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Show HN: Untrusted, a JavaScript adventure game you play by modifying its source (nisnevich.com)
555 points by alnis on April 7, 2014 | hide | past | favorite | 235 comments



Hey guys, one of the developers here.

Thank you all so much for all of your feedback! I never thought this game would become so popular.

It seems that our server is more or less overloaded right now, so AJAX requests for new levels are sometimes failing. This appears to be the cause of the bugs that some of you have experienced where levels load incorrectly or are overwritten by previous levels. Sorry about that. :-/ We will work on making the game more robust in the case of failures like this.

If you want to run the game locally, you can clone it from https://github.com/AlexNisnevich/untrusted and follow the instructions there.


welp. it's 100% dead now.

Sorry about that. That's what you get for making something really interesting and posting about it on hacker news.


I installed the latest version of this, and of Node, on my Windows computer, and I had to change "~/node_modules" to "./node_modules" in the final line of Makefile (in the "runlocal" target) - the http-server module was installed in the current directory. Otherwise it's working great; thanks!


Good catch -- I fixed the Makefile to actually go along with how http-server is installed in the README.


Confirmed the same issue on Linux


We've also been discussing it over on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/22gxx1/untrusted_a_j...


When I exit level 1 it just re-loads level 1... is this the bug you're referring to?


The level files are 503ing, but it looks like the level counter is still incrementing if I go out of the exit and back in again. You might want to add some response code validation in.

    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/10_ambush.jsx 503 (Service Unavailable) jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/11_robot.jsx 503 (Service Unavailable) jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/12_robotNav.jsx 503 (Service Unavailable) jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/13_robotMaze.jsx 503 (Service Unavailable) jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/14_crispsContest.jsx 503 (Service Unavailable) jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/15_exceptionalCrossing.jsx 503 (Service Unavailable) jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/16_lasers.jsx 503 (Service Unavailable) jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/17_pointers.jsx 503 (Service Unavailable) jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/19_documentObjectMadness.jsx net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/20_bossFight.jsx net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED jquery.min.js:6
    GET http://alex.nisnevich.com/untrusted/levels/21_endOfTheLine.jsx net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED


Sadly, our server couldn't handle the load.

I've set up a mirror at: http://alexnisnevich.github.io/untrusted/

We're currently working on handling the AJAX responses more robustly. The level counter should no longer increment on a failed request.


Thanks for the fun game!

Could you possibly help us by putting in a ruler that marks the map coordinates? Yes, I can read the code to find where things are (or count), but there were a few times where it was somewhat inconvenient.


Thanks for the feedback! We've been thinking about doing that, but the challenge is making it inconspicuous enough to not clash with our minimalist aesthetic.


It could be more discrete, eg. an apostrophe every 10 blocks.


You could just display the coordinates that are currently under the mouse. Adding two changing numbers to the statusbar is fairly minimalist.


Here's an Iron Man inspired solution for the boss battle :)

    map.placeObject(map.getWidth()/2, 5, 'block');
    //map.placeObject(map.getWidth()/2, 1, 'block');
    var player = map.getPlayer();
    map.defineObject('missile', {
        'type': 'dynamic',
        'symbol': '^',
        'color': 'blue',
        'interval': 100,
        'projectile': true,
        'behavior': function (me) {
            me.move('up');
        }
    });
    
    function jericho()
    {
    	var i;
    	for (i = 3; i < map.getWidth() - 3; i++)
        {
        	map.placeObject(i, map.getHeight() - 1, 'missile');
        }
    }
    player.setPhoneCallback(function()
    {
    	jericho();
    });


For the truly lazy, this was my approach:

    map.overrideKey('up', function() {
        if (map.countObjects('boss') > 0) {
            for (var x = 0; x < map.getWidth(); x++) {
                map.placeObject(x, map.getHeight()-5, 'missile');
            }
        } else {
            map.overrideKey('up', null);
        }
    });


Interesting, probably much simpler than my approach:(I have added a few comments to give a brief explanation:

