LudumData

Smoke Show by Crygos

[raw]
made by Crygos for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

splashscreen.png

Premise

Have you ever wondered how robots carried out long-distance communication in ancient times? With smoke signals, of course!

Get into the rhythm, move those muscles, and send the hot bombshell on the neighboring planet a message of love. In Smoke Show, you can declare your love in smoke if you can keep up with the beat. But what if you can’t? How do you avoid miscommunication when all you've got is smoke?

Share your code at the end of the game with your friends or strangers in the comments so they can experience your signals. See if they can mess up the same way. Your mistakes are now their problem!

Or get creative and invent your own extra special little signal. Share it with the world in the comment section!

Community Interaction

The code on the last screen contains all of your signals. Share it with others or play it yourself. Your output is the challenge for the next person. You can enter the code in the menu and play what others drew.

You can also create your own art to share with others. While this might result in a low score, others will then face your signs. And who cares about a score anyways!

Controls

controls2.png Place your fingers on your keyboard on the keys S, D, F, J, K, and L.

Press and Hold all keys that correspond to the shape shown underneath them. Once the beat hits, smoke will be added, you can let go and hit the next keys. Your final score is your overall accuracy across all shapes.

Tools

Code: Godot 4.6.2

Art: Procreate

Music: Ableton

Team

Creative Code by @bumble & @lehmy & @crygos

Astonishing Artwork by @doa

Snappy Sounds by @strawkur

Link https://crygos.itch.io/smoke-show
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/smoke-show

Ratings

Overall 333th 3.698⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Fun 291th 3.587⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 63th 4.04⭐ 64🧑‍⚖️
Theme 111th 4.262⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 463th 3.69⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Audio 247th 3.705⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Humor 314th 3.08⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Mood 474th 3.55⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Given 83🗳️ 108🗨️

Feedback

500
Apr 21st · 14:35 UTC
The art is so simple hahaha, but the gameplay is quite interesting
carterjbx
Apr 21st · 14:39 UTC
I don't usually play rhythm games, so at first I thought the control scheme was too complicated, but once I got the hang of it it felt really good! this is a great use of the theme. One gripe I have is that I wish you started slightly above the smoke signal, but I understand why you designed it the way you did.
hoptimus_prime
Apr 21st · 14:39 UTC
Awesome gameplay. Had a lot of fun!
jnur
Apr 21st · 14:40 UTC
Looks really charming and I want to try it, but there's this big black box blocking a part of the screen and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do :sweat_smile:

![Screenshot 2026-04-21 at 17.39.28.png](///raw/caa/f3/z/72004.png)
🎤 Crygos
Apr 21st · 14:47 UTC
@jnur Interesting. Could you share what browser you saw this on? We will try to figure out what causes it :)
Thanks for letting us know!
jnur
Apr 21st · 14:55 UTC
@crygos Sorry, should have mentioned that straight away! MacOS, Firefox. But I tried again on Chrome, and that works fine! Really fun and inventive, and the vibes are perfect. I lack the rhythm and coordination to be good at it, but it is the comfiest rhythm game I remember ever playing.
NullMoxy
Apr 21st · 15:32 UTC
Very Unique Gameplay and Artstyle.
Takes a bit to get used to the controls but does work well.
Scoring feedback could be improved a bit, I still get good and great even when not pressing any buttons.
Tay Elenberg
Apr 21st · 21:52 UTC
The concept feels fresh and interesting, and the visuals support it really well. Great work!
fullmetal_automaton
Apr 21st · 21:54 UTC
That was really cute. It took a while to understand how to actually get accurate smoke signals (i should have read the instructions :) ). But after that it was pretty fun.
Stepanoff
Apr 21st · 22:00 UTC
This seems like the most unusual interpretation of the theme. I've seen all sorts of signals, but I've never seen a campfire signal! Excellent! And the gameplay is engaging.
Ranarh
Apr 22nd · 02:48 UTC
A neat idea! I could never get the first line but that's on me, rhythm games and me are a bad combo. Lively and fun, good job!
Blue Pin Studio
Apr 22nd · 04:54 UTC
Fantastic entry! Really clever programming execution and really clever desing. The art and audio are great too, all around great!
ToSMaster
Apr 22nd · 16:06 UTC
Ouf I am so bad at this game haha.
But I had a lot of fun! I was halfway looking at my keyboard and the screen and got so overwhelmed but laughed all the way to the end, thinking about how noone can decypher my smoke signals hahahahaha.
Like, the dude at the other end getting so confused and being like "no idea what this guy wants, let's just smile and wave". :rofl:

Here's my miserable best score for the world to see:
```
AQAAAAAAAAAEDQYGAAAAACAoAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIDAwMDg4ACAAIiEhACAQEAAAPz4PwAAAAwSEgwAHgAhKg43MDg4BwcHBwcHMDg4Pz8cHhwMNz8cDBIe
```

[E] Before I forget! Sharing codes is suuuuuuuuuuuuch a cool idea!!!! LOVE IT!!!
Lehmy
Apr 22nd · 16:42 UTC
@tosmaster Hi, Thanks for the comment and code :smile: Could it perhaps be that you missed a character at the end of the code ?

