August 19th-22nd 2011 :: Theme: Escape
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NEW: Linux support with curses! (Do note that it requires a very large terminal window; you may have to mess with your prompt to get it to fit)
The story is described in-game, but in short: You are an AI in a Shadowrun-style futuristic setting, trying to evade those who wish you destroyed.
Written in Python using only the stdlib and WConio.
Purely console based, Windows-only.
I was extremely happy with how the UI turned out - it captured that Movie Interface feel quite nicely. Much of the gameplay itself was coded in under 12 hours, and there's so much more I wish I could do, but I'm satisfied enough.
You can view a screenshot progress archive at https://github.com/jtruscott/ld21/tree/master/snapshots
Notes:
- Please use the Windows Binary (Fixed) link!
The original submission would get completely wedged if you got purged from a node.
- Typing long command names can get tedious. However, once you've disambiguated a name to only have only matching command, it'll happily run it. For example, 'neighbors' can thus be shortened all the way down to 'n'.
Happy hacking!
- Spigot [Rectifier on IRC]
Downloads and Links
Ratings
#73 | Innovation | 3.57 |
#230 | Theme | 3.00 |
#246 | Coolness | 2% |
#273 | Fun | 2.57 |
#275 | Overall | 2.79 |
#356 | Humor | 1.43 |
#371 | Audio | 1.00 |
#389 | Community | 1.83 |
#423 | Graphics | 1.88 |
Comments
I'm a big fan of console games (Nethack, Dwarf Fortress and Liberal Crime Squad), so I was surprised by this entry. A very fun game, reminds me of Uplink, which I spent hours playing on. I got the feeling I was really trying to escape, rushing commands to go as far as I could. But the Purge action is somehow broken, I don't know if that is intended but every time someone purges me from a node, I can't play anymore because it raises an NPC exception.
I keep running in to a bug where it says ERROR: Cannot travel to a node you are already connected to. in the home node, which makes me unable to travel at all since I can't back out. Maybe I'm just doing this wrong.
There was a game-ruiningly severe bug in NPC purging; I've uploaded a fixed binary. I believe it's allowed by the "fixing crashbugs" clause, but I kept the original up just in case.
Indeed reminded me of Uplink. But that also points out one of the downsides of command-line tedium. Very well implemented for 48h game. "neighbors" is a bit of a pain to type though :P
@Rudy:
As soon as you narrow it down to a single legal command (which the autocomplete is supposed to help with), it'll run. By the time I implemented that I never did anything but "nei" or "nei -s".
I'll add that to the documentation here.
Quite a good game. I loved the concept and your approach to the theme. I kinda missed the ability to scroll through the console log though. I also didn't know exactly what to use as ID for things like defending a node. There's no "ID" next to each entry in the tunnel list (although I assumed a zero-based index). A VERY good job nonetheless, I actually enjoyed it a lot. One of the best games I've tried so far.
It seems really cool but really involved. I'm going to have to give it another look later. One thing I really wish for is a faster way to input commands. Being able to press the up and down arrows to scroll through previous entries would help loads.
Also, I had a hard time understanding quite what was going on. It seemed like I was getting updates about teams that had nothing to do with nodes I was connected to. Is this intentional? I'd especially see weird Purged messages that didn't seem to apply to me. I couldn't tell who was being purged but I wasn't taking damage. The messages will be cut off sometimes too.
Also, you use a really tall display! I just now noticed that I can scroll to the top and see my condition. (1440x900 desktop over here).
All-in-all, it's very cool and I'll be giving it a closer look next time I want to get immersed in a hacking game (pretty soon) :).
This is one that I want to go back and spend some more time with after the voting round. Nicely done.
...This one is pretty addictive. The RPG element is cool. My display problems were from my console using a bigger font by default. I also realized that you can type just the beginnings of commands :).
My biggest complaint is that it's too hard. Especially leveling up. I've played the game probably 20-30 times now and always go after high storage systems but I was only able to find programs that were of use 3 times. I also died once hacking into the first node I was connected to :/. Maybe I could've lived if I tunneled through it? I die a lot in this, not sure if I'm still missing some strategy.
It's a problem that you're dumped to the desktop every time the game is over. Also, if you over connect to your home node circuitously, you're totally screwed.
Problems aside, I like this but never feel like I'm making much headway before I die with each play. I'd really love to see this balanced and developed further.
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I've never seen anybody break the fourth wall like this before, this is really a great concept!