 	//Math.random = function(){ return false;};
        /* my first Idea was to try and redefine Math.random to always return <0.3, but for some reason even though this did effect the dropping of bullets, it didn't stop them completely (if someone could explain this I would really appreciate it*/
    
    map.defineObject('MagicBlock', {
    	
        'type'         : 'static',
        'symbol'       : '$',
        'color'        : 'magenta',
        'impassable'   : function() { return map.countObjects('boss') >0;}
        
    });
    
    //place a row of MagicBlock's aboove the player's starting position
    for(var i =0; i < map.getWidth(); i++)
    	map.placeObject(i, map.getHeight()-5, 'MagicBlock');
    
    map.defineObject('missile', {
    	'type' 		: 'dynamic',
        'symbol' 	: '^',
        'interval'  : 100,
        'projectile': true,
        'behavior'  : function(me) { me.move('up');},
        'color'		: 'lime'
    	});
        
        
    player = map.getPlayer();
    
    function volley(){
    	for(var i = 0; i < map.getWidth(); i++)
        	map.placeObject(i, map.getHeight()-6, 'missile');
           	map.placeObject(i, map.getHeight()-7, 'missile');
    }
    
    
	map.getPlayer().setPhoneCallback(function(){
    	volley();
    });


Nice. Lacks drama though, where's the dash through the rain of bullets to recover the missile launcher? :D


I monkey-patched Math.random() to launch horizontal missiles at the top of the screen and always return 1.

:-)


I've used their own weapon! :)

for(ii=0;ii<23;ii++){ map.getDynamicObjects()[ii].direction='down'; }

f=function(){ map.placeObject(10, 18, 'bullet'); } map.getPlayer().setPhoneCallback(f);


This worked for the whole first chapter for me (and has some obvious further applications):

    startLevel["constructor"]("m",
    "console.log(m);" +
    "var old = m.placeObject;\n" +
    "m.placeObject = function(x,y,t) { \n" +
    "console.log(t);\n" +
    "if (t === 'exit' || t === 'computer') {\n" +
    "console.log('adding' + t);\n" +
    "return old['ca' + 'll'](m, x,y,t) }};")(map);
EDIT: I wonder if you could wrap the user's code in, e.g. https://code.google.com/p/es-lab/wiki/SecureEcmaScript, and use this to gamify finding bugs in that sandbox :-)


nice!

similarly,

    var oldPlaceObject = map.placeObject;
    var newPlaceObject = function(x, y, type) {
    	if (type !== 'block') {
        	map.placeObject = oldPlaceObject;
        	map.placeObject(x, y, type);
            map.placeObject = newPlaceObject;
        }
    };
    map.placeObject = newPlaceObject;
was my solution to multiple levels ;).


I also had to overwrite the map.verifyXitems (or whatever it was) to return true regardless.


I love this game! Such a cool idea, and very well executed.

My biggest critique so far is that it's extremely hard for me to tell the difference between #311 and #000 for the `.disabled` lines (I'm mildly red-green colorblind). Changing it to #711 fixed it for me, but I can imagine it would be impossible to even see #F11 for certain colorblind individuals. Perhaps some other kind of indication that a line is editable, or a more drastic #FFF/#000 distinction?


This is definitely something we'll work on! I'm sorry that it was difficult to tell which lines were editable. Maybe we should add a contrast slider of some kind?


Highlighting the text was really the only way I found some of the edit boxes.


That can be solved without changing the colors of anything, BTW :)


I just realized that I misread you and it's too late to edit. You're talking about lines of source code (and I do agree, I was really confused on the level where you can only edit a tiny section of code I missed), whereas I thought you were referring to the lasers puzzle (I just moved the exit for that).


This is fun. But I have one wish. Overwrite console.log() so it logs onto the website and I don't need to open firebug :)

Edit: I think I solved lvl two to four all the same way. Not sure if that's intended. But I also don't want to spoil it for others.

Edit 2: This worked again at lvl 6, so I'll assume that's a bug. Click this pastebin for spoilers: http://pastebin.com/yfhDhE7P


Good catch! We haven't been checking yet for tampering with functions, but we probably should. Don't think of it as a bug so much as a cheatcode you discovered :-)


First of all, this is absolutely impressive in concept.