This is a working code. (A added for it to work again)
>AQAAAAAAAAAEDQYGAAAAACAoAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIDAwMDg4ACAAIiEhACAQEAAAPz4PwAAAAwSEgwAHgAhKg43MDg4BwcHBwcHMDg4Pz8cHhwMNz8cDBIeA
ToSMaster
Apr 22nd · 17:43 UTC
@lehmy I used the copy function at the end of the game. Perhaps I lost a character when trying to format it? Sorry, I cannot recall how that could have happened. :(
Byte Bark
Apr 22nd · 19:12 UTC
Love the concept! Took me a moment to understand the control but after all I enjoyed playing it (and being bad at it). And I like the idea about robot + ancient times :laughing:
Phoenix Fireflower
Apr 22nd · 20:12 UTC
The art is charming and the gameplay, while simple, is engaging once you get the hang of it. I agree with the others that the controls take some time to get used to.
Petr Vejchoda
Apr 22nd · 20:30 UTC
Oh I love Base64ing data. We made a game where you could share levels via Base64. Sadly, the game didn't caught up that much. This looks awesome instead ;)
LDJam user 49756
Apr 23rd · 11:08 UTC
That's so nice! Really nice use of the smoke signal thing, i love it ! :O Probably my favorite entry so far
VenomousMouse
Apr 23rd · 13:32 UTC
I like the coziness of the art, very cute game. Good job!
snk
Apr 23rd · 20:01 UTC
Nice work with this game. I started pretty good but the 5 star level is just... another level haha. I could score around 82% of that. However was very funny, and also I could select the purple smoke color :3
Thomas Gelman
Apr 23rd · 20:05 UTC
Cool and charming game! Had fun playing it, took me a second to get the hang of it but once I did I had fun playing all the levels! My only real note of feedback is that it felt somewhat strange whenever it started on one of the patterns instead of one beat ahead of them. That may just be me, but it was something I found a little troublesome in my playthrough regardless. Other than that, solid game. Good job!
ValentinWB
Apr 23rd · 20:25 UTC
Awesome concept guys ! Very well done
Mamboman
Apr 23rd · 20:47 UTC
smokin hot game! :) it took me a few rounds to find out how to play but then it was a lot of fun!
YurisCat
Apr 24th · 09:00 UTC
A pretty fresh take on a rhythm game. I didn’t expect it to use smoke to convey the signals, which is a really cool idea. I only tried one song and had a bit of trouble keeping up with the rhythm, but with a little more time, I think this could be pretty good.
LDJam user 409682
Apr 24th · 11:56 UTC
I liked the cozy visual style. At first, I didn’t quite understand that you need to press the buttons not only in rhythm, but also to draw a shape — it ends up feeling like a kind of piano. It’s fairly challenging, but I really liked the idea.

Thanks for the rhythm game! I made one on this theme too, so feel free to check it out if you’d like 🙂
oxnh
Apr 24th · 12:56 UTC
Really nice art and integration with the theme. The window for hitting the note on the beat seems quite difficult, or maybe it's a skill issue, or maybe I'm having problem playing offbeat. I think the first track has a lot of syncopation that makes it difficult.
LLlarsO
Apr 24th · 12:59 UTC
Nice theme interpretation, which is also used for the gameplay. I like that.
I also like that you put in a score system and that there are different difficulties implemented.
denikk
Apr 24th · 15:07 UTC
Very nice color palette, I love the sound and game design. Was a bit unexpected that I have to hold buttons before the game started. Very self explanatory game. Sounds are nice and visuals are cozy. I like that project!
kr4ft3r
Apr 24th · 16:17 UTC
My, what inventiveness, I'm speechless. I hope you guys get to top 10 in Theme or Innovation.

