FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD27 → Hackfield

Hackfield

By katamori

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness295
Mood2273.23
Innovation3433.27
Theme4593.28
Humor4662.40
Overall5693.04
Graphics6262.77
Audio6662.33
Fun8792.52

Comments

nitrocrime 2013-08-26 11:10

.... Chrome says it wasn't completely downloaded and could be dangerous..

Got it to finish downloading and I didn't really understand the gameplay. I was somehow teleported to a new area for no real reason..

katamori 2013-08-26 11:59

@nitrocrime: everything is eplain in messages on the bottom of the screen. Go to next level to get new messages and know more. The further you go, the more you are taught.

katamori 2013-08-26 12:01

*explained

Damnit, I can't write properly.

small-trouble 2013-08-26 12:08

I couldn't get past the tutorial of the game, I get that you had to get access to terminals to get to new levels but I didn't see anything that looked like a terminal or reacted when I pushed space.

The concept of it is good and adds to the mood but the gameplay problems take away from it.

xmmmx 2013-08-26 12:08

Yay, I made it up to level 18.

Since you put so much effort in writing a comment to explain your rating on my game I am going to do the same for you. :)

Overall: Stable game, good concept.

Innovation: I have never played anything like this before so it actually is very innovative. ^^

Fun: It gets a little bit monotonous after awhile but it was still fun.

Theme: 10 seconds are included so it fits. :D

Graphics: It was sometimes hard to distinguish the tiles from another since they almost look alike. But I think that is supposed to since this is a haking game and haking is difficult. :P

Audio: Nothing special, but nothing bad :)

Humor: I don't know if it's supposed to be but I think the story was kind of hilarious. xD

Mood: I liked the main menu and the loading sequence. They created a lot of atmosphere.

All in all: Good Entry! :)

katamori 2013-08-26 13:42

@small trouble: in the description I menioned even for nitrocrime, I attached pictures about the tiles the tutorial is talking about - exactly for being able to recognise them. If you can't find, then wait - even though map is resorting, you don't have to hurry.

@XmmmX: oh, hello Mr. "2d sprites in 3d world"! :D thanks for the reply! About innovation and mood: Uplink have done almost the same things, and that game inspired me, so...I don't know...maybe Hackfield is just a cheap ripoff of Uplink.

Either way, it was worth to create.

katamori 2013-08-26 13:48

@small trouble: by waiting, I obviously mean to search certain elements. After some levels, you should be able to distinguish them.

epicspeedturtle 2013-08-26 14:24

I cant seem to open your game, sorry :C The worst part is that it doesn't even show any errors. It just does nothing when i try to run the .exe file.
I downloaded, installed LOVE and tried to run your game from source as described in here: http://love2d.org/wiki/Getting_Started , but i still got nothing... :C

katamori 2013-08-26 14:46

I have no idea, Mr. "Clonogram"...LOVE often has issues with executables. Even when I ran it on my computer, once it worked well, once it didn't.

dream-of-sleeping 2013-08-26 15:13

I've downloaded it but nothing is happening when I click the exe file.

epicspeedturtle 2013-08-26 15:37

Ok, managed to run it on a different machine, so here we go:
- Innovation: i can see how you drew a lot of inspiration from Uplink, but this game on its own has a pretty nice concept.
- Fun: kept me playing for quite a while, definitely will come back and try to finish this game.
- Theme: yep... 10 seconds. nuff said.
- Graphics: nice and simplistic. And it really fits this kind of game, more detailed graphics could have made a mess out of this.
- Audio: same here, I think. Nothing special, but really fitting the general tone of the game.
- Humor: well, this game doesn't try to be funny.
- Mood: the loading sequence made me think i'm really hacking something, so i think you achieved what you wanted here.
- Overall: solid game. Like Uplink, made me feel like i'm hacking some high secured data. That is an awesome feeling.

tobiasw 2013-08-26 16:33

Hum - the gameplay is hard to get into. It took me a while to figure out the different tiles at the beginning (and I still don't have any idea what it means for me to be logged). I finally learnt how to go to the next level, but terminals later on were a problem - any time I accessed one, it just says that my log is cleared, but the number of needed terminals doesn't go up?

It might be just a bit buggy though; sometimes I had "2 of 0 terminals needed" or "-x seconds left before the modification".

I really wish the login sequence wouldn't take so long or could be skipped.

I like the graphics and idea though - and making a game in 26 hours is always impressive. Congratulations on finishing your first LD entry!

apaneske 2013-08-26 17:42

I like the concept and the setting for the game.

katamori 2013-08-26 18:53

@epicSpeedTurtle: thanks for the review! Glad to see another Uplink enthusiatic.

