Mixed Messages by Ben Morledge-Hampton

[raw]
made by Ben Morledge-Hampton for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

A game about messy communication and working too hard.

This is the original version submitted for the game jam. You can find a more up-to-date version, with additional quality of life features, adjustments to difficulty, and bug fixes here: https://mr-dr-bean.itch.io/mixed-messages

Alt+F to toggle fullscreen on/off (after the splash screen), Alt+M to mute

Fonts used: Courier Prime, VT323

All other assets by me!

Ratings

Overall 109th 3.596⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 126th 3.404⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 61th 3.769⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 41th 4.231⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 117th 3.615⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 99th 3.5⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 37th 3.673⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 114th 3.577⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 39🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

InfinityE
Apr 20th · 15:00 UTC
Doesnt Work for Me IDK cool design though
Last Angle
Apr 20th · 15:12 UTC
Great take on the theme! The decoding is really satisfying to do! The game is a bit long though, so at some point it gets a bit repetative.
The graphics fit the game and the sounddesign is very well done!
CaptainDreamcast
Apr 20th · 15:43 UTC
That rascal Jim, I should have known. Absolute mad-lad final image as well, knowing how Jim feels about egg-based sandwiches.

Worked fine on itch for me, I had a blast. What a genius idea, a typing game based on a bad signal and you have to type out the rest of the message. It was super fun figuring out the crazy stuff being sent and slowly figuring out the truth behind it all (dehydration? No, could it be-!). The way the signal kept getting worse as well, I needed several passes for the final hard ones. Loved the appearance of the hut as well, Smokey cameo and the wifi mug, perfect. Loved it. Amazing take on the theme, great job with this game!
Pimeko
Apr 21st · 00:01 UTC
Really nice concept, pretty original! The girl should just eat some PB&J imo though
kanity
Apr 23rd · 18:20 UTC
Hello! I wanted to play your game but unfortunately Web build doesn't seem to work for me, not on itch nor here, the loading progress bar just never completed (I left it for about 30 mins I think!) Do you think it would be possible to add a PC build download for Windows? ^^
🎤 Ben Morledge-Hampton
Apr 23rd · 22:42 UTC
@kanity Sorry about that! I'm not sure why it wasn't working for you, but I just added a Windows build to the downloads. Thanks for letting me know that you needed it.
🎤 Ben Morledge-Hampton
Apr 23rd · 22:46 UTC
@infinitye Sorry you had troubles running the web version. I just uploaded a Windows build if you're still interested in playing the game.
🎤 Ben Morledge-Hampton
Apr 23rd · 22:47 UTC
@kanity @infinitye Out of curiosity, what browsers are you guys using? I'd like to see if I can fix the issues with the web build, and it would be helpful to know if a specific browser is causing problems.
🎤 Ben Morledge-Hampton
Apr 23rd · 22:48 UTC
@last-angle Thanks for the feedback! It's good to know that the pacing towards the end was a little slow. I don't think I'm allowed to change it during the jam, but I'll definitely keep this in mind for the post-jam adjustments.
🎤 Ben Morledge-Hampton
Apr 23rd · 22:50 UTC
@captaindreamcast I'm so glad you enjoyed the game! It was my first time making a game with such a direct narrative, so I'm glad it was engaging.
cogcomp
Apr 24th · 05:36 UTC
Really cool deciphering effect. Reminds me of the move Sneakers :smile: The game was quite pleasant to play as well. So nice presentation and an interesting game. Nice work!
kanity
Apr 24th · 09:40 UTC
@ben-morledge-hampton Thank you!! Now I can play ^^ (The browser I am using is Chrome, and I have to note itch and Ludum only open for me with VPN; I believe I never encountered such issues when I was participating in LD before these sites stopped working w/o VPN, so it could really be something on my side!)

First off, your logo looks really cool - and I like how it hints on the upcoming gameplay.

Gameplay itself is fun! The concept is interesting, and for me it feels fresh. And I do love word puzzles / playing with words. Might be hard for non-English speakers, but thankfully my English is good enough so it felt very intuitive and smooth.

That's also kind of like a spell check game, can be used for education XD Turns out I didn't know how to spell mayonnaise :D A lot of guessing game too! And it keeps getting harder >:) Didn't know the word ghillie at all :o

The music is lovely, and the graphics give a nostalgic feeling. I like the bear on the poster, really cute ^^

I am craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich now (though not really a sandwich, I prefer like... open-faced sandwich - that's how it's called in English, right? without the second piece of bread xD)

Which jam you prefer with peanut butter? Serious question :D I actually enjoyed it with home made apple jam, surprisingly. It's great with strawberry also. I am not from US so I've learned about the concept as an adult and now I keep exploring it. Put some chocolate on peanut butter as well, that worked great ofc. Just melt the chocolate a bit, and pour it over... Very lovely. I heard people do grape but I don't really have grape jelly here for sale and never made one myself. Plum is interesting but not my fav combo with peanut butter...