For those who are up for some groovy new shapes:

AwAAAAAAAAAHCwYGIQwhDB4zADAYAAYDKBIoEgUSDBIhDCESIBAIAQIkABIMLT8tITMhMx4tAAkkCSQJABwZHBkcISEeHgwhJBMJNiQJ
Bumble
Apr 24th · 16:29 UTC
@kr4ft3r thank you for sharing your signals! We hoped more people would do so. Because we were looking forward to playing those messed up signals (shared from standard runs). But it seems you actually created your own map with hand crafted signals, which is even better! :eyes: (my first try got me a smokin' hot 95% :fire:)
johnnyalfonso
Apr 24th · 16:31 UTC
great concept!
LDJam user 236055
Apr 24th · 16:33 UTC
a really interesting way to make a rhythm game (we also made one, nice to see that there are so many rhythm games in this jam, I love it!) and a very innovative interpretation of the theme. it's not that easy to get into, I didn't realize that you have to hold the buttons, at first I thought you have to press them on beat, but once I got the hang of it it was fun :)
Jahwffrey
Apr 24th · 17:26 UTC
Nice! That took a genuinely surprising amount of focus but after a few tries I was getting the harder ones somewhat reliably. The music is nice and the challenges get interesting without being frustrating, and that one of the funnier color pickers I've seen. If I have any complaints, it's that 'Miss' vs 'Good' vs 'Perfect!' didn't really seem to line up with what was happening alot of the time - it took a while to get the hang of things because it kept telling me I was doing pretty good while I was barely doing anything. Maybe it counted all the blank tiles I didn't put smoke on a hits? Either way, Good job!
Eric Nguyen
Apr 24th · 17:31 UTC
Love the art and music! The gameplay itself is super unique too. Sometimes I would get surprised when the line would start on top of the first row of smoke but that's probably a skill issue haha. The code sharing idea is also ingenious as well, way to get people involved in the comments. Awesome submission!

AQAAAAAAAAADDQYGAAEAAAAAAAAeHh4AAB4SEh4APz8zMz8/PyEhISE/AAQMDAAAAAweHgwAAAwSEgwAHhIhITMeODg4BwcHBwcHODg4Pz8eHgwMAB4MDB4/
Bumble
Apr 24th · 18:02 UTC
@jahwffrey yeah we count the empty spaces as well. We realized too late, that this looks confusing, but we use that information in score calculation as well so we don't want to change it now :sweat_smile:
Bumble
Apr 24th · 18:08 UTC
@eric-nguyen thank you for submitting a signal! Yeah we thought it would be nice to get some engagement going in the comments. But at the moment it looks like just sharing scores is way easier to get people to engage and works better. Still, we really like this feature and will probably do it again!
CaptAndrey
Apr 24th · 20:58 UTC
very cool interpretation! Was pretty fun, and challenging. Only one thing - the "perfect" mark appeared even i missed almost all lines on empty figures, was kinda confusing sometimes
Eeva
Apr 24th · 21:35 UTC
the game looked and sounded good and i liked the interpretation of the theme! the ui was a bit jank as other commenters have mentioned - it said "good" or "perfect" even when i clicked nothing so it was hard to understand how to time the buttonmashing to succeed
Trexxak
Apr 24th · 22:23 UTC
oh, that's such a cool idea! :D If you keep working on it, I think multiplayer rooms would be a natural next step! Imagine versus-ing smoke signs on those webgame binges with friends!
Fadex
Apr 24th · 23:45 UTC
Very fun, great concept. It was super cute.. really enjoyed it. My only thing was the timing of placing the smokes felt a bit off beat.
kassanu
Apr 24th · 23:48 UTC
nice idea, love rhythm games and this was a fun twist on it

I had the black box bug as well on Firefox, but i could at least get half the signal right :laughing:
GuitarBro
Apr 24th · 23:59 UTC
Interesting interpretation of "signals"! The gameplay is definitely Guitar-Hero-adjacent, but I like the way you used the six fingers to draw the signal patterns. Definitely a bit jank, but it was still enjoyable to try to get a high score. Honestly, I think the biggest detractor in it's current state is just how similar all the tracks are, since that really is the key focus of the gameplay. At least changing up the synths and percussion would go a long way to making each one unique to go along with the different shapes that each level has. That said, I feel like they were all reasonable lengths and didn't overstay their welcome, and the level sharing is a pretty cool touch for a jam game. Overall, a pretty solid entry!
CrimsonTrouper
Apr 25th · 05:43 UTC
cool concept, but I would've wanted notes to have some sounds too. I still don't get if all those buttons actually do something different or not...
violette
Apr 25th · 10:02 UTC
很温暖可爱的画风，被色调吸引了进来，但是上手难度有一点高，一开始并没有按按钮.....
CodeRaurus
Apr 25th · 10:29 UTC
Good take on the theme and very intriguing gameplay. I was somewhat struggling with the controls kind of got the hang of it eventually. I wonder if the game would be easier with controls that are lined up next to each other. I think the separation threw me off a bit.

Nice work!
FlameSeer
Apr 25th · 11:36 UTC
That is a very fun game that I'm very bad at XD Love the idea and the execution
Papaver
Apr 25th · 18:44 UTC
Very cool game! It took me some time to understand how it worked, but it was really fun when I got the hang of it!
Nice music to play along to.

