hackmud

UPDATE: Since this review was posted, things have gotten significantly worse. Sean (the dev) posted a public statement attacking the creator of this review as well as another ex-volunteer that has expressed issues with the game. At least 5 volunteers have resigned in response with several more quitting the game entirely. Read this article for a summary of what happened: https://samual.uk/hackmud-april-2025-rundown.html ORIGINAL REVIEW: I hesitate to write this review, knowing that it will probably burn some bridges even though that is not the intent. However I know of no other way to get the attention of the developer(s), and I have lost faith that they will fix these problems on their own. For context: I am a veteran player of hackmud who started around a month or two after launch, and over the course of 8 years have accrued tens of thousands of hours in the game. The last major update to the game was the "hackmud 2.0 update" or "binmat update" in mid-2018. This update was not well-received and afterwards the dev (seanmakesgames) took a long break from the game. Over the next 6 years we had a couple minor updates such as the monuments + beacons release in 2020, and a few player-driven events, but nothing on the scale of 2.0. This was until 2023, when the dev resurfaced with a new plan. hackmud was to transfer ownership from Drizzly Bear to a new nonprofit started by Sean called ComCODE. The goal, per their website, was to "teach technical and economic literacy through open-ended gameplay." Most of the remaining veteran players including myself were invited to become volunteers for this new nonprofit. The proposal was that volunteers would be allowed to work on parts of the game they were interested in. Given the lack of attention to the game over the past few years, most of the volunteers jumped on this opportunity. However it was quickly clear that this would not be the case. Fast-forward to today: Since ComCODE's founding in late-2023, they have released one significant update to the game, this being the "marks system". This was a rewrite of the tutorial and can mostly be attributed to a few very dedicated volunteers. Volunteers that were originally told they could contribute to the parts of the game they wanted were later told this was a "distraction", and only allowed to work on a handful of curated projects, each of which required oversight and sign-off by the developer. Eventually many of the volunteers were burned out by this bureaucracy and broken promises, and either quit contributing or resigned from the volunteer team entirely. To this day only 2-3 individuals have access to the entirety of the hackmud codebase, and they are all either paid staff or the developer themselves. Why does any of this matter? Because hackmud is in trouble, and the staff are in denial about it. Despite putting on a positive front, hackmud the game currently spends more than it makes. hackmud is primarily funded by donations to ComCODE, and staff are in a death-spiral to raise enough money for the next quarter rather than worrying about the long-term health of the game. There is also a severe air of "toxic positivity" where players and volunteers are not allowed to be negative about the game in public channels. Examples being the two most recent events. In December, staff announced "the take", a PvP event that would include the first major change to PvP balance since the 2.0 update in 2018. This change was an update that disabled "panic dumps". Without going into detail, panic dumps are a loophole in the binmat mechanic that allows users to execute a script to "panic" money and items away to another user before getting breached. Because this happens during the binmat game, this makes it impossible for attackers to meaningfully steal from each other at the top level. This has caused endgame PvP to grind to a halt for several years, and users that have not played the game in 2 years are still present on users.top due to this mechanic. Needless to say, many players were excited to see this go away. As the event progressed, it became clear the patch was incomplete. Panic dumps were disabled, but due to an oversight, the very last script run of binmat was ignored. This allowed users to continue to panic their money away, just only in a single script run. As almost no one in the game has enough money to be prohibited by a single script run, this effectively negated the patch entirely. Rather than admit this was a bug and implement a fix for it, the staff cried "huge success" and then retconned the intent of the patch entirely. Volunteers were prohibited from labeling this a "bug" in public channels, and to this day it remains unfixed, with no public intent to fix it. The most recent event was a hackmud game jam. This event was announced several weeks in advance, but staff were suspiciously silent about the voting system and criteria. When the event began, it was discovered that players would be given 3 votes each (split across three submissions), and "judges" would be given 50x that amount each. Given the average player count of hackmud on a good day is ~30, this completely negated player votes entirely. Players complained about this, and a few days later the judge votes were silently removed (with no announcement whatsoever). When the event ended and the votes were tallied, players waited breathlessly for a winner to be announced... and waited... and waited... turns out staff silently decided to axe the entire voting process and the voting script now reads "The winner was: everybody!" Once again no announcement was given about any of this. The hackmud team's refusal to be honest with their players and instead spin everything as a "win" is insulting to them and to the people contributing to ComCODE. It's fine to make mistakes, but the dev seems to believe that bugs don't exist if we simply don't acknowledge them. This entire post might read as a rant from a bitter former-player, but I truly do love hackmud and the community it has created. hackmud is a unique game that has taught programming to dozens of players including myself. In spite of all the issues I mentioned, I want it to succeed. However with the direction the game is heading, I cannot recommend it in good conscience. The hackmud team needs to be willing to acknowledge their mistakes and work with their players to improve the game, and so far they have been unwilling to do so. If things do not change, I do not believe the game will survive another 6 months.

