Generation XX
What game is more appropriate to hack than the hacking game?
Have I told you all the story about the standalone module I made for Dragon Age Origins? I know I wrote about the Dragon Age Toolset one time. As a lay-modder, it was relatively difficult to use, despite the excellent resources developed by the Dragon Age modding community. I made a standalone module, set as a play in the Fade, and the protagonist didn’t have a head. She was meant to have everything from face to hair, I just couldn’t figure out how to attach those things to her neck. I eventually solved the problem by putting her entire cranium into the correct folder.
Hilariously, when you start playing Hacknet: Extensions, you’re assigned missions that require you to navigate to folders on your PC. I, therefore, knew I was going to love these tools from this very first interaction, and they’re organised in a way that is clever, easy to understand and fun to use. Designer, Matt Trobbiani, has built an example extension, then sends in-game mail to direct you on how to explore it. You have to read the script for a computer, for example, and then reply to the mail with an answer that tests your comprehension, like stating an embedded password, before you can proceed.
Or, you may have to find information in the code and use it to “play” the example extension, which was useful for me because it’s been a while since I’ve played Hacknet. Modding obviously requires a thorough knowledge of the game’s existing content. Like how literally every character in Dragon Age has a head, so heads are important. I also didn’t realise that Hacknet now has an
I had to stop messing with my mod because, you know, the Feds were onto me
expansion, Labyrinths, so I first got distracted, playing that. It’s essentially “more of the same game” but with new tools and plot.
As Labyrinths is an expansion you pay for, and which will likely be (at least) mechanically relevant to your modding efforts, I’ll give you the halfparagraph summary now. As a slot-in story, you can access The Kaguya Trials from Entropy or CSEC, but will have to shelve your other content and missions for a good few hours. There are new people to meet, mostly via chat, systems to hack and the new SSLTrojan.exe. Oh, and rival hackers (yes!) and, wow, the ending. I had to look up alternate endings on YouTube and they’re all pretty terrifying.
Interestingly, the modding experience made me appreciate Hacknet’s story more than I originally did, mostly because I don’t have a lot of imagination for creating complex and engaging hacking stories. I couldn’t think of what to write in my first mail to the player beyond, “Dear person, hack this, love Meg.” The process, however, is incredibly easy. Trobbiani has organised the example extension so that you can grab, and change, relevant bits of code when you need them. He’s also made meticulous notes about what each piece of code does.
You can start by choosing from basic themes/assets or importing custom resources. I set my module to cute pictures of my kids, and immediately regretted it. Then, the more you dig into Extensions, the more you can pull back the curtain on how the base game works. Remember a dramatic moment where the music changed? That’s handled by an action triggered by a required value. How do the mission mails know when to pop up and what content to add? The template ExampleMission.xml is a treasure trove of insight.
So, yes, I learned heaps, but my own modding efforts here suck. Luckily, Chris Johnson, the designer behind melancholy puzzler, Expand, made an interesting mod called The Slaughterhouse. You join Project Reality and begin by investigating Jones Meat Co based on rumours of animal cruelty. It’s noticeably Hacknet, but also feels significantly more political. It also changes the structure of play so that creative thinking is prioritised, and it’s quite difficult. Of course, great mods build on content in ways that is both faithful and innovative, so it works beautifully.
Ultimately, this whole experience made me feel like a 1337 hacker. I eventually had to stop messing with my mod because, you know, the Feds were onto me. And the kids needed dinner. And I couldn’t remember the password to log into my extension, and was too shy to email the Surprise Attack guy to learn how to recover it. I’m not sure I’m enough of a Hacknet nerd to get more involved with modding this game, but if you love it, you should dive in. This is the most enjoyable experience I’ve ever had with a toolset, and great results are entirely achievable.