@TobiasW: I tried to do what I could for giving an exact description about game mechanics. I definitely wanted to avoid adding a regular "PLAZ HALP MEH!" menu, so I built it into the story. However, if you get into the game, doesn't matter how hard is it. Or am I wrong? Did if decrease the fun-factor?

The number of logs about your activity shows, how the number of antivirus scanfields increase at the next time when the map is regenerated. It doesn't affect the gameplay seriously, since you get 576 tiles and maximum 200 logpoints can be appeared on the screen.

To make the number of reached terminal go up, you have to go through them. Standing on them isn't enough, you have take another step. It's because of the way as the script is triggered. You may notice that exit works on totally the same way.

I know about bugs too; sadly, there's no way for me to fix the "seconds" bug; it works badly only in the executable. I couldn't even encounter any "2 of 0 terminals needed" bugs. Also, at the end I was in hurry, and I became strongly stressful because of issues about intro triggering and setting "seconds" to zero. At last, I made a quick solution, that seemed to be perfect after compiling.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna ask about these malfunction on LOVE forums.

triplevisiongames 2013-08-26 19:23

I'll have to try this on my laptop as it doesn't scale right on my desktop and I can't see anything properly :( looks cool in the screenshots though

katamori 2013-08-26 21:36

Attention! For those who have tried the game!

Some changes have fixed! Refresh your download! (if you didn't delete my game right after first try :D)

marekkpie 2013-08-26 23:48

Very nice tone and mood.

You can also advertise this for Mac/Linux if you change the name of the Source.zip file to .love (.love files are just zip files that can be run by people who have the LOVE engine downloaded)

I would release a windowed version, as running it on my dual monitor setup screwed up my display settings (LOVE doesn't seem to handle that situation very well).

blackbulletiv 2013-08-26 23:50

Very confusing, especially at first. I'm guessing I was meant to collect those smaller bricks, and not run into the large bricks? It was somewhat enjoyable once I figured that out.

The tutorial doesn't give you time to read the instructions. Also, I recommend not making players sit through that very long bootup sequence every time they want to restart.

katamori 2013-08-27 00:49

@MarekkPie: Thanks! LOVE link is added. Can't promise windowed version, though.

@BlackBulletIV: you always have time to read the tutorial. The fact that level is changing, doesn't affect you chances to win. Also, map1 tutorial shows the main purpose, map2 the details, map3 too, and so on. What's the problem with it?

Scripting intro was a complete nightmare, there's no way for me to make it skippable. I'm terribly sorry, I know that it can be annoying.

shellfishgames 2013-08-27 14:07

Tried it two times and didn't get anywhere. :/ I reached that terminal (I guess? the only block that looked different than the rest) and nothing happened anymore, pressing space brought me back to the main menu and I had to start over. I did read the tutorial text, but it didn't really help. :|
From what I can tell it seems quite promising and well thought out though.

katamori 2013-08-27 15:06

ShellfishGames: okay, it's almost like X-files for me.

- terminals appear only after level 10. Impossible to encounter them before that.
- the only action I added to spacebar is going to the next level, when you are standing on the exit. Impossible to go to main menu by pressing spacebar. Only W,A,S and D allow that, only if you lose.

Most certainly you went to the antivirus field that drops you back to the main menu, since thats counted as "game over".

The exit is a small monitor, that's even brighter than the surrounded blocks. It is showed in the tutorial of the first map

megamasterx 2013-08-27 18:07

Boy, Chrome did NOT like this EXE. Managed to pick it up with IE. Very outside-the-box concept, and..while I didn't get too far, I enjoyed what I played.

umu 2013-08-27 18:55

I'm not sure that I understand the mechanics. The goal appears to be to collect the little squares, and to press space on the computers. I'm not really sure what end this serves though.

I like the look of it. I think my colourblindness might hamper my ability to see the playfield.

josefnpat 2013-08-27 21:03

This was actually a really great game, once you read the wall of text.

If you can get past the tutorial (and the tutorial should be shorter and clearer) it's very fun! Also, a better variety of tiles would make it clearer to understand.

katamori 2013-08-27 21:08

But...I fdon't get why everyone wants to collect those blocks! :D I mean, none of the ingame texts talk about collecting small shiny things :D

kragnir 2013-08-27 22:50

It seems like nothing in the game really make any difference. Essentially you are just going to the terminals and then to the computer. The timing make no difference, logging seem to do nothing.

Starting at security level 6 the game get really slow since almost every time you will just be stuck and can't go anywhere. But really the game was the same all the time. The only thing you do is wait.

