

Show HN: Hacker Experience – Online hacking simulation game - napsterbr
https://hackerexperience.com/

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napsterbr
Hello HN,

I'd like to share my work for the last couple years with you. I just released
this web-based game called Hacker Experience, where you play the role of a
hacker working for an evil corporation.

You can install viruses, hack servers, develop new softwares, DDoS players,
mine bitcoins, and much more!

Love to hear any feedback/thoughts you may have.

Thanks!

~~~
aqme28
Only feedback I have from the landing page:

Please please please don't hijack the scroll.

~~~
andrey-p
Seconded. I'm on a netbook and actually can't read one of the paragraphs in
the about section.

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0x420
No comment on the game as I haven't tried it yet, but the scroll hijacking on
the homepage makes it kind of annoying to read the text, expand/collapse FAQ
questions etc., especially in a smaller window. I suggest disabling it once
you scroll the top section out of the viewport. This looks like fun though -
I'll definitely be trying it out.

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Igglyboo
One of the better scrollbar hijacking pages I've seen but it's still pretty
jerky and it's really hard for me to get it to land on the sign up part.

Im using Chrome Canary on a Macbook Pro, scrolling with the two finger gesture
on the trackpad.

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goldmar
The site is broken. First I was getting 404 when I tried to log in. Then,
after clicking the link in the email, I got to the tutorial. But whatever I
click I always get back to the animation at the start. Using Safari on
Yosemite PB2.

~~~
ShaneWilton
I'm running into the same issue. I'm actually really excited to give this a
try too - Uplink and Slavehack were incredible games.

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nikolak
Requires too much watching of progress bars, for example if I click to
download the software from the web just run it in background and once it's
done let it show in software tab, going to process then clicking "complete"
for each individual file is just too boring and the primary reason why I
stopped playing it after few hours.

Some of them seem like they're running only when being watched.

A way to earn money, such as missions, should be available at all times -
maybe based on some sort of rank.

Gathering money at the start is very very slow.

Users should be able to "bookmark" IPs both hacked and unhacked and organize
them.

Upgrades are too simple and too similar so the whole gameplay is just repeated
set of actions, you need to integrate the "multiplayer" aspect more into it.

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siddboots
Clicking the Start Tutorial button on the welcome page does some things
("creating virtual machine..." etc) but then just brings me back to the
welcome page.

~~~
osazuwa
I get the same error. But hey, please send me a message when you get it to
work. I can't wait to try this out. I've been waiting for something like this
for a while.

~~~
samjc
verifying your email should fix the issue

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alexjeffrey
looks like fun! I've been holding out for a modern retake on the uplink series
or some other fun hacking game.

one UI thing that came up for me - going through the university pages, it
wasn't totally clear that the green buttons were actually a "next" button.
After I read the software page, I saw the green button said "what if I need
help?", thought it was a help button and decided that since I couldn't find a
next button, I was free to start playing. Confusion set in when the homepage
sent me back to the tutorial.

[edit] in terms of a fix, a simple &raquo; or other arrow-icon might fix this

also a few little suggestions that I hope you'll like (as I like this type of
game, a lot!):

\- Maybe represent the user's balance purely in BTC? the idea of paying
hackers in bank transfers seems a little insecure for a security game :)

\- You might run into race conditions when editing logs, depending on how it's
implemented on the backend - maybe just a checkbox next to each line to
quickly delete lines relevant to you? this might ruin some of the fun
possibilities re. dropping other people's IPs into logs though.

~~~
iamtew
As long as it can be implemented well I think it's good to have full text edit
power on the log file, I can just change my own IP to someone else ;)

~~~
alexjeffrey
I agree, but the race condition kind of kills it - 2 people editing the same
file at the same time.

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stvnchn
Overall, neat idea. As a nontechnical but tech savvy person, I like how you
provided the information in a succinct way although the format could have been
more digestible. Downloading software is not efficient.

I think this platform could be a great way for teaching people about the
Internet. I highly doubt people will learn about servers, IPs, and different
forms of hacking software in school.

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the4dpatrick
@napsterbr, just finished my first mission and got some BTC. Yay! I really
liked how the on-boarding and the learning of how the game played was so
smooth. For example, I was about to go back to the missions tab to see the IP
address I needed, when the popup on the right showed it. This is a simple
example, but this happened numerous times just in the first mission. By the
end, I knew how to play. On-boarding was spot on

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pragone
Not sure if I'm missing some part of the concept here, but after logging in
all I see is "Start Tutorial", which goes through some "loading" things, then
back to the same page. No other options for any other way to navigate...

Edit: you have to not be logged in (delete cookies if you did), then click the
link to verify. There's no where to paste the code that's sent in the email.

