hackmud, a cyberpunk themed text-based hacking simulator is now out with Linux support

I am a solo dev on this game, and I cannot currently keep up with player concurrency. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME RIGHT NOW IF SLOW SERVER PERFORMANCE WILL MAKE YOU REGRET YOUR DECISION.

I didn't quite get that. What kind of player concurrency? Is it a single or multiplayer game?

I am a solo dev on this game, and I cannot currently keep up with player concurrency. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME RIGHT NOW IF SLOW SERVER PERFORMANCE WILL MAKE YOU REGRET YOUR DECISION.

I didn't quite get that. What kind of player concurrency? Is it a single or multiplayer game?

Yeah, it's bugging me a little now. As it claims it's single player, multi player and an MMO...whut.

When I understand this right, the game itself is running on a server and not local. But is has the multi player icon on the steam shop side so I guess its multi player too which makes it unique in its class of games (there are only a few though).
(Thats like Gremlins Inc. needs a server too even in single player.)

So I've played it a little, and you have to have a constant connection with the server to play. The first bit of the game (the tutorial so to speak) is singleplayer, meaning you won't meet others and be hacked by them, but this doesn't mean that you don't need a server connection. The second part of the game you unlock after managing the first part, and it is here where you meet others and try to scam them. The dev doesn't seem to have anticipated the popularity of the game, so nearly all commands you execute have a at least 5-second delay. But once the server issues are fixed I think this can become a great game.

Here is a review extract:

It begins with a 3-4 hour single player tutorial which is really well done and teaches you the ropes in a clear way - while still being entertaining - before throwing you into an imposing, and initially impenetrable, multiplayer version.

Hope that helps :)

Maybe his full-time job is working for EA. I kid.
The game sounds fun.

I am a solo dev on this game, and I cannot currently keep up with player concurrency. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME RIGHT NOW IF SLOW SERVER PERFORMANCE WILL MAKE YOU REGRET YOUR DECISION.

At first, I got it as a joke, like if he was the one typing the answers to the commands (ant I thought that the joke was pretty funny). Maybe related to some manual events? Though I doubt it. It's not doable to interact with the entirety of the player base.

I quite like the terminal animations :) Would probably not use them on my system, though, unless it's for showing off*

*I already have ponysay for that


Last edited by MayeulC on 26 Sep 2016 at 9:42 pm UTC

Nitpick: it's not "h a c k m u d", but "ｈａｃｋｍｕｄ".

The former is just the normal ASCII latin characters with spaces inbetween. This is not it.

The latter is CJK "fullwidth" forms of the latin characters, i.e. each character takes up the space a CJK character would use. In fixed-width fonts, that would be the space of two usual "halfwidth" characters.


Last edited by DrMcCoy on 27 Sep 2016 at 12:21 am UTC

Nitpick: it's not "h a c k m u d", but "ｈａｃｋｍｕｄ".

The former is just the normal ASCII latin characters with spaces inbetween. This is not it.

The latter is CJK "fullwidth" forms of the latin characters, i.e. each character takes up the space a CJK character would use. In fixed-width fonts, that would be the space of two usual "halfwidth" characters.

You, sir, have reached a new level.
Kinda interesting too.

Nitpick: it's not "h a c k m u d", but "ｈａｃｋｍｕｄ".

The former is just the normal ASCII latin characters with spaces inbetween. This is not it.

The latter is CJK "fullwidth" forms of the latin characters, i.e. each character takes up the space a CJK character would use. In fixed-width fonts, that would be the space of two usual "halfwidth" characters.

But how do you pronounce it? :O

But how do you pronounce it? :O

As an English loanword in Japanese, it would maybe be pronounced "hakumutsu", with the u being rather short and farther back, more like a schwa or even nearly a glottal stop? But that's just me guessing. I don't speak Japanese, I've just seen/heard this happen a few times. I could very well be completely off; do correct me if I'm wrong.

I also have no idea if this works similarily in any of the Chinese or Korean dialects. I would guess so, but, again, just a guess.

Hah, thanks. I wasn't expecting anything quite so well thought out. I was thinking something along the lines of each letter spoken individually (but retaining case, not like an initialism).

But how do you pronounce it? :O

As an English loanword in Japanese, it would maybe be pronounced "hakumutsu", with the u being rather short and farther back, more like a schwa or even nearly a glottal stop? But that's just me guessing. I don't speak Japanese, I've just seen/heard this happen a few times. I could very well be completely off; do correct me if I'm wrong.

I also have no idea if this works similarily in any of the Chinese or Korean dialects. I would guess so, but, again, just a guess.

ハクムド, I would say ("hakumudo", you can use google translate's tts if you want). Then, I am not an expert, I would need to practice a bit more.

Nice spot, DrMcCoy. I was wondering why the writing.