The idea was kind of nice but it focused too much on the theme and turned into a overly complicated waiting game.

triplevisiongames 2013-08-28 18:11

I love hacking games! Really fun this one too :D

_alts 2013-08-29 05:42

Game doesn't work for me. The problem seems to be that 1280x1024 is not a valid resolution for my screen, and Love aborts after failing to find a screen mode. I changed the conf file to not render fullscreen, and finally I was able to get into the game, but because of the forced 1024 lines of vertical resolution, I couldn't play (buttons are beyond the end of my screen).

katamori 2013-08-29 11:30

I didn't expect for that many issues with the screen resolution...

x-or 2013-09-01 19:07

I totally fail to start the game, the executable won't even show in the task-manager. I'm using win7 x64... If any of the .dll's are in another folder, I recieve a warning about missing libraries, if all are within the same folder, there's no warning, not even anything happening at all...

Are there any prerequisites to run this game on my machine?

katamori 2013-09-01 20:41

I have no idea. I'm sorry.

It was tested on my Windows XP 32-bit, and needs 1280x1024 resolution. That's all I can tell. :/

skye 2013-09-01 23:15

a bit hard to get into

hbocao 2013-09-02 02:08

Very cool idea, but it's very confusing at the beginning. Is there always a visible exit? Very often I didn't get one. So I just stood there until one popped up. Love the minimalist graphics and sounds. Yeah, I know it took I lot of work for you to do the intro, but it's just annoying after every retry. Solid entry, man.

loxo 2013-09-02 04:18

Couldn't run the game neither. I'm on a Mac with 1366x768 screen resolution.

anotheryeti 2013-09-04 04:52

Couldn't get it running on Mac either. Tried running with Löve 0.8.0 and Mountain Lion.

lalanl 2013-09-06 05:16

The wide caps text was kind of hard to read, and it was a little stressful to try to read the instructions with the timer beeping, but the concept was really interesting and the game was pretty.

I didn't understand if I was doing well or not at first, but I wanted to keep playing anyway.

binary_gambit 2013-09-06 08:12

Fantastic game! Only i suggest you make the "exit" green so people can see it easier, and then make it more blue as the levels go on. I liked that the background got more complex so you cant see where you are going. 5/5

colapsydo 2013-09-06 10:00

Wow a lot of data everywhere.
I got really lost during the first tries, then I learnt because every info are here, just have to read, and I had fun.
It was nice to look for a path in those levels, well done btw for the procedural generation.
I didn't have the courage to finished it. But I enjoyed how you build a entire universe around this simple gameplay.

crowbeak 2013-09-06 12:39

I couldn't actually get the game to start. I got the .love, as I am on Mac OSX Mountain Lion, but the mouseovers for the start menu weren't really working right. Couldn't click the run option.

someone 2013-09-06 21:22

Nice concept. It does get a bit dull after a while though, it often takes too long to get to the next advancement.
I stopped level 30. Security levels 6 and 7 were just waiting ages for it to be possible...
Nice graphics, though more distinction would have been nice. Sometimes spent the whole 10 seconds just looking for the target.

katamori 2013-09-07 00:13

@someone: You seriously stopped after going through the (way too annoying, I can see now) security level 6? The sudden change is just coming there! :D just joking, of course; thanks for playing so long!

delca 2013-09-08 19:37

An enjoyable game, with a simple yet fun to play game mechanic. Some kind of 8bit music would have been a nice addition, but the game as it is is already good.

nthird 2013-09-15 20:46

One more in the category of couldn't play due to having an old monitor that won't support the resolution. Looks like a really cool concept though.

paveldlouhy 2013-09-15 20:49

Hi Katamori, I would like to play and rate your game but both my notebooks (MacBook and HP with WinXP) have display with resolution 1280x800. It is not working.

katamori 2013-09-15 21:19

Sadly, the game is essentially designed for 1280x1024 resolution. Even if it'd be windowed, you wouldn't be able to see the lower part of the window, which is kinda important.

01rafael 2013-09-15 22:33

Great concept! I like thouse random worlds, generated by the program. infinity of combinstions. plus timelimit. game was surprised me!

paveldlouhy 2013-09-16 08:37

Hi Katamori, there is still 16 hours for playing and rating. It's enough time for finding and visiting somebody with HD monitor for Mac. I will try it! ;-)

paveldlouhy 2013-09-16 20:10

Hi Katamori, I visited my friend this evening and played your game on his computer. It is an interesting concept. Game is nice and polished. Good job!

katamori 2013-09-16 23:49

Thanks for paying attention to my game!