~~~
napsterbr
Hi,

After the animation, you are redirected to a page with some text, right?

Make sure you click the green button.

[edit] Sorry, I broke the header while fixing the AWS SES issue. Should work
now.

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samjc
Once you click on "Start Tutorial", looks like it does an animation thing, but
then just takes you back to the screen to where you can click "Start Tutorial"
again... I just realized that this keeps on going in a circle until you verify
your email... So if you think it's not working for because it is buggy, make
sure you check your email and verify your account :)

~~~
pragone
Verified account, still happens... =/

Edit: you have to not be logged in (delete cookies if you did), then click the
link to verify. There's no where to paste the code that's sent in the email.

~~~
napsterbr
Sorry, I removed the verification but forgot to change the game header.

It should work fine now, no need for verification.

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chairmankaga
Getting a scrollbar for the content under "cracker" in Ubuntu firefox 30.0 The
scroll hijacking of course breaks the scrollbar there :D

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bcohen5055
It's fun but I can't seem to re-visit a "certification" I thought I understood
how to steal money but I don't and can't go back. I also can't seem to get any
missions so I'm just aimlessly hacking into personal accounts. Don't mean to
turn this into a support thread, just letting you know what's going on :)

~~~
napsterbr
Hey,

Revisiting a certification is still todo, but I probably should've done this
before releasing. Anyway, the wiki (wiki.hackerexperience.com) has some
information.

To receive mission offers, make sure you hack companies. There are some on the
Whois. Pineapple, elgooG and MuderKing, for example.

Feel free to ask any questions here or on the game forums

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munger
Arg, I think I found a dead-end on mission 1. I had the heartbleed virus v1.2
and the mission called for v1.0 and so after installing v1.2, it no longer
allows installation of an additional one or deleting the first one so now I am
still stuck with $0 because the wrong version is installed. Any advice?

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jiggy2011
I'd like to be able to try the game, or at least see a video before giving
this my email address.

~~~
jordsmi
This so much. Saw I had to sign up to see anything and just closed out.

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owenversteeg
Doesn't work for me. I logged in, got redirected to
[https://hackerexperience.com/welcome](https://hackerexperience.com/welcome),
clicked on the button, and it "loaded" and then reloaded the page. Repeat.

~~~
napsterbr
Just fixed it. Please try again.

Let me know if you have any problem.

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pla3rhat3r
I love the part where it says, "Don't worry. Your computer is safe." This is
the same thing they say right before you get a blow dart to your neck, a black
bag on your head, and driven to an "undisclosed location." Cool game!

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giancarlostoro
Maybe missions should give some money up front in some cases, sucks when you
don't have any money and you need to upgrade for a mission. Either that or
maybe I just suck at hacking others lol.

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chobo
This is a very fun game so far. Are there other hacking games people would
recommend? The more educational the better.

~~~
alexjeffrey
uplink is fun, and considered a classic of the genre.

In terms of education, the real thing is more interesting - check out places
like hackthissite.org or smashthestack.org for some real life (ish) hacking in
a contained environment. Hold your breath though as the smell of teen angst
may overpower you on some of these sites.

~~~
sp332
Similar idea [https://hack.me/](https://hack.me/)

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mynameisvlad
It failed to send an email verification code, and now I can't resend it, so
I'm stuck. :(

~~~
napsterbr
I'm using AWS SES and many emails are returning. I don't know if it's my rate
(5 mails/sec), but I'll try to send again the codes

~~~
mynameisvlad
Got it now, thanks! I'll play around with it in a while but it looks great! :)

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sbussard
Super addictive! The missions are a little wonky though, they're not getting
unlocked.

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sbussard
Where did it go???

