When Matt woke up there was no text message, but Hacknet had already sold close to 2000 copies on Steam. He wanted to go to sleep for the first six hours of release and wake up to a message from Surprise Attack - his publisher - that said, “we’re on track.” He didn’t want to be working on a patch or stressing about bugs, sales or the prospect of failure. Matt’s reasoning: he didn’t want to spend the first hours of Hacknet’s release anxiously refreshing the Steam page. It was released on Steam at 3.30am on 13 August 2015. Matt’s game, Hacknet, is based around the mechanics of real world hacking a hacking game about actual hacking. Matt Trobbiani didn’t really know how much video games are supposed to sell. In the time between plastering post-its and shaking my hand for the first time, that boy will have made himself very rich indeed. In roughly one year’s time, at PAX Australia 2015, I will be re-introduced to that wiry, red-headed boy. In the crowd, behind the scenes: a short, wiry, red-headed boy taking the post-it notes and doing his fair share of the sticking a boy helping ferry the boatloads of players desperate to play Expand. These are the post-it notes stuck on a board in a booth, buried in the maelstrom of flesh, sweat, plastic and video games that is PAX Australia.īut here’s what I don’t notice. These are the words one uses when describing a video game like Expand. Chris explains: he’s been asking Expand players to describe - in one word - their experience with the game on a post-it note, before sticking that note at the back of the booth.īeautiful. These are the words one uses when describing a video game like Expand.Īt the back of the booth I notice a board, decorated in layer after layer of post-it notes. This seems to be a common problem: when people start playing Expand they generally don’t want to stop. In order for me to play Chris Johnson has to kick some poor straggler from a computer he’s been playing for close to an hour. I arrive at the Expand booth and it is packed. A conversation that usually starts with “have you seen Expand? Everywhere I go people ask me about Expand. He gets to demo his game for free to an enormous audience and the reception has been out of control. His video game, Expand, is on the PAX Indie Showcase. Chris Johnson is a whirlwind of nervous energy and uncombed hair. Among other things, it gives you the ability to try out some truly excellent games (Borderlands 2, Shadow of Mordor, Cities: Skylines, etc.) until Monday, May 28th. Naturally, you will have to buy them afterwards in order to continue, but you might just find something that's right up your alley.PAX Australia 2014. If Hacknet isn't exactly your cup of tea, you might also want to check out Steam's currently ongoing Spring Cleaning event. At the end of the day it is completely free, so why not? It is without a single doubt a niche game, you're going to spend your entire playthrough looking at a terminal after all, but if it concept intrigues you then I do believe its worth a try. I can't exactly give you my opinion on it since I haven't actually played it, but from what I've seen online it is fairly well regarded. The promotion will only last for another ~18 hours, however, so do make sure to grab it as soon as possible. If you're up for a game that is truly unique, you might be interested to hear that the "hacking simulator" Hacknet is currently free on the Humble Store.
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