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Dot Dash Mash
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About the game
Dot Dash Mash is a puzzle game about Morse code, made for the Ludum Dare 59 theme "Signal". A narrator on a small retro screen sends you messages, and the messages are in Morse code: you hear them as short and long beeps while the words appear in speech bubbles. When it needs your help, it asks you to send a signal back.
The first levels teach the idea one step at a time. You press play to hear a letter, and a row of squares appears where you write it down: a single lit square is a dot, and two or more lit squares side by side make a dash. A decoder next to the row shows which letter your squares spell, and the level is done when it shows the letter the narrator asked for. Later levels turn the row into a grid in which every row and every column has its own decoder, so the same squares have to spell the right letter in two directions at once, and some decoders can be clicked to flip what they read.
It is a quiet, odd and clever game, drawn in a soft palette of teal and mauve, and it never tells you more than it has to. The narrator speaks slowly, so the opening takes a minute or so before the first puzzle appears.
Playing it here
Click Play and wait for the game to load (about 10 MB, downloaded only when you press the button), then click Play on the title screen. Turn the sound on: the Morse code is heard as well as read. The game is played entirely with the mouse, and the Reset button at the top right clears the current level if you get stuck.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Left mouse button on the play button | play the signal again |
| Left mouse button on a square | switch it on or off |
| Reset button | clear the grid of the level |
| Esc | pause |
Tips
Listen first, then build. Short beeps are dots and long ones are dashes; play the signal as many times as you need before you click anything.
Let the decoders help you. The decoder next to each row or column shows what your squares currently spell, so you can test a guess instead of working it all out in your head.
Take it slowly at the start. The narrator types out each message, so the first level takes a while to begin; the later ones move faster.
FAQ
Do I need to know Morse code? No. The game teaches it as you go, and the decoders tell you what you have built.
Can I play without sound? Not well. The game is about hearing the signal, so use headphones or speakers.
Is it free to share? Yes. The code and assets are in the repository under the MIT licence.
Credits and licence
Dot Dash Mash was made by Adam Chyb and Josh for Ludum Dare 59. The repository is under the MIT licence (the licence file names Adam Chyb, the owner of the repository) and the README says the art, models and audio were made from scratch during the jam. The interface font is m5x7 by Daniel Linssen, released under CC0. It runs on Godot Engine 4.6, also under the MIT licence (this build is exported with Godot 4.7.2).
Some files the game does not use were left out of the build and of the source published here, among them an mp3 downloaded from a sound site and some spare images, and an empty autoload was removed. The licence texts, the notices of the libraries inside the Godot engine and the source of this build are linked from this page.