what it's worth I didn't use headphones so might have been missing out on the directional cues. Still a neat game :)
🎤 pres2300
Apr 20th · 16:34 UTC
@mcgank @torte478 Thanks for playing!

@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!
StormSword
Apr 20th · 17:44 UTC
Really good idea x)
As said above a little more obstacles could be a good addition :D
I love the monters, good job :D
Zyertdox
Apr 20th · 21:00 UTC
Very interesting idea! I love it!
LDJam user 233659
Apr 20th · 21:32 UTC
*"My main goal of this jam was to focus on audio"*

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.
LDJam user 428646
Apr 21st · 03:08 UTC
It was pretty eerie to just wander around these empty planes, but some variety definitely would have been for the best. But your goal for this jam was to work on audio, so I would consider it a success :)
MountainGoose
Apr 21st · 05:20 UTC
Enjoyed the concept, felt like the levels were a bit empty but still had fun hunting the portals down!
SHU WEN
Apr 21st · 07:01 UTC
well concept. but a bit empty
Rafa Fiedo
Apr 21st · 07:07 UTC
Very good concept!
I really like the audio games :)
focus mode is really helpfull

![ld_soud_signal.png](///raw/b4b/86/z/71d65.png)
Nuelijarma
Apr 21st · 07:13 UTC
Wow! I too wrote 4 small tunes to be hidden around a map (but with a team for the rest of the game haha)
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 :)
Zazzar
Apr 21st · 07:32 UTC
I didn't read all the dev notes until after playing but went "Are we going for a backrooms feel here?" when level 2 loaded and then the entity jump scared me haha. Great atmosphere and use of audio as a game element. It works really well together. I hung around some of the pickups just to listen to the tracks cause they were good. More general things to do in the level alongside the main goal of the audio would work well but focus mode helped here and made the emptiness add to the atmosphere instead. Nice work!
Axodo
Apr 21st · 12:17 UTC
Nice use of sound to know where to go. I liked the creature from the second level, if wish there were more things like that to meet in your journey. Nice entry overall, good job! :)
Hikiyoshi
Apr 21st · 14:19 UTC
Really great idea! The map looks a bit empty, but overall it is nice.
o2cRoss
Apr 21st · 18:03 UTC
The theme is perfect
PurpledArtFrog
Apr 21st · 18:37 UTC
Nice clean concept- like others said... the map is maybe slightly empty... but then again .. for a compo. Good job and well executed.

Left you a rating :smile:
baknik
Apr 21st · 18:41 UTC
Nicely done. Cool way to integrate sound into your design.
cogcomp
Apr 21st · 20:26 UTC
Good idea with the focus. I was wandering about aimlessly first trying to just randomly listen when I was getting closer and that was way too hard, but with the focus thing it worked well. I don't mind that the levels were a bit empty. Not every game has to have things chasing after you. This was a nice relaxing discovery game. Well done.
marudziik
Apr 21st · 21:16 UTC
Re: up. I'm not sure if I would describe the game as "relaxing", lol.

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!
LDJam user 279233
Apr 22nd · 01:23 UTC
Good use of the Theme! I'm glad You had time to add the focus mode in the end. It adds quite a bit to the game. Also good work on the spooky levels! really added some mood :)
Avhatar
Apr 22nd · 05:27 UTC
Simple and nicely done, nothing unnecessary. Quick to play through, sounds pleasant. In the dark room I was expecting some kind of dirty trick to happen =)
RIBOUT Horace
Apr 22nd · 09:05 UTC
oh, we have the same concept for our game (finding thing with sounds) , it's funny to see a game build around that!
And nice backroom ref
Helagos
Apr 22nd · 12:35 UTC
I like the concept. I felt like in some "backroom" like game where something is "watching" or something like that (i don't know how to describe it). The atmosphere of the game is nice.
SteveOfStevesGames
Apr 22nd · 19:18 UTC
Is it just me or is there a bit of an optical illusion in the brick?. im sure im seeing faint opaque lime green circles.
anku
Apr 22nd · 21:21 UTC
An interesting concept with an excellent take on the theme. Both the audio and visuals are at a strong level.
Constance
Apr 23rd · 03:30 UTC
I don't know what to say, it's, unique? I liked the overall concept and gameplay, and having hear all 4 sounds at the end was nice. But I think the levels were kind of empty, which made them rather bland and exhaustive when I'm looking for the portal. Adding simple trees, bushes, or decorations would definitely make them better for navigations in my opinion.

