Super cool game, I've never played anything like this and it's a really rad concept. I think some of the hints towards the beginning could be cleaned up a little e.g. nowhere (as far as I could tell) says "reboot" in game for the router so it relies on outside game knowledge to type it in. I had a great time playing this and it's incredibly ambitious. Excellent work!
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ShadowLink Command's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme interpretation | #59 | 3.765 | 3.765 |
| Innovation | #70 | 3.471 | 3.471 |
| Gameplay | #90 | 3.353 | 3.353 |
| Overall | #121 | 3.441 | 3.441 |
| Audio | #137 | 3.176 | 3.176 |
| Graphics | #204 | 3.176 | 3.176 |
Ranked from 34 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/adamgit/github-gamejam-2024
Game description
Hack servers, find vulnerabilities, use people's secrets to uncover more accounts and build a network of pwned machines.
Theme interpretation
Core gameloop - hacking one server, then movingaround the file-system looking for files that reveal secrets that uncover the passwords for OTHER servers, so the player expands over time.
Early hand-written missions involve speaking to NPCs and extracting secret passwords from them.
Thematically ... secret corporations and secret NPCs (but I only had time to implement one of them!)
Wildcards used (optional)
Cheat Mode
Let players break the rules with things like infinite lives or invincibility
Comments
Cool. I think the positive feedback not enough, I changed the 3 server password then nothing. The servers don't have any valuable file. And then I don't know how to continue(Maybe because my english is bad don't understand the fox mean). I have some suggestions. 1. Merge some apps. I think the Image Viewer and Text Viewer will make players confused, the 3 apps first add maybe can merge one. 2. Terminal tip input help when player do nothing on long time. 3. The Whassup App remove the A B C contants. They make players confused too. And then the scroll bar will on the left side contants not entire window.
Thanks, good points. I wanted to hide the Image/Text Viewer, but ran out of time to add 'hidden but usable' apps (they are auto-opened by Documents app so no real need for them to have Icons on the desktop).
The Whassup 3 x contacts were used in the missions I disabled/deleted before submission (still visible in github, but can't be enabled) - they were too complex/difficult without extra help, so I turned them off. Good point that the contacts are confusing, they now hang-around doing nothing.
I actually hate the Whassup app - I spent DAYS trying to get that thing to work properly, but it's still broken with the Unread Counts in multiple ways. I'm going to rewrite it from scratch after the jam, and I think it can be much better.
Byeond that ... it looks like you hit the end of the content I had time to make for the jam - congrats! - but: sorry there was so little :(.
As with the other commenter below: yeah, sorry about that! I created a discord for the game (linked from the ? icon), I'm happy to give step-by-step hints/advice to anyone that needs it. The main issues seem to be:
1. HINT: the start of the manual (in the Documents folder) explains how to 'connect' to a router, and what to type in to reboot it; the other doc has the address + username + password
2. HINT: the NPCs (like your Mom) are very stupid - they only respond to keywords - and they try to literally tell you what to do / what to respond to them. e.g. your Mom wants to know when it's done, so you can say to her "done" (or any variation on that) and she'll re-try the wifi
47 days ago(+1)
(...notes down extra keywords I need to add there :))
After the jam I plan to convert all the NPCs into ChatGPT-driven bots, and then it should be easy to get what you need out of them - they'll steer conversation, and be much much better at accepting responses
Yeah, I failed on that front - the learning curve in first 1 minute is too steep (unless you already know how to use linux or the command line).
I created a discord for the game (linked from the ? icon), I'm happy to give step-by-step hints/advice to anyone that needs it. The main issues seem to be:
1. HINT: the start of the manual (in the Documents folder) explains how to 'connect' to a router, and what to type in to reboot it; the other doc has the address + username + password
2. HINT: the NPCs (like your Mom) are very stupid - they only respond to keywords - and they try to literally tell you what to do / what to respond to them. e.g. your Mom wants to know when it's done, so you can say to her "done" (or any variation on that) and she'll re-try the wifi
41 days ago(+1)
Based on comments from you and the other playtesters, I've added a whole tutorial (disguised as a 'finish installing your OS' wizard), and in-game hacking manual. Live now if you select 'Gamejam+ tutorial' on startup.