Yes, it's too easy that way:

    map.pO = map.placeObject;
    map.placeObject = function(x, y, w){
        return map.pO(x, y, w=='block'?'empty':w);
    }
Does not even need call. But while you cannot protect from `Function['p'+'rototype']['c'+'all']`, I think using `defineProperty` to stop mucking with the code would go a long way into preventing blatant cheating at little cost. That or enclosed reference funcs.

Btw, you trust the level increment counter before succeeding in loading the level. Right now calls are 503ing, so basically I'm [gisting bogus solutions](https://gist.github.com/anonymous/f1b06d63848d6d013e26) but it's also saving those bogus level ups in localstorage...


Aww, I thought that was to easy. That trick works for basically any level.

Also, is there a good way to completly prevent tampering with functions, or is this just going to be an arms race?


> Also, is there a good way to completly prevent tampering with functions, or is this just going to be an arms race?

Let's hope for an arms race - it will be far more fun and educating at the same time.


hmm a multi player javascript API tampering arms race game would be pretty awesome too.


Object.defineProperty with 'writable' = false?


Object.freeze?


I just added a feature to the game that watches certain functions and compares them to what they were at the start of the game (during the level validation phase). I'm sure this can still be gamed though.


Don't use the functions from the map object, but keep a separate function reference for validation?

I mean if you want to cheat you always can. But that's not the point. Right now you can cheat using official apis.

Just use map._blah() for internal use

By the way: Same trick works for keys.


I did a similar thing for level 6: http://pastebin.com/aScFtgK8


Also, you can use String.fromCharCode(95) to write a '_' so that you can access the methods on map that start with an underscore


Does firebug override the ctrl+shift+K javascript console?, curious because I don't use it.


You should reinit the map though, otherwise doing this on level 2 causes funny bugs (and makes the game rather easy ;)

    maze.create = function() {};
    var tmp = map.placeObject;
    map.placeObject = function(x, y, t) {
    	if(t == 'exit') tmp(x,y,t);
    };


If you reload the game, the map should now re-init on every level.

PS. I'm really enjoying all the creative solutions you guys are coming up with!


level 2 can be solved by using the two "unlocked" lines to comment out the whole maze.create call, too.


Related: things like these do not work, because of implementation.

    if (false) // <- inserted by me
    for (var ...) { // <- existing code
        ...code...
    }
Too bad, because extra `for`s could be fun...


That's kinda the point, though. Read the comments for that file. ;)


you don't need 2 lines, you only need the one below to overwrite the map function, and leave an open dot :D

map.placeObject(7,4,'exit');var a = {map: {placeObject:function(){}}};a.


thanks for the help ;)


Attention!

The main site is overloaded, but I've set up a mirror at: http://alexnisnevich.github.io/untrusted/

All level-loading issues should be resolved on it, since they were tied to AJAX failures. Let me know if you experience any problems on the mirror site.


Thanks for the game! Credits don't load on the mirror - I get a 404 on the AJAX call.


Oops, it should work now.


That was great,

Here's making the boss kill itself

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/2d45242a73f72847417b


Much earlier but: defense by excessive reaction.

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/0bd9b9d36892ffe6dbbf


These are both beautiful.


Non-violent solution: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/af2da1fb4ab84945e129


I solved the jump/gravity level without having to edit any code, dunno if that's supposed to be possible, but: if you press+hold the UP key, keyboard repeat rate will be fast enough that you "fly", allowing you to cross the gap (and even save yourself if you happen to fall in it).

I also solved the DOM level without editing anything, I just pressed some keys and it transported me to the next level before I even had an idea what was going on.

(im playing on Firefox / Linux, in case that makes a difference)

Oh and thanks for this game, it's EXTREMELY COOL and I had a lot of fun playing it all the way to the credits screen (and I'm going to go back now to see if that's really the last level or not ...)


You had me at "The continuing adventures of Dr. Eval"


Am I the only one spending more time on figuring out how to cheat than actually doing the level the way you are supposed to?