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.
beats
Apr 23rd · 04:04 UTC
I wish there was a little more variety to the levels but the game was easy to understand and the mechanic felt relevant to the theme.
WeGlove
Apr 23rd · 18:25 UTC
Nice, but I felt it some levels like there was not enough hints/radius to find the goal
thelasttankmage
Apr 23rd · 18:31 UTC
Really cool idea, great mood and vibe. To echo what others are saying it could have used more variety in the levels but its a really nice concept. Good job!
BushFire
Apr 23rd · 19:13 UTC
I did my first playthrough without reading the instructions, and while on voice chat with friends. For a moment I thought my friends were making weird noices. After completing it, I read the instructions and decided to play it again, in order to check out the focus mode.

I like the concept, but I would personally prefere if there had been some enemies to avoid.
🎤 pres2300
Apr 23rd · 20:46 UTC
@weglove try focus mode with ‘F’! Thanks for playing!
hirqshi
Apr 23rd · 23:49 UTC
Liked the idea of sound effects used for gameplay, this game in its short time managed to scare me and made me smile. Like the simple sound effects, graphics can be seen as amateurish but i thing theres a charm to it really. Really cute short and simple game that gave me emotions. Keep it up!
frozenfire92
Apr 24th · 02:17 UTC
Great work, the compo is always such a challenge! Keep on making games :smile:
ugly_robot
Apr 24th · 15:57 UTC
Super solid entry! A fun idea excecated well. The backrooms were quite spooky! Great work
NikaZ
Apr 25th · 06:18 UTC
It would be good to have more background for the world: who's this blue thing? why we're helping him? Good simple visuals and audio. Nice game!
bentglasstube
Apr 26th · 20:12 UTC
I really enjoyed this one although it ended too soon. The focus mode was an interesting mechanic and the sound design was great. The creeps in the speaker buzz area legit startled me the first time I saw them. Great work.
LoHii
Apr 27th · 14:51 UTC
The focus mode was probably necessary, but it ran sort of counter to the idea of navigating by sound. With the levels being so large, the short vibrating of the camera movement was extra noticeable (this was probably because for player and camera, one was updated in process and one in physics process)
🎤 pres2300
Apr 27th · 23:44 UTC
@lohii Thanks for the tip about the camera! I will give that a shot and keep that in mind for future games.
Zettelkasten
Apr 29th · 21:52 UTC
I brought some sound and it made both the blue entity as well as myself happy!
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.
zevwax
May 01st · 05:31 UTC
Like the thumbnail, like the art! 5/5
Shoalmuse
May 01st · 09:09 UTC
Sweet and short. I really liked when I got when I got to the level where it matched the itch background. Cute art and the droning music is strangely very soothing.
LDJam user 374028
May 02nd · 21:14 UTC
I played with headphones and the beeping is too loud (oilyrainc**LOUD**?) to the point of hurting my ears, you should be careful with that when designing a game around sound. Kudos because the black tree thing in the backrooms jumpscared me.
🎤 pres2300
May 03rd · 04:13 UTC
@andriybyelikov Thanks for the feedback! It certainly wasn't my intention to have the beeping of focus mode be too loud. I did develop the game using headphones and didn't notice that on my end, but perhaps it could be a bit better balanced. I also have overall volume control in the settings menu.