41 days ago(+1)
Based on comments from you and the other playtesters, I've added a whole tutorial (disguised as a 'finish installing your OS' wizard), and in-game hacking manual. Live now if you select 'Gamejam+ tutorial' on startup.
48 days ago(+1)
I was probably too optimistic in the jam, but I really wanted to have BOTH realistic terminals AND fun GUI tools (packet sniffers, network monitors - but more advanced graphical ones that are nicer than the real-world ones we have today ;)).
I feel that when a hacking game is purely in terminal that's cool, BUT ... it gets boring/tiring after a while, and what you want to do as you get further into a game is start to automate more of the drudge work, deploy your own botnets, etc. Scale up, basically.
...but I didn't get that far :D
48 days ago(+1)
I'm jealous of yours :). Played some more, and the variety of levels you created in a single gamejam is just :O. Great choice with the minimalist design letting you put all the focus onto the level-design
49 days ago(+1)
"Planned too much but able to implement only a subset, that’s the essence of game jams" :) :) oh yes.
the 'common pet name' is the only mission where you need to go outside the window - google '[pet] names]' after you find out which pet it is, and try the top 10 (or you can get some more clues from the cousin first).
As you can see: mix of half-complete design ideas went into this - 'I could have missions where the player uses google in another window!'
I foolishly planned to do that much variety in the jam - of course reality slapped me in the face and I BARELY managed to get this much to work :D. If you look in the source code on github you can see there's a whole mission implemented (but disabled so it wont run in game) that has you hack a medical server to figure out how to fake HR records to get your friend a free sick day ... and I had a fake website for it, and company logo, and you had to explore the website to figure out the passwords etc.
So ... I would like to extend the game and try adding more over time, post jam.
49 days ago(+1)
Yep I failed at 'the first 30 seconds' -- didn't do anywhere near enough to ease people in.
Ironically I deliberately made the early servers (and your local terminal) have very few binaries to try and keep it simpler to get started. If you continue past the first 2-3 missions you get to servers that have a lot richer - e.g. file system with /home, /bin, etc and a BASH shell.
I think three big improvements would be: 1. change 'terminal' so it immediately starts with a popup of 'enter hostname to connect to', and 2. make the first 30 seconds much more hand-held, and 3. give more indication that you will unlock richer servers later.
(+4: add even more richness to the later servers. Currently they only have a filesystem and basic file-append, file-read, file-copy commands).
41 days ago(+1)
Based on comments from you and the other playtesters, I've added a whole tutorial (disguised as a 'finish installing your OS' wizard), and in-game hacking manual. Live now if you select 'Gamejam+ tutorial' on startup.
Yep, my bad, I really didn't make the first few missions clear enough / well explained. There's a bit of a learning cliff to get started.
I originally planned to use an LLM/AI to drive the NPCs, so I was only writing very basic keyword-based repsonses for them as a fallback in case the LLM didn't work. But I didn't get it implemented in time, so you have only the fallback :(.
To get moving, key info:
- The Documents folder has two docs - a photo of your moms/your home router - that gives you the host address, the username and the password
- ...and 2nd doc: the manual for the router - that gives you the instructions on how to use your Terminal to connect to the router, and what to do to reboot it when logged in
- From there you have to say anything to your Mom like "its done" or "yes" or "try now" - there's quite a lot of resposnes that will work
- ... then you get some more missions that involve different home-wifi routers, and a bit more social engineering talking to NPCs to extract password info ...
- ... then finally you are let loose on general servers, having to figure out passwords by looking for vulnerabilities on the servers you already have access to
50 days ago(+1)
Ah. I may have made a catastrophic mistake and left out a key piece of information.
You have to open the termainal and use the 'connect' command to connect to the router yourself (and similarly to other servers throughout the game). Will check the build now...
49 days ago(+1)
also: I hoped to add more intelligent to the NPCs, but I'm afraid I only had time for very basic keyword-resposnes from them, you have to stick to their script or they'll just ignore you :(
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