Would have been nice to see my scores for each sequence, to know which ones to try again, and to see which ones I've already done in general :wink: (Because I didn't play them in the order that they are listed)

At first I was confused what the codes meant. Then I tried @kr4ft3r's code, and got 95.71%!
Then I had some fun making up my own sequence, by iterating on my own code:

AQAAAAAAAAADDQYGAD8APwA/ABUqFSoVMDAMDAMDPj07Ny8fKioqFRUVAAA4OAcHMBgMBgMAISESLS0SJxUNFScAISEzHh4zKBINEigAAAUKFCgAHj8ePx4M
Bumble
Apr 25th · 19:16 UTC
@coderaurus thank you for the feedback! We separated the keys because that is what most rhythm games to so that your hands rest on the keyboard markings on the home row. The one thing we forgot to do was to mark the separation between your hands in the play field with a line. So yeah sorry the confusion is our bad :sweat_smile:
Bumble
Apr 25th · 19:19 UTC
@papaver You actually went all in being seemingly the only one to complain about us not keeping scores, trying all the levels AND playing the levels of others :smile:
Thank you for your code! I got 98.5% on my first try. I really like the 'alien'-like shapes you created with our limited 6x6 grid :fire:
Egrassah
Apr 25th · 19:39 UTC
Nice concept, and i like the art ! i struggled to press the keys at the right time hahaha
CodeRaurus
Apr 25th · 20:45 UTC
@bumble All good, especially if the layout is standard for rhythm games :grin:
LDJam user 268934
Apr 25th · 23:28 UTC
Oh I like this game. Super smart game design !
Art and sound is well executed, super solid entry.
cedaoan
Apr 26th · 10:17 UTC
Very interesting concept! I didnt understand how to play it at first but figured it out later.
It's def innovative, very cool gameplay design!

My code XD:
AQAAAAAAAAADDQYGAB4eHgAAHh4eHh4AAD8eMjMePz8zMz8/AD8hISE/AAwMDAAAAAwzMx4AABIzMx4AAB4zMzMeODg4BwcHBwcHODg4Pz8eHgwMPx4MDB4/
Gilgadev
Apr 26th · 12:38 UTC
Awesome concept. At first i didn't understand how to play it, because i was expecting a regular rhythm game where the keys slide up / down to the mark to be pressed. Great game!
NonDev
Apr 26th · 12:40 UTC
It took me a while to get what was going on and not have my brain frazzled, but once I got it it was very compelling! Really neat idea for the theme. I'm not great at rhythm style games, but bumbled my way through. Such a nice job!
Bumble
Apr 26th · 16:16 UTC
@cedaoan thank you for your code! It is always interesting to see which icons made people struggle the most AND then trying myself not to struggle with whatever icon was created from your struggle :smile: (I got a 99.15% :fire:)
Aurel300
Apr 26th · 19:31 UTC
Fun game! I wish there was a 100 BPM track, since 80 feels a bit too easy and 120 still a tiny bit too hectic. In particular I wish there wasn't as much stuff obstructing the next signal during countdown -- there is the previous cloud fading out, the letters + line underneath adding some noise, and the 3, 2, 1 countdown distracting while this is going on ^^
Lehmy
Apr 27th · 10:37 UTC
@aurel300 Yeah, we had a 100 BPM track in the pipeline, but as it always happens, there was too much else to do to add the track in time. (We don't want to add it after the fact since the jam time is over. (Might add it after the voting is done.))

Same goes for the visual clutter a bit more time to polish this up would have been nice. Thanks for playing and for the feedback :smile:
aniretti
Apr 27th · 18:33 UTC
a very interesting game with unique gameplay! i had to play a few rounds to figure it out.
it was a bit confusing when to press the keys, and also that you had to hold them down, not just press them.
but once you figure it out, the gameplay really opens up! it's cool that you even added some customization options
LDJam user 424326
Apr 28th · 09:35 UTC
The idea is really cool, although my fingers aren’t used to this kind of key layout at all
Zathnic
Apr 28th · 18:08 UTC
Unique concept for a rhythm game, with a nice presentation! Once I understood that you need to hold the keys, not just press, it felt quite natural
AO-85
May 07th · 01:27 UTC
Nice theme interpretation, which is also used for the gameplay. I like that. I also like that you put in a score system and that there are different difficulties implemented.
Sarah
May 08th · 15:35 UTC
This is very cute! I like the graphics and overall feel to the game. It's light and happy but it's challenging to get right each time. I did struggle with getting both hands to work together in this particular key setup but once I got the hang of it, it was really fun. Great work!