LudumData

The Signal of the Universe by Planetary

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

A signal has been detected for years!

You and more crew members are assigned to discover the provenience of the unknown signal.

You are both the pilot of a ship and a rover. Follow the signal, do the tasks and return to the space station.

Warning! You have limited fuel. Use it wisely! Also, be careful about your health.

Upgrading is necessary, you'll be more stronger to face the invasion of missiles.

Commands

Ship:

A & D -> turn the ship

W -> thrust

Left click -> shoot

SPACE -> interaction with a planet / space station

Rover:

A & D -> drive the rover

E & Q -> apply turning

Left click -> shoot

SPACE -> interaction with the ship

How to play?

Step 1 -> upgrade your ship. You have 5 upgrades available.

Step 2 -> follow the signal. It will lead to a planet.

Step 3 -> when you reach the planet, SPACE to land.

Step 4 -> land safely on the planet. Don't hit the ground too hard.

Step 5 -> drive to the signal, and wait to get the data.

Step 6 -> go back to the ship, and fly away from the planet.

Step 7 -> repeat Step 2 until the signal leads you to the space station.

Step 8 -> you finished the mission! :tada:

Upgrades

Speed -> the speed of the ship

Rotation speed -> the rotation speed of the ship

Health -> the health of both ship and rover

Fire rate -> the fire rate of the gun for both ship and rover

Fuel -> the fuel of the ship

Are you up for the challenge??

Screenshot 2026-04-20 232246.png

Screenshot 2026-04-20 232045.png

Screenshot 2026-04-20 232149.png

Changelogs:

  • bug fixes (no help menu, no quit in desktop version, etc.)
  • add Abort button to not refresh the page again
  • a planet was modified to be possible
Link https://files.jam.host/embed/$428588/51143/index.html
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/the-signal-of-the-universe

Ratings

Overall 408th 3.591⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 479th 3.295⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 440th 3.364⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 299th 3.955⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 563th 3.455⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 483th 3.068⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 457th 2.676⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Mood 710th 3.045⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

Makintosh
Apr 20th · 20:46 UTC
The concept is very interesting. The visuals are nice, but I'd like to zoom the camera out. I'd also like to see a path in the game showing where to go, otherwise at the beginning it's hard to understand where to go because of the straight wave going there. A pause menu with sound settings wouldn't hurt either. The fact that the sun kills you like, same goes for the planet landing. You can tell a lot of work was put into it. Like
Isaac Hisey
Apr 21st · 05:02 UTC
Couple of things happened it quick succession that made this hard to play.
1. Clicked help on the main menu - nothing loaded. stuck. Refreshed the page.
2. Got to planet 1 and landed to hard, that's fine. click the in-game button to try again. Got to the planet, hit space to land, frozen.
3. Refreshed again, got to the planet again, landed, car immediately flipped upside down.

Gonna give it one more shot. The next shot...
4. Okay got, first planet done! New signal yay! Die by sun. ooookay.

I like the space physics, the gfx, the lazer sfx. Having a bit of tough time though.
There is a lot I like. Its a bit frustrating though.
Nidoprince
Apr 22nd · 09:30 UTC
I liked the controls and the physics, and the gameplay loop feels solid. I'll echo what the other reviewers said as well though, that I think crashing too hard being an instant game over feels a bit rough especially after you have already played a planet or two. Since you have health already for the missiles, it feels like a bad landing harming you instead of killing you would feel less rough. Otherwise a fun game.
LDJam user 260720
Apr 22nd · 09:34 UTC
The concept is cool and I like the space physics! I died 3 times trying to land tho ahahah
Soul Grinder
Apr 22nd · 09:34 UTC
Really fun and challenging, quite a lot of gameplay achieved in such a short time, good work!
Caelestial
Apr 22nd · 09:37 UTC
Good concept, but I found it hard to understand where to fly.
thormoth
Apr 22nd · 09:46 UTC
I found the ship movement to be really satisfying, and the particle effects were really cool. I did find it wasn't super clear what signal i was supposed to be following to get to the planet. But other than that a really solid entry.
OddballDave
Apr 22nd · 09:51 UTC
There's a lot in here for a jam game. All the parts work as they should, but I found it a bit trial and error to work out what was going on, even after reading all the instructions first. But once you get the idea of what to do things improve greatly. My favourite part was shooting the incoming missiles; There was something so satisfying about blowing up a missile on your tail at the last second. Good fun :8ball:
Kit Gorn
Apr 23rd · 16:41 UTC
This game gives me mixed feelings. On one hand, I like it and I'm curious to see what happens next. On the other hand, it drives me crazy to fly to Venus for the 53rd time only to crash or flip over again. Argh... the vibe reminds me of Super Meat Boy, but the levels there were faster. Here, the flight takes forever.
I haven't finished the first level yet, but I liked it.
🎤 Planetary
Apr 23rd · 17:15 UTC
@makintosh @isaac-hisey @nidoprince @lastuck @soul-grinder @caelestial @thormoth @oddballdave @kit-gorn thank you for playing my game and sending me a feedback! For sure will play your games too! :smile:
plutonicrock
Apr 24th · 13:40 UTC
simple mechanic, but really interesting gameplay and definitely a good game for this theme!
Itero Proto
Apr 24th · 17:46 UTC
It's a pity that it doesn't load for me.... loading...
dod108
Apr 25th · 13:10 UTC
Sometimes it's a little bit frustrating but cool. Landing indicator if you are descending too fast could be nice, it's difficult to eyeball. I don't aggree with @makintosh about zooming out, I think the signal navigation is kinda cool part of the challenge.
apt_prose7
Apr 26th · 08:27 UTC
Fun and addictive, great for casual play.
DontGiveUpBoy
Apr 28th · 11:58 UTC
Good game!
I playd version in top of this page. It was really hard for me. it's hard to controll signal and missiles. But this game is addictive! I die 10 times for first campaign but i don't want to stop.) Some hint arrows before missile appearing and other arrow hint after signal apearing will be useful. Because its realy easy to miss something and hard to controll both.
And checkpoints on the planets landing\departure can be handy too.
LDJam user 248799
Apr 29th · 10:02 UTC
The game is hard 😅 I failed a lot of my landings, it was bit frustrating (maybe a failed landing should only remove 2 hearts instead of a game over?). And then I softlocked my rover a few times like this: (![Sans titre_g.png](///raw/fdb/c3/z/72ead.png)

And when I finally got one signal and took off, I crashed on the other planet 🥲 Maybe the first level needs to be with only one signal to retrieve or less punitive.

But overall great job! Especially the controls, I find then quite polished and easy to use. I find the idea of following a signal by guessing the center of the circle very clever too.
Wizard
May 07th · 22:51 UTC
Good effort on this one, I like how its basically two games in one, with the searching in space and the rover driving. I really enjoyed the rover sections, hitting a hill at just the right angle and id spin for ages, kind of felt like hill climb racers. It would have been nicer if there was more to do in space though, like i could find whoever was shooting at me and blow them up for a change, or if there were more obstacles to avoid, but what you have ATM is really good. I'm excited to see where you take this one post jam. good job, good game.
suzysu
May 08th · 10:36 UTC
Really cool concept! I liked the space physics and the idea of searching for signals, and the rover sections add a nice change of pace. The controls feel satisfying once you get used to them.

It can feel a bit punishing when landing too hard instantly ends the run, so maybe softer landing damage or checkpoints could help the flow. Overall, a fun and ambitious jam entry — great work!