I think you’ll notice that people who don’t like the game didn’t invest in it, and that’s telling. hackmud’s issue is conveyance: it’s not that it’s easy or hard, it’s that it’s impenetrably obtuse about what it even is. That’s my real problem—I can’t invest in something I can’t understand at a conceptual level. The best I can describe it: EVE Online meets The Path. It’s rare to see a game you simply can’t “get.” Take Mega Man: if you can look at the screen and press buttons, you understand what it’s about—run, jump, shoot, move right. From there you gain a broader sense of structure: levels, power-ups, bosses. But at its core, it’s about jumping and shooting. I’m not talking about simplicity here. Factorio has bottomless depth, but it’s about building a factory. The factory must grow. In hackmud you type one-liners, get a wall of text, then append arguments to that line until you get a new one or “finish.” For this, you’re rewarded with money. Sometimes. Mostly, you’re given another one-liner to process. It’s a “puzzle game” in that figuring out what to type is what you do. In that sense, it’s a reading comprehension test on steroids. Or maybe it’s for those who delight in the unknowable—what could be behind the next line? Which, I think, reveals what it really is: lore games thrive on communities who discuss them. hackmud simply puts that community inside the game. The best I can figure, hackmud is a chat room. You have to want to be in one, because that’s the only truly novel content on offer. Talking about it—or about what everyone else is doing—is more interesting than playing it. If you love digging through games for lore, maybe there’s mileage here. But it mistakes what you could do for what you are doing, and misses the chance to draw you into its world. It ends up a series of rote, instruction-following tasks in a vague setting with no clear purpose. To be clear: I hated my time with it, but I gave it an honest attempt. I’m not saying it’s badly made; I’m sure it’s deeper than my time revealed. In many ways, it’s an incredible technical showpiece. But what it asks you to do is boring and awful unless that narrow chatroom-meets-lore niche appeals to you. You have to really, really want what hackmud offers. For everyone else, it’s impossible to invest because you’ll never quite “get” it. Maybe I’m too dumb to get hackmud—but I suspect very few people have cracked that code.

Login once every two months or everything will be wiped.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/chirpxiv/recommended/469920

I'm probably going to keep playing just because I have to be doing something wrong. It can't be this bad. It looks and sounds good but the gameplay is literally just: read text, guess how to form a one-line javascript object based on arbitrary info from the text you read, that's it.. the "hacking" gameplay is just javascript keypairs..? and so you just automate what is basically a bunch of different brute force attacks against simple puzzles. Completed one easy "quest/mission" - 50,000GC Completed another one with 6 levels of security - 57,000GC NPCs are.. "scripts", which you also write "scripts" to automate.. but you can only upload 1 to use in-game until you Init your Sys which costs 1,000,000GC.. so you farm.. scripts.. by logging into chat channels.. to get a list of scripts.. in that sector... I just can't wrap my head around it and I'm a software engineer by trade. It's like the more I found out about how the game is played the less excited I became. Once it seemed like the game is just automate these premade puzzles with arrays of the answers to unlock the next tier of difficulty I just quit. Boring af and not even useful for learning JS since it uses a bunch of made up functions. If you want an actual game that uses actual coding try Bitburner cause this.. this ain't it my guys.

