Hackers of 2073... Goin' Strong
by William Lee Sims · 04/20/2009 (1:14 am) · 6 comments
Hi all! I wish I was more active on the forums, but I've been really busy with my latest project, "Hackers of 2073". I had been working with N.R. Bharathae for a few months now on a game called "Heroes of 2073" using TGEA. It's a rather large project, so we took a break to write a smaller game in the same universe called "Hackers of 2073" using TGB.
First, I have to say that N.R. is an amazing artist and the perfect partner for this project. We've never met, but we are often on the same wavelength.
Here is the title screen to the game:
There are two player classes in the game. The Hacker (on the left) and the Technomage (on the right).
The goal of the game is to infiltrate 4 networks, crack them open, and steal a final key from each. These keys will give you access to the Data Stream, where you'll hack one final machine in order to imbed a virus.
In my mind, a hacker has logic skills, some intuitive-ness, and a bit of dexterity. I think our game combines all of those by requiring a blend of logic, word puzzles, and a tiny bit of finesse at times. The puzzles are almost all self-solving with enough time, but can be solved early with some logic or intuition.
Here is a shot of the game being played:
On the left you can see a set of programs that the Hacker has access to. The Technomage has his own set of programs which make the game completely different to play. The Hacker is at the center of the screen, but is hidden by the "Radius4" program she is running.
The little dude in the bottom-left is called a "Daemon". As the Hacker travels through the network, she leaves bits of information about the area surrounding herself. The Daemon goes through and cleans up this information.
The network you are travelling through is like Minesweeper, except you are inside the grid. You're trying to access Data to solve the passwords to clear the network. At the end is a final set of Data which holds to the key.
Here's a shot of the final game "RadarHack" that you play after you access the DataStream room.
This final game is "turn based" in a sense, but manages to be quite exciting. During alpha testing, the users loved this game. If I had to guess, I think it's N.R.'s, too.
I'm sure I'll post more later as we get closer to Beta. It's rather unfortunate that the entire game can be played right now... I often waste an hour or two a day playing it!
We've got a website started, but it's still a work-in-progress as I get free time. You can follow our progress there or at Facebook.
Later!
First, I have to say that N.R. is an amazing artist and the perfect partner for this project. We've never met, but we are often on the same wavelength.
Here is the title screen to the game:
There are two player classes in the game. The Hacker (on the left) and the Technomage (on the right).
The goal of the game is to infiltrate 4 networks, crack them open, and steal a final key from each. These keys will give you access to the Data Stream, where you'll hack one final machine in order to imbed a virus.
In my mind, a hacker has logic skills, some intuitive-ness, and a bit of dexterity. I think our game combines all of those by requiring a blend of logic, word puzzles, and a tiny bit of finesse at times. The puzzles are almost all self-solving with enough time, but can be solved early with some logic or intuition.
Here is a shot of the game being played:
On the left you can see a set of programs that the Hacker has access to. The Technomage has his own set of programs which make the game completely different to play. The Hacker is at the center of the screen, but is hidden by the "Radius4" program she is running.
The little dude in the bottom-left is called a "Daemon". As the Hacker travels through the network, she leaves bits of information about the area surrounding herself. The Daemon goes through and cleans up this information.
The network you are travelling through is like Minesweeper, except you are inside the grid. You're trying to access Data to solve the passwords to clear the network. At the end is a final set of Data which holds to the key.
Here's a shot of the final game "RadarHack" that you play after you access the DataStream room.
This final game is "turn based" in a sense, but manages to be quite exciting. During alpha testing, the users loved this game. If I had to guess, I think it's N.R.'s, too.
I'm sure I'll post more later as we get closer to Beta. It's rather unfortunate that the entire game can be played right now... I often waste an hour or two a day playing it!
We've got a website started, but it's still a work-in-progress as I get free time. You can follow our progress there or at Facebook.
Later!
About the author
#3
04/20/2009 (1:33 pm)
Very good! I'm not a hacker, but It Would be a good place to start, "Mr. Anderson". 
#4
04/21/2009 (7:49 am)
You wouldn't happen to be basing this on some other published game world, would you? ;)
#5
Seriously though, the entire "2073" universe does take parts from Shadowrun and Cthulhu universes without really being either. The mechanics of "Heroes" and "Hackers" are uniquely their own (as much as uniqueness is possible). What's funniest to me is that I thought the "being inside Minesweeper" was original. Turns out that it was done over 20 years ago in a game called "Relentless Logic" for MS-DOS.
N.R. and I are still coming up with a good back-story. On the surface, it sounds like a Shadowrun-like universe, but that's to throw everybody off of the real truth. (As I hope there will be game to reveal this truth, I can't share it with you guys!)
Later!
04/21/2009 (10:09 am)
No more than any other published game world striped computer science of all of its greatest words and called it original! *HEHE*Seriously though, the entire "2073" universe does take parts from Shadowrun and Cthulhu universes without really being either. The mechanics of "Heroes" and "Hackers" are uniquely their own (as much as uniqueness is possible). What's funniest to me is that I thought the "being inside Minesweeper" was original. Turns out that it was done over 20 years ago in a game called "Relentless Logic" for MS-DOS.
N.R. and I are still coming up with a good back-story. On the surface, it sounds like a Shadowrun-like universe, but that's to throw everybody off of the real truth. (As I hope there will be game to reveal this truth, I can't share it with you guys!)
Later!
Torque 3D Owner Matt Huston
Atomic Banzai Games