HACK THE PLANET by jess from online

[raw]
made by jess from online for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

# HACK THE PLANET

HACK THE PLANET is a roguelike set in a 90s retrofuture about hacking NETPOL, the cops who rule the internet, alongside your BBS of hacker friends. Bypass firewalls, vandalize nodes, and get into petty arguments with your friends as you hunt for the score of a lifetime: THE MOTHERLODE.

Note: LD servers are struggling and sometimes fail to download the game, so you can also download it on itch.io...but remember to come back and rate!

Screenshot 2022-10-03 19.02.32.png

Screenshot 2022-10-03 18.54.41.png

Screenshot 2022-10-03 19.05.16.png

Screenshot 2022-10-03 18.55.37.png

glamor 1.png


TO PLAY:

  1. Download the zip
  2. Open the file HACK THE PLANET.exe

BUGFIX LOG:

  • Fixed an error where not talking to G4T3CR4SH on day one would make them never talk to you again
  • Fixed a render glitch which would make the game unplayable on smaller monitors

If the download on the Ludum Dare website doesn't work, try itch.io

Ratings

Given 25🗳️ 25🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 236387
03. Oct 2022 · 23:55 UTC
I think your download link is broken. When I click, I go to "https://files.jam.host/uploads/$303851/HACK_THE_PLANET.zip" and the page just says "Not found"
PicusBGames
04. Oct 2022 · 00:05 UTC
Hey there! :) I got to your itch page but the link is incorrect... You have an extra undrescore character on the link here (it should be https://jessfromonline.itch.io/hack-the-planet)
GenericParadox
04. Oct 2022 · 00:22 UTC
You should fix the links dude, I got to the game from the commenter above me. But I really like your interface, the feeling of being in a hacker environment. It's an assault on the senses on all fronts and I love that. It is a bit too complex and it seems pins were repeating, not sure if that was intentional. But if you want to work on it and develop it more it could be a very cool system. Really liked navigating with keypads for once :3
Gryph0n
04. Oct 2022 · 00:27 UTC
I'm a big fan of this! I love that I can live my cyber life and be in (imagined) cool digital environments.
🎤 jess from online
04. Oct 2022 · 00:41 UTC
I think the links are fixed now, thanks @picusbgames! and i think the LD servers have just been inconsistent @javi7, that linked worked for me so i couldnt replicate :(

thank you everyone else for the kind words!!
LDJam user 268647
04. Oct 2022 · 00:51 UTC
The amount of effort that went into this is insane. All the extra 'stuff' like the conversations and over the top forum signatures was great.
The gameplay itself as pretty cool once I figured out how it all worked, but the admin robots were a little annoying because they were unavoidable at times.
PicusBGames
04. Oct 2022 · 01:01 UTC
@jess-from-online yep it was fixed but I guess I closed the page before adding my next comment haha... Which was this was pretty fun and unique among what I've seen so far. Looks like a lot of good creative effort went into this :)
Michelle Olson
04. Oct 2022 · 03:39 UTC
This is so dope! There is a staggering amount of content in this - awesome work :D Really unique premise!
ZevsEHG
04. Oct 2022 · 05:44 UTC
Nice game! I like this mood!
P R A I S E T H E C O D E !
Pusheeneiro
04. Oct 2022 · 08:09 UTC
Oh yeah, the good old hacking games are what I need.
jirrev
04. Oct 2022 · 19:14 UTC
Ow, I always love these games, Hacknet one of them. So well done! It feels very polished and although it feels like a jam game, it feels like that in the best sense of the word.
Fnessa
04. Oct 2022 · 19:28 UTC
I got too invested in the game to remmeber any criticism i had. Great game!
LDJam user 305918
04. Oct 2022 · 19:58 UTC
That was an amazing experience, I loved all the little touches that really gave the game a lot of character. Only criticism is that the 'hacks' became very repetitive. Other than that, loved the whole vibe of it!
lavendaggers
04. Oct 2022 · 20:52 UTC
Very in-depth fiction, love the world! Impressive esp for a jam!
SlimeWizardRobyn
05. Oct 2022 · 05:39 UTC
The writing and overall vibes on this are absolutely immaculate. Could not get enough of the forum posting and the characters. Gameplay wise I enjoyed it, could have been a bit harder tho. I won my 3rd run and the only reason I ever lost runs was getting pwned by an offscreen spider because I lost track of the timer and moved into a locked node right as it ticked down, but it was still really fun especially given the dev constraints of a game jam. Given the time to add more depth to it this is absolutely a game I could see myself playing a ton of.

HACK THE PLANET!
Rawb
05. Oct 2022 · 18:37 UTC
Really great and completely unique game. I have never seen something like it before and it really works. It look a while to get the hang of but once I did it was really awesome.

Also I love the insane amount of polish here. I spent ages just reading the bulletin before even getting into the dive part. Really cool stuff!
LDJam user 189270
11. Oct 2022 · 14:59 UTC
Though this was absolutely dripping with style, and it's impressive how much text you've put together in such a short period of time. My biggest gripe would probably be the maths based puzzles aren't very fun and there are a lot of thme.
LDJam user 298334
16. Oct 2022 · 11:45 UTC
Awesome concept, love the style!
Don't really know what's going on every 10 seconds though.
Heather Flowers
16. Oct 2022 · 12:36 UTC
Thank you! To answer your question, @dodgergram, the spiders in 4TRESS move every ten seconds, locking unlocked nodes and pouncing on nearby players.
LDJam user 298334
16. Oct 2022 · 12:53 UTC
@heather-flowers aaaah, alright that makes sense thanks for replying!
Hekateras
20. Oct 2022 · 18:32 UTC
Fantastically fun game that feels like a spiritual continuation of games like Uplink and Hacknet. I had to stop my session because of a visual glitch (I think a spider moved to my node while I was trying to select a dialogue option and the dialogue box was overlaid for the rest of the session), but I'll play it again. I'd just "unlocked" getting friends to dive with you, which minimised the annoyance of the math locked node. I've figured out ways to get past every type of security so far and it was pretty satisfying. I enjoy the fact that difficulty is customisable, too. also, "Greetings 1s, 0s, and nonbinary types" got a good chuckle out of me. :D

I'm glad you released a version which fixes the display issue on small monitors as I was having that problem, having downloaded this game on day 1 of the jam (but got sidetracked before playing it).

It would be nice to have a button for exiting a dive. I have my Esc key mapped to something else (after spilling tea on my actual Esc key :'( ) and the game wasn't responding to the alternate mapping, so I was stuck in a dive until I deliberately got caught by a spider. My problem is pretty rare though, so I understand if this isn't worth your time.
Hekateras
20. Oct 2022 · 20:08 UTC
Update: beat the game and even had a long dive on Hard difficulty :D this is great