This could use more levels and other attacking nodes.
Author Comments
Updated to v0.5! See the release notes for a brief list of changes, or go to the blog for a full rundown:
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This is my March 2014 entry for the One Game a Month challenge. Behold my profile, here:
http://www.onegameamonth.com/joelpoop
Hack your way through the network, infiltrate nodes, and use them to locate your target.
You start with a single node. Drag a node onto another node to execute the Hack Program! The hack program will infiltrate the targeted node, with tougher hacks taking longer, based on the attacking and defending nodes' respective power.
Nodes that are running a program will glow, and can only run one program at a time. Right-click on a node to terminate it's program.
Hold the right button to pan the camera. Mouse wheels zooms in and out.
Locate and infiltrate your target to win!
'hackey: the hackening' pffffFFF i'm sorry that title's just
very silly whoops
what drew me to this game is my love for vector games, honestly
there's a lot of good points to this game!
the graphics are utterly simple and although they might not convey what you want them to convey on their own, all it takes is... remembering the title to know what's going on! DOING THE HACKENING AND THE STUFF AWW YEAH
the rotation and zooming is very smooth too, and actually somewhat necessary in some parts(mainly if you get confused which number belongs to which node and such), that's neat.
i found it a bit silly when i got to the target(??? i assume it was the target) and it just kept rotating and sending out 'flares' for ages though, hehe.
the typography isn't very... hackey, though, but i guess that's not a problem. i think it'd be nifty if the numbers changed colors to their node colors though.
the gameplay is pretty simple and effective, that's good, but what bothers me is that it gives a sort of 'facebook game' vibe. you know those games where you just wait and you can't really lose? it's a bit like that. there's no immediate sort of 'threat' like that of an antivirus or a firewall or something like that, but then again this is a work in progress so maybe that'll change.
i'd like some other programs! right now we only have hack and watchtower, so more would be neat.
there also seems to be a single level, though i assume it's procedurally generated. hard to tell with how much i rotate things and how new things look, haha(which is a plus! i guess!)
overall, neat, fluid, and fairly refreshing game but there's too little content and actual gameplay to keep me invested for more than a couple replay. i know it's a work in progress so i hope it might change, but for now this gets 2.5 stars.
joelpoop responds:
Thanks for the detailed feedback! This is my first game on Newgrounds and I've been amazed at the quality of feedback.
Your suggestions almost read exactly the same as my roadmap - I plan to add the following things:
* Levels! You are correct in that they are procedurally generated. I intend to mix in some prefabricated node layouts, too, to mimic hacking into a corporation's internal network, etc. Also, procedural isn't always best for gameplay, so I'll see how it pans out and maybe have some canned levels (particularly a tutorial).
* As you suggest, some anti-hacking things to provide a challenge, such as firewalls, blocked nodes, and opposing hackers/antivirus - something to fight or flee from!
* More programs!
* Some more graphics to help it look more "hackey."
The typography, haha... Unity defaulted to Arial and I thought, "meh, who's gonna notice." Lesson learnt!
Not sure what happened when I went over an orange node. It sorta felt like a sun exploding. After that the game went unresponsive, but it was still one of the more interesting games I've played.
joelpoop responds:
You won! It's a work in progress - I need to add some more levels! Thanks for the feedback.
Great concept, but desperately needs a help section.
joelpoop responds:
Thanks for the feedback. Have added an in-game tutorial!
Credits & Info
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- Faves:
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- Votes
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- Score
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4.71 / 5.00
- Uploaded
- Mar 10, 2014
- 9:41 PM EDT
- Genre
- Strategy - Other