LudumData

Trail Signal by uvwar

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

trail<em>signal</em>1.gif

Trail Signal

Drop Balls onto Musical Trails and Hear the Signals they Pick Up!

Draw Lines by holding Left Click and moving your Mouse (Try not to cross the lines! Glitches may result!)

Right Click Spawns a Ball at the location of the Mouse

W,A,S,D control the Camera Placement

Mouse Wheel In and Out controls Camera Zoom

The Icons on the Right on the Screen will select different Line colors and Line Audio

When the ball touches a line, it will play audio for as long as it touches, and playback speed will match the speed of the ball

Try to edit together an interesting track, or keep the Balls moving!

A game made by me, Tyler Rhodes, for RVA Gamejams Cabin Jam 2026, as well as for Ludum Dare 59

Music and Sound Effects provided by

Alex Niemeyer

Nicholas Black

and help with Programming from

theshaggydev

VetroDev

imposterblues

Momin Khan

Andrew Potiva

msb

Link https://uvwar.itch.io/trail-signal
Link https://uvwar.itch.io/trail-signal
Link https://uvwar.itch.io/trail-signal
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/trail-signal

Ratings

Overall 664th 3.2⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 502th 3.276⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 130th 3.867⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Theme 755th 2.783⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 776th 2.224⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 273th 3.65⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Humor 331th 3.04⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 751th 2.907⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 17🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

pres2300
Apr 21st · 04:52 UTC
Absolutely love this! I had a lot of fun playing around with different tracks and different sounds. I appreciate that there was plenty of space to experiment with different designs. The only thing I felt was missing was a way to erase tracks or balls (did I just miss that?). Overall, nice work!
N.O.X
Apr 21st · 14:31 UTC
There are literally only two things to do (place the balls and draw curves) but it’s amazing how much time you can spend trying to create different sounds. It’s impressive how the game manages to offer players so many possibilities with so few tools. I'll make a note of that for myself. Congrats.
LDJam user 82995
Apr 21st · 16:52 UTC
Love this. I could play this for hours. Really wish I could erase stuff though.
ZedGame
Apr 21st · 16:52 UTC
Quite a quirky and fascinating experience! Is there a way to clear the scene?
Jim jagers
Apr 21st · 16:54 UTC
This game is Balling!
Splix
Apr 21st · 16:55 UTC
An original mechanic that, unfortunately, doesn't fully realize its potential. At first, it's hard to figure out what to do or what the lines are for, at the start, I didn't even see the ball, and the camera work isn't very engaging. It would be nice to have “tutorial” levels that explain how to draw a line, how to position the ball correctly, what the different sounds are, etc.—all while helping the player get the hang of drawing lines and then letting them play freely, because right now I’m really struggling to make a cool sound. But well done for the mechanics, it’s still a great game!!
Meemog
Apr 21st · 16:55 UTC
The simplicity made me sceptical, but after trying, it was really fun to tinker and mess around with different. I'm actually interested to know how you tied the playback speed to the velocity of the ball, because I'm sure that if I tried that it would sound bad lol. Anyway, great game.

![firefox_H0L9VdhOYC.png](///raw/cae/b2/z/720e8.png)
CrispyPear
Apr 21st · 17:00 UTC
Really really cool! I didn't really expect much based on the art, but the sounds way exceeded my expectations! Super well done!
Blues
Apr 21st · 17:12 UTC
really fun to goof around in, slowing down/speeding up sounds will never not be funny. I really want a way to recycle the balls into some kind of rube goldberg/ blue ball machine. this could be the next killer DAW :^)
🎤 uvwar
Apr 21st · 17:18 UTC
@pres2300 @orjan Yeah theres no way to delete balls or lines, maybe I'll revisit after the jam
🎤 uvwar
Apr 21st · 17:20 UTC
@meemog Its pretty much exactly how you describe it; just the ball velocity tied to the pitch of the audio track. I should have the source files on my itch if you want to download and poke around.
Tesseus
Apr 21st · 17:46 UTC
Wow, what an unexpected idea. Great innovation! I enjoyed playing the game with my drawing pad :)
MicleFirst
Apr 21st · 17:47 UTC
Pachinko time! ![chrome_0JjZ8Sz3DF.png](///raw/5cc/76/z/72127.png)
SkyTech6
Apr 21st · 17:47 UTC
It's a lot of goofy fun and a great mix on the multiple themes.

Would have loved the ability to like hold off the balls falling through, so I could set them all up and then release them all at once?
🎤 uvwar
Apr 21st · 18:08 UTC
@miclefirst beautiful...
LLlarsO
Apr 21st · 18:54 UTC
Very interesting mechanic.
It was fun playing around with the lines and balls.
Adding a smooth zoom function (like with the mouse wheel, so you can have really small steps) would feel much better in my opinion.
It is nice how simplistic yet so engaging this game is. :)
val.ociraptor
Apr 21st · 19:09 UTC
very fun and silly toy-like game! i love that you can zoom and scroll out, feels like using miro or a drawing app except way better and cooler obviously
Alpaca
Apr 21st · 23:14 UTC
![rvagj.jpg](///raw/209/36/z/722a5.jpg)
Emsea
Apr 22nd · 22:57 UTC
We had a great time playing your game [on stream](https://www.youtube.com/live/AsrUFSHAVx4?t=2773s). Check out the link to hear our feedback.
TheSmellofOxygen
Apr 25th · 03:53 UTC
Funny toy. Wish there was an erase or board wipe!
cesta
Apr 25th · 14:58 UTC
nice fun game!! would love it for as a mobile app