LudumData

Shadow Loop by Mekuri

[raw]
made by Mekuri for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

Shadow Loop is a hacking game, where you receive jobs via mail, and you perform the hacks, all from the comfort of your own terminal. For this Ludum Dare, I gave myself the added challenge, of only being allowed to make the game using Unitys UI system, and nothing else.

My initial idea for the game, turned out to be quite dull, so I scrapped it and went for something else- As such, the theme is not really apparent in the game, but I do hope you will enjoy it nonetheless. There's an ingame mail with further instructions I'd recommend you read, but the game should be fairly self-explanatory (At least that's the intention :P)

Email Screen

MailScreenie.png

Hacking Screen

HackScreenie.png

Youtube https://mkj-interactive.itch.io/shadow-loop
Youtube https://mkj-interactive.itch.io/shadow-loop
Youtube https://mkj-interactive.itch.io/shadow-loop
Youtube https://mkj-interactive.itch.io/shadow-loop
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/shadow-loop

Ratings

Overall 973th 3.379⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1065th 3.106⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 598th 3.515⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1597th 2.439⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 842th 3.5⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Humor 761th 2.759⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 735th 3.453⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 39🗨️

Feedback

abvadabra
06. Oct 2020 · 12:34 UTC
That's a cool idea and the game overall feels nice, well done! Bonus points for nice and fitting music. There is a potential here, adding more interactive hacking minigames can make this Shadow Loop even better. I imagine some watch dogs kind of hacks could totally fit this idea.
Thanks for making it!
HungryCatGames
06. Oct 2020 · 17:02 UTC
Good game. Fun to play, but then the repetitive kicks in (loop theme?). One suggestion, I kept typing the password and hitting enter. Wondering why nothing happened, then realized I had to click. Perhaps also allow "enter" to accept the password entry? Add in some more hacking options to flesh it out and you've got the start of a full blown game.
NotSoEpicGames
06. Oct 2020 · 17:06 UTC
Cool idea! And awesome execution!! I was blown away by the quality of the icons, the intro sequence, pretty much everything. I think it goes without saying that the theme wasn't very apparent and the 2 nodes were not very exciting. However, having said that, taking this as a concept rather than a game, it is a brilliant idea and, as the previous comment said, implementing little minigames Undertale style could make it a really cool game!
Steffo
06. Oct 2020 · 17:10 UTC
Ah, yes, an hacking game!

Pretty short and polished, it's good enough for a LD entry!

Have you ever played [Hacknet](https://store.steampowered.com/app/365450/Hacknet/)? Your game reminded me a lot of it...
inanimatecarbonrod
06. Oct 2020 · 17:17 UTC
solid foundation for a hacking game, one thing i would point out is that the webgl frame for unity makes some of the screens smaller than intended so it might end up being harder to read the lists of files or passwords than intended.
hjeldin
06. Oct 2020 · 17:25 UTC
Love it, reminded me of Uplink. As others said, this is a great foundation for an hacking game
SwiftVector
06. Oct 2020 · 17:32 UTC
Always nice to see a hacking simulator. The UI is nice and responsive and the mail-based job system is great for worldbuilding (I guess inspired by Uplink, which is good since it's the gold-standard for this kind of game)

Main issue afaict is that it starts off way too easy and takes ages to pick up. Since the time pressure is usually the main draw with hacking games I reckon it could go a long way to start off with a very low time limit so it's still fun and challenging early on, and then make later missions harder through more complicated minigames.
MattC
06. Oct 2020 · 17:33 UTC
I'm guessing you're inspired by the legendary 2001 'Uplink'? If not check it out for inspiration! Cool game though with fun elements, I hope you take your concept and expand upon it!
🎤 Mekuri
06. Oct 2020 · 18:21 UTC
@hungrycatgames Yeah, the enter key also bugged me out, I wanted to get it fixed, but it slipped my mind towards the final crunch.

@hjeldin @mattc
This was indeed inspired by Uplink, I used to love that game!