Level 6 can be cleared without modifying the code at all:

http://home.iitb.ac.in/~pritambaral/level6.mp4 (16K)

http://home.iitb.ac.in/~pritambaral/level6.webm (31K)

http://home.iitb.ac.in/~pritambaral/level6.gif (161K)

EDIT: Seems to have been fixed. Leaving comment for archival purposes?


Seems to have been fixed; I now see http://i.imgur.com/dQeC01W.png


Level 6 doesn't work for me at all. I can get there several ways but the exit doesn't function.

Also, is it possible for counter drones to kill the red drone? Mine wouldn't, all they do is block him.


This must be resulting in a lot of new gists on GitHub... is it odd that I wish I could sign in with my GitHub account so that the level saves showed up as gists under my name?


Pretty cool game bud, I actually think this is a superior environment for learning to program than many of the richer 3-d interfaces I've seen.


THANK YOU.

I have 0 knowledge about writing all kinds of code. This is perfect to start with. Specially thanks to the API part.


This is fun! But I've run into a problem. Advancement past level 14 seems to be bugged; upon completion, the keys in my inventory were replaced with a capital A which I assume to represent the algorithm, but then level 14 reloaded with a message at the bottom saying "You have lost the Algorithm!" Re-completing the level works, but the same thing happens, as many times as I like; the last time, I saw "run 17_pointers.jsx" scroll past, but still got the map and code for level 14.

My solution to level 14 [1] involved a state variable on the me object; could that have broken something?

[1] https://gist.github.com/anonymous/8e4f11c26e5e6fe3d7d6


This seems to be tied to a bug some other people have experienced where new levels don't load correctly and are overwritten with existing levels.

Try going to level 15 and resetting the level (Ctrl-4). Does that help at all?


It does! Thanks, and thanks for a fun, engrossing diversion on a rainy Monday afternoon.

(Update: Each time I enter a level, it loads as level 13, and I have to reset it to get the correct map and code -- just a heads-up in case it helps with debugging. Chrome 33.something, Windows 7 x64.)


Very cool! I'm stuck on level 7 because it seems that the script isn't editable anywhere. Related note, the color scheme for highlighting editable lines might want to change, because "black on dark maroone" doesn't exactly jump out.

Love that you're auto-gisting solutions. That was clever - I presume you are browsing through searching for the common description tag? I also like the API popup, although I didn't see it until I got stuck on the (uneditable) level 7. I verified this because $('.editableLines') == [] in console! Perhaps this is a very fancy meta-game that you can only win with a pull request? :)


This took me a bit as well but there is a small bit that is editable, but I agree that it isn't clearly defined, especially when it's only a few characters and not an entire line.

Hint: Phone functions


Thanks!

Does your level 7 not look like http://i.imgur.com/AFTxPWC.png ?


He means level 8, I think. Or at least I have the same problem with level 8 (intoTheWoods)


Oh, there's a small bit of editable text at the bottom of level 8 (line 100). Sorry if it's not very clear - we may work on the color scheme a little.


Very cool game, thanks :) One minor issue in the API docs:

canvasContext.beginPath() Begins drawing a new shape. canvasContext.beginPath(x, y) Sets the end coordinates of a line.

this second beginPath should be lineTo, took a minute to debug in level 16 :)


lineTo doesn't work anymore so level 16 is broken :'(


Chrome seems to crash every four or five levels and it forces me to reload the page. It's a tad annoying going back through my levels.

Perhaps consider a level select, since it's able to remember your solutions?


There is a level select! :-) It's in the Menu (Ctrl-0). We really should bring more attention to it.


Ah, yes. That's very convenient.

I don't see anywhere to edit on level 21, and level select says there's one more...


Hmm, do you notice anything different about the menu now that you're on level 21?


Credits don't load. t_t

EDIT: OK they load now, servers must have been busy.

EDIT2: Credits load on the main site but not on the mirror.


Wow, great. I had noticed but didn't think you could do that!!


Level 5 should have more mines.

With only 75, the level is easily solved via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_sky_theory


Why, it's not about the number of mines, so long as there's a path, it's very easy to solve. The number of mines is irrelevant.