Single-handedly saved me from giving up on programming altogether. I picked this game up after burning out from a stressful job and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ relationship that both took my soul. It was the only thing that made programming fun again. A literal lifeline for me.

hackmud, developed and published by ComCODE, is a highly distinctive multiplayer hacking simulator that immerses players in a retro-futuristic cyberpunk universe. Released in 2016, the game has earned acclaim for its originality and depth, offering a text-based experience that blends puzzle-solving, coding, and online strategy. Unlike typical visually-driven games, hackmud relies entirely on text and scripting, challenging players to think logically and creatively as they navigate its virtual world, which feels both expansive and alive. The core gameplay revolves around hacking systems, crafting scripts, and interacting with the environment through code. Players take on the role of digital avatars exploring an abandoned and chaotic online space, cracking protected systems, unlocking secrets, and manipulating the game's virtual economy. This emphasis on coding and problem-solving distinguishes hackmud from other simulation games, as players are encouraged to learn and apply real programming concepts in a safe, gamified context. Each action, from simple system access to complex script deployment, reinforces the game’s intellectual challenge and sense of accomplishment. One of the most compelling aspects of hackmud is its persistent, player-driven world. The game operates like an MMO, where the actions of individuals or groups have long-term consequences on the digital ecosystem. Players can form corporations, engage in espionage, trade virtual assets, and influence the in-game economy. This dynamic world fosters a sense of immersion rarely seen in text-based games, making each decision meaningful and creating a narrative shaped by the community itself. Community interaction is central to the hackmud experience. The game encourages collaboration and rivalry, with veteran players often mentoring newcomers and sharing scripts or strategies. This cooperative dimension enhances both accessibility and engagement, helping players overcome the steep learning curve associated with the game’s coding-intensive mechanics. Social interactions within this environment add depth, as alliances and rivalries emerge organically, giving the world a sense of life and unpredictability. The game’s steep learning curve and text-only interface, however, may present obstacles for some players. Those without programming experience or a strong interest in technical problem-solving may find the mechanics initially daunting. While the tutorials and community support help bridge this gap, the game demands patience, persistence, and a willingness to experiment. Additionally, the lack of traditional visual cues can be off-putting for players accustomed to more graphically-oriented games, though for enthusiasts, this minimalist approach enhances immersion and creativity. Despite these challenges, hackmud offers a deeply rewarding experience for players willing to invest the time and effort. Its combination of strategic depth, technical learning, and emergent storytelling creates a gaming experience that is both intellectually stimulating and highly engaging. The game’s retro aesthetic, cyberpunk tone, and persistent world make it stand out as a niche but exceptional entry in the hacking simulator genre. In conclusion, hackmud is a pioneering and highly original title that rewards curiosity, ingenuity, and persistence. It is not designed for casual play, but for those who embrace its challenges, it provides a rich, interactive, and thought-provoking experience. With its emphasis on coding, problem-solving, and community-driven dynamics, hackmud offers a uniquely immersive virtual world where every decision matters and every interaction contributes to an evolving narrative shaped by its players. Rating: 7/10

a few hours in, I thought I had seen the majority of how the game worked. a few hundred hours in, I'm so deep in side puzzles, lore shenanigans, and building up infra that I've barely left the tutorial. fun game that always seems to have something to discover if you're willing to go look for it. also has a welcoming and helpful community

Bro.... I don't know who needs to see this but you can utilize the chat API to have your chat stream into powershell, bash or terminal using Node.js or Python. You could effectively read and send chat messages directly from your actual terminal window—whether it's VSCode, PowerShell, Bash, or similar. You can also run JavaScript scripts you've authored in editors like VSCode, Atom, or any other tool you prefer. HECK YOU CAN create a chat portal on your phone bro. This game is wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiild dude. I do a lot of front-end development stuff and anything that gives me a gamified reason to keep brushed up on my JavaScript is a win in my book.

Having played this game for around a year (excluding a 6 month break), I can roundly say that this is one of the most interesting games I have ever played - in 13 years on Steam. hackmud has a wonderful community, is developed and run by a non-profit (always a good thing), and has an unmatched vibe when it comes to its subject matter. There is lore; there are puzzles; there is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and casinos, and players blowing eachother up (at the top end). I would write more, but there's a really engaging in-game event on at the moment and I want to get back to it :)