@swiftvector
I would've loved just a few more hours to polish the difficulty, to really capture that 'under pressure' feel. I'm considering a post jam version, with a few more challenges, and increased difficulty :-)

Thanks a lot for the feedback all of you :-)
pedrohph
06. Oct 2020 · 18:59 UTC
The game concept is so cool!
I hope you continue updating this game, creating new features and hack puzzles.
mlkvr
06. Oct 2020 · 19:20 UTC
I like how you used UI and the animations, really cool congrats!
SwiftVector
06. Oct 2020 · 20:26 UTC
@mekuri If you do end up making a post-jam version then count me as looking forward to it 😁
Eckkert
07. Oct 2020 · 02:35 UTC
Definitely the fastest-loading Unity game I've seen. It's a great build.
riroriro
07. Oct 2020 · 02:36 UTC
The UI for this is gorgeous - well done on making a simple game still look engaging and beautiful!
complexitydata
07. Oct 2020 · 02:45 UTC
This made me miss Uplink. Love the UI and sounds too -- super evocative stuff!
Meatball
07. Oct 2020 · 02:53 UTC
Using fullscreen feels totally 'immersive'. Good stuff!
JollyJoe
07. Oct 2020 · 02:55 UTC
I loved the hack sim game, good loop
coderTrevor
07. Oct 2020 · 03:16 UTC
Nice game. The interface looks really good, but I guess that's to be expected. :stuck_out_tongue: The audio is good too and the music and graphics make for a nice mood.
I like your idea of limiting yourself to just using the Unity UI system. Using Unity's UI has always been a weak point for me; I bet you're an expert on it now!
🎤 Mekuri
07. Oct 2020 · 15:04 UTC
@pedrohph I am considering expanding on this. Originally I had more ideas for 'hack puzzles', but I'm sure you know how it goes :-)

@riroriro Thanks a lot. I spend quite some time trying to make it look decent :-)

@codertrevor I usually try to challenge myself in my weak areas, and Unity UI was (still is in some regards) my weak point. It was quite a learning experience!

Thanks for the feedback all :-)
Ruling Spear
09. Oct 2020 · 13:31 UTC
Nice to see something different. Was an exiting play and who doesn't love a bit of security layer hacking. Well done!
NinjaCatz
11. Oct 2020 · 11:19 UTC
There is no place in the game where you can spend money, but overall I liked the game, especially the visual style
🎤 Mekuri
11. Oct 2020 · 12:03 UTC
@ninjacatz Yeah I had ideas to implement upgrades and such, but as always, with these Ludum Dares, features get cut :P
alpacalypse
11. Oct 2020 · 18:09 UTC
I love the idea of making a game entirely within the UI system, and it paid off with a great look and feel to this.
piscythe
12. Oct 2020 · 05:21 UTC
Like others above, I was thrown off by the lack of an enter key. I also had a lot of trouble telling the as and os in the font apart. I'm really not sure how anyone is supposed to guess the partially-revealed passwords without knowing the dictionary that the game uses. I also feel as thought the difficulty could have ramped up more quickly. There's no reason to make the player do more than one of those $500 jobs, for example. I'm curious to see what this would look like with a stronger selection of minigames.
🎤 Mekuri
12. Oct 2020 · 18:06 UTC
@piscythe If it wasn't against the rules I would've already fixed the lack of the enter key, but alas I pushed it until too late.
As for the dictionary hack, I agree. It wasn't fully implemented as I wanted it, but it will be in a post-jam version.
As for the difficulty, you caught me on one of my weak points. I actually spent a bit of time tweaking it, it started out way too difficult, so I probably overcompensated in the other direction. I'm quite binary in my jam games on that. Either I nail it ot I miss it, and this time I definitely didn't nail it :-)
Thanks a lot for your constructive feedback, I really appreciate it!
guimoliveira
14. Oct 2020 · 18:49 UTC
Nice idea! Good job. :)