Anybody think of another way to do the robot levels without adding any state?

https://gist.github.com/db41e069df7bae142248


https://gist.github.com/anonymous/12b15e3de9340655ed78

Variable to control the direction the robot moves, changed with the function phone.


This was mine:

    var r = Math.random();
    me.move(
      r < 0.4 ? 'right' :
        r<0.6 ? 'up' :
          r < 0.8 ? 'down' :
            'left'
    );
Works eventually :)

For level 13 I just used:

    me.move(Math.random() > 0.5 ? 'right' : 'down');
And regenerated the map until I got to one that could be solved by moving only right and down.


I _was_ going to build a pathfinder since it's a well documented process, but it was more work than just making the player a joystick

http://qiao.github.io/PathFinding.js/visual/

You'd just need to recalc the pathfinder each time.


https://gist.github.com/xmonkee/10099892

The robot follows my player, unless it's green, in which case it goes 'down' (cause it wont pick up the key under remote control for some reason). I'm saving state in the color of the player.


https://gist.github.com/anonymous/486caea6cc41f13dca76

The robot goes down unless its x-coordinate is between 20 and 33, in which case it goes up. Kinda cheesy, but it works...


Follow the player left right, and move mirrored on a line. Works pretty much unmodified for 12 and 13. https://gist.github.com/anonymous/f59ea23c9a421d93c2c1


Yeah, I just built a wall that it got stuck behind, then I could run to the door before it got me. Don't have the code sorry.


yeah. I made it follow a cosine path:

http://benvan.co.uk/cosine.gif


Content note: plays sound.

Did the quick ^W at work :|


The tab only plays sound while active here, a nice touch I think.


Clicking the sound symbol does mute it, fyi.


I broke level 4. Is there an obvious way that I am missing to reset at the level you're on when the reset functionality provided under the text editor is insufficient?


The Reset button should completely reset editor state for the level. What happened?


Btw, I should have said first that I love this game idea and myself and my coworkers have been playing it a bit for the last 20 minutes or so.

I broke my game by reassigning the getWidth method to return an invalid value:

map.getWidth = function() { return 1; }

The approach worked with a valid value: ( map.getWidth = function() { return 6; } ) and I beat the level, but I had to replay the previous 3 levels.

Some suggestions (Again, we loved the game!) - Provide some interface to conveniently index all the solution Gists. - Provide some way to quickly skip to last level played.

Other thoughts: - Enjoyed the look, feel, and user interaction. - The music was great. - I will keep playing this game. :)


Oh, quick note - you can skip to the last level played in the Menu (Ctrl-0). We should probably make that more obvious.


Ah - I see what menu does now. I love this game and have uncovered a few broken game states. This mainly happens when I reassign one of the API methods. Are you interested in user-submitted issues? Let me know; I could email them to you or log them on your GH; whatever is convenient.


User-submitted issues would be great! Logging them on GitHub would be the most convenient.


Using CTRL+Q for the phone is dangerous on a mac, as it's easily confused with APPLE+Q which closes the browser window, losing your progress.

---

Edit: it saves the game state in localstorage; kudos!


At the top left, in 'Chrome', there's a useful 'Warn before Quitting' option.


Very fun. I found a bug that lets me skip levels 8-11 by using this code in the phone callback on level 7:

  if ( ! ( player.cc && player.cc.length ) ) {
       player.cc = ['#f00', '#ff0', '#0f0'];
  }
  player.setColor(player.cc.shift());
It says it's loading the next level, but the code and gamefield remain stuck on level 7 until you push it to level 12.


We're glad you like it!

No clue why that's happening, but we'll continue to investigate.


Ooh, shift, nice. Didn't know about that. That should come in handy.


I'm not sure what happened with level 4 multiplicity, but I placed a 2nd exit inside the box. Then when I go through it says it completed the level but I'm still on the multiplicity level. Reseting does not fix. https://gist.github.com/anonymous/0dafb64fad2ddd6fd451


A few people have reported a similar bug. I don't think that it's level specific but has something to do with the next level not leading correctly upon completing a level.

We're still not sure why it happens or when (it seems to only affect a few people), but we'll try to figure it out.