She doesn't have WATER??? for WEEKS?? jeez she must be going insane from thirst 3_3 Honestly they should've sent someone to her right away after that piece of info, why are we still chatting?? XD

Yeah it's pretty hard in the end when almost everything has to be typed in, there's a LOT of guessing and she is making less and less sense xD

Oh wait I think it was a guy, sorry. I was imagining a woman :D Ig because I put myself as a main character, and so in my world that were two women talking to each other x)

Oh no, he pranked me :O That's demonic T_T I demand a divorce now

The ending is funny tho :)

THE PHOTO AT THE END

Is this...

!>A peanut butter and egg sandwich??? XD


P.S. That was fun, thank you for the game :) Sorry for my long messy comment xD
🎤 Ben Morledge-Hampton
Apr 24th · 19:37 UTC
@kanity I got a good laugh out of this comment! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with Mixed Messages! It's good to hear that you enjoyed the game and made it all the way to the end. I didn't consider how difficult the game might be for non-native English speakers, so I'm glad that it was still accessible enough for you. In hindsight, I wish I had lowered the overall difficulty and increased it more gradually so that the ending wasn't such a slog... Turns out, it's really hard to gauge the difficulty of a word-puzzle game when you're the one who wrote all the answers, lol. It's definitely a lesson I'll take forward to future projects though!

To answer your question, I'm a sucker for some good raspberry jelly, but apple jelly is good too!

Oh, and that's "Smokey Bear" on the poster that you mentioned. He's the mascot for the US Forest Service. The game was inspired by some amazing experiences I had staying with fire lookouts as a kid, and Smokey Bear is a sort of proxy for that nostalgia.

Again, thanks for the "long messy comment", haha! It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that someone engaged so deeply with this thing I made. :)
block97
Apr 24th · 22:02 UTC
I really like the animations the way the letters change and pop off the words when you type was quite statisfying. I think im not the best candiate for the game however with my 50wpm I found myself very often missing letters the game was asking me to press. maybe a easier setting for the slower typers like myself :sweat_smile:
Roroto Sic
Apr 24th · 22:12 UTC
Very entertaining! Clever gameplay idea ! Great mood and funny !

![Capture d’écran 2026-04-25 001055.jpg](///raw/d93/94/z/72a10.jpg)
murilojones
Apr 24th · 22:49 UTC
The story is what get's us going. At some point you are just tired and just keep going because of the story. lol. Kind of repetitive game, but overall you have fun playing it in the begining
Flame017
Apr 24th · 22:58 UTC
I am french and this game can help me to learn english, I like that
UkuleleFury
Apr 25th · 03:23 UTC
:) This was a lot of fun! A really well-implemented mechanic, and a great spin on the theme. I love narrative games like this, and this was a fun story to unravel. Thanks!
LDJam user 268934
Apr 25th · 23:42 UTC
This is impressive amount of content for a compo !
I take a deep bow and salute you for this great project, thank you for making it I had fun playing it.
cesta
Apr 27th · 15:00 UTC
great game!! it had me going through all sorts of emotions :smile: its nice and simple, sometimes i had trouble to figure out the messages but i kept on going
Harmadillo
Apr 28th · 17:56 UTC
Really enjoyable game. For me the decoding was rewarding but not overly difficult. I enjoyed the story too.
Baturinsky
Apr 28th · 18:31 UTC
I have no idea how to play. Maybe add instruction to decription?
kanity
Apr 28th · 20:56 UTC
@ben-morledge-hampton Somehow I forgot about raspberry. Did I even try this combo? I should buy some :) Glad you enjoyed my comment! Your game was one of the more memorable for me this jam ^^ (oh wait, jam theme comes up again! I didn't think about it but jam in a jam game is an elegant touch!)
limered
Apr 28th · 21:11 UTC
Very cool idea. I liked the chillout music and atmosphere. THe story is also kind of funny and decoding was fun. Good entry.
🎤 Ben Morledge-Hampton
Apr 28th · 23:08 UTC
@baturinsky Sorry you had trouble figuring out the controls. I try to keep instruction outside the game to a minimum so that the player is encouraged to experiment and make real discoveries as they play. Did you make sure the game window had focus by clicking on it? If so, just try typing some random letters when the scrambled messages appear. I'm sure you'll figure things out!
banan_dev
Apr 29th · 11:16 UTC
Cool concept of the game, i like how it telling u story through the gameplay. Very accurate represent of the "Signal" theme
Disvent
May 01st · 19:00 UTC
The way the text glitches with missing letters is sweet!
I think, it's so cool to see something like this as mini-game inside a larger project.
Atmosphere is nice and game perfectly fits the theme. Great job!
jk5000
May 01st · 20:02 UTC
Overall a funny and well made little game. Felt a bit too long, but else a really great game. Well done.
vidarn
May 03rd · 06:27 UTC
Really fun and interesting. I was very intrigued by the story, I had no idea where it was heading. I wasn't sure if I was communicating with someone sinister, or with someone I would need to help, or if there was a mystery of some kind. The ending surprised me and was very sweet. I think game jams are perfect for telling little stories like this and I really enjoyed the experience.

I found the game mechanics intuitive and fun. It was nice how you could start picking out the words you were most sure about first, and then work out what the other words must be. I really appreciated how there were no penalty for getting letters wrong either, that made the game very relaxed and enjoyable to me.