Dark Sigils by Artur Hawkwing

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

Dark Sigils

Dark Sigils is a game about solving puzzles to decipher runes in a lost city -- all the while learning about the history of many others who entered the city, never to leave again. Come explore the lost demonic city of Altaertha -- and find the escape signal before its too late!

Some things you may want to know - HTML5 build available :D (I'll add it to this site once upload issues resolve -- for now, see itch.io) - Controller and keyboard compatible; mouse optional - Controls are explained in-game - a pen and paper may come in handy!

Gallery

Captura de pantalla<em>20260420</em>180048-1.png Captura de pantalla<em>20260420</em>181147-1.png Captura de pantalla<em>20260420</em>181208.png

Ratings

Overall 669th 3.192⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 509th 3.269⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 390th 3.442⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 711th 2.981⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 397th 3.352⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 448th 3.593⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

FLOWERFIELD Games
Apr 21st · 11:33 UTC
Damn, I had trouble understanding what to do at first. You force me to get pen and paper to decipher the game. Which is great. Well done. Honestly, for me the sound design didn't really match, and I had to lower the volume. Although, imo Signal is different than sign :smirk:
LDJam user 426074
Apr 21st · 11:58 UTC
Сool music, really sets the mood, but a bit too loud at times kept wanting to close popups with esc, felt kinda natural but didn’t workalso made me realize my memory is terrible 😄 thanks!
LDJam user 243193
Apr 24th · 09:09 UTC
TBH the clues are confusing. Saying "glyphs are the same" while they are visually different is totally confusing.
I ended up brute forcing each portal to complete the game with using very simple logic.
Euler Moises
Apr 30th · 00:14 UTC
I liked your game. At first it was a little complicated and I had to take some notes, but after I understood "one thing" it became quite easy.

The music is very good and creates a great atmosphere.

Congratulations!

![Sem título.png](///raw/23f/f1/z/72f65.png)
Vary
Apr 30th · 02:25 UTC
I liked the music, it matched the atmosphere quite well. I found the clues in the first room to be a bit confusing, mainly because of how things are worded (like "all the glyphs are the same" made no sense to me), but once I figured out how the game works, it was really simple. Nice job!
GanonsSpirit
Apr 30th · 05:07 UTC
It's a cool idea, I just don't have the patience for it.
Asieke
Apr 30th · 07:12 UTC
Cool code puzzle game!
InkyH
Apr 30th · 15:55 UTC
cool code graphic and music! maybe add more tutorials
JHax
Apr 30th · 21:28 UTC
Cool puzzle and well designed to give you enough info to solve things! Plot, music and graphics all work well together to build a dark atmosphere. The script designs were really cool as well, although I did find it quite hard to write down the Elvish with a pen while making notes!
ikado
May 01st · 21:06 UTC
i think it's a very cool idea, the lore inscriptions on the glyph tablets was intriguing, i liked the music but it did start to wear on me after a couple loops (i think quite fixable with another phrase for some more variety).

i think if you kept working on this it could be really good! already given the time constraints it's quite impressive, but i think for a game like this to be really good you need a lot of quality of life improvements.

starting with having to work on translating both elvish and demonic right out of the gate i think is a bit too much of a difficulty spike from the beginning. to be honest i lightly rage quit the game. i had just invested quite a bit of time learning a bunch of elvish and then realized that both of the next doors were in demonic and i was frustrated for having just spent a bunch of time writing elvish. i think starting with just one language for a couple puzzles and then introducing the next would feel slightly smoother.

another huge improvement (beyond the scope of a game jam) would be having a way to in-game record the translations you think you know and then showing them in context, and when trying the doors let the player edit character by character. i found it frustrating to have to retype the entire word each time especially when i was confident i knew what certain characters later in the word were.

overall, like i said, i think this can be something really good!
LDJam user 374028
May 02nd · 19:29 UTC
Cool! All the rules made sense and I managed to beat it. Reminds me of Chants of Sennaar but it is simpler. Good work coming up with the symbols and Rosetta stone rules!
NuclMe
May 03rd · 11:23 UTC
Awesome work! The game design and soundtrack are absolutely incredible and create such an immersive atmosphere. Playing this actually reminded me of a book I loved in my childhood, The Little Witch by Otfried Preußler. The vibe is spot on, and the mechanical polish is impressive for a jam entry. Thanks for this nostalgic and high-quality experience
kr4ft3r
May 04th · 08:19 UTC
Most awesome beginning of the game with atmospheric music, story (love the story btw), and visuals. However, while I did go past the first level (if tutorial level can even count as first), the rest of the game demands focus a bit beyond what Ludum Dare crowd can usually provide, also some things in that next level were not working as I expected they should so that broke my will to continue further.
digital bacon
May 06th · 06:41 UTC
Very moody game. Interesting concept and really good, eerie music.

Excellent work -- well done!
Wizard
May 06th · 22:13 UTC
really digged the concept and loved the atmosphere. well done.
LDJam user 289440
May 07th · 09:17 UTC
Smart games for smart people are very difficult for me, and using my memory is almost impossible for me
loafchan
May 07th · 10:34 UTC
Great atmosphere, love this type of game concept! enjoyed decoding with the 3 languages at first but realised I didn't end up needing to...not sure if that was intentional. would be cool if the letters locations changed on the keyboard?
GuyUnger
May 07th · 10:47 UTC
its a cool concept and looks good, a bit complicated for my tiny brain 🙃
LDJam user 424953
May 09th · 12:17 UTC
Wow, really cool game, I somehow find it easier than what most people who played the game think about it, well done!