There aren't any errors you can see in the JavaScript console, are there?


It happened twice to me, once on 4 once on 8 I think. Both times it happened when I went through the exit then went back to it.


this happened to me, but i went through the exit again and this time it worked


valgaze: your comment is not visible unless a user has showdead turned on.


same here, putting another exit on the canvas breaks things in a weird way


On level 15, my deaths keep changing the editable window. I'll die and then the last several characters (4 I believe) of my code get swapped to uneditable until I reset.

I'm also encountering a bunch of exceptions during game execution instead of at build, which are making things rather hard to beat. I'd list them but they vanish faster than I can read them.


Does anyone know of a nice way to unlock levels for the mirror? I'm on the first jQuery one but all I see is black text on a white screen. No players and nothing changes when I use the arrow keys. I can't find anything in the code I can edit either. I'd like to try the mirror but I don't want to have to play though the whole game again?


Can you show me what the jQuery level looks like for you? I want to make sure that it's working correctly.


It's fixed now with the servers no longer overloaded (although for some reason I had to start again).

What was happening was that the highlighting of you and the boss were not showing. So just the page without anything interactive.


Not sure if you noticed this yet or not, but it is possible to comment all code following an allowed block by leaving an open "/*". This allows the player to write their own code to overwrite what should be uneditable.

not sure if you would want to disallow this or not, but i find it allows for some interesting hacky solutions.


Awesome game.

One thing it drives home for me is just how distracting music is when I'm trying to code. It pulled up that first listing and I literally could not parse it until I muted the audio. Then it immediately turned back into code.

It's like music just turns off the switch that connects the eyeballs to the brain. Amazing.


This music is awesome. What genre is it?


It's from a combination of electronic sub-genres by some independent artists. You can see the full list of tracks here: https://github.com/AlexNisnevich/untrusted#soundtrack


I wasn't sure how to show all the mines on the minesweeper map, so I just place them all at the top... was this supposed to be the point? :)

Anyhoo, nice game, it doesn't matter how you solve it, as it still proves that eval is evil ;)


Ctrl+1 for API docs. There's an API to change the color of a tile :)


Very fun, however once I reached the level with the DOM, I catched the opponent but the game went crazy and submitted a lot of queries to Gist (when I closed the tab, the counter was at 64, and Github was serving 403).


In order to fix that short delay before movement when you hold down a movement direction you should make pressing the arrow keys set a corresponding movement boolean to true. Then just move whenever the boolean is true.

Great game!


I actually used a "private API" in level 14, crisps contest.

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/dacd3f1de73a59b5983e

Is this cheating?


I completely cheated (added an extra key by setting a trace in the console) because I looked for an editable line for about 10 minutes and couldn't find it.

Solved it now by changing greenKey to theAlgorithm


Could you explain how you would do this? There doesn't seem to be an editable line, what's the trick?


Ooh, good catch! player.pickUpItem should definitely be renamed to player._pickUpItem and not made available to the player.


I reach level 60, says the counter(just because the game buged after i try to clear level 6): http://imgur.com/ty9JlXz.


Same thing happened to me on level 9 (I think?):

http://i.imgur.com/eYHoebE.png


I really like that it has WASD/Arrow/Vim controls. Props.


Level 12: remote control!

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/dd3e906ad36d87158528


Borks at level 7, upon touching phone with undebuggable message on canvas:

  d up the function p 1, found:oad the level
  Wone! number of exits ...


Alnis, love the game! But I also ran into unexpected behavior after clearing level 7 (change your color). It kept reloading the same level, but opening up new levels in Level select. Even so, clicking on higher levels keeps reloading the same colors.js screen.

Another weird thing I noticed was that next to the computer and telephone in the inventory, two letters "k" appeared. I'm using Firefox 28 on Windows 7.

Here's the solution I used for colors.js https://gist.github.com/anonymous/ab5cd3b393c290fbf8c1


This might be tied to the issue that mandlar, pokpokpok, and valgaze have been having, but I haven't been able to reproduce it yet.

Does resetting these levels (Ctrl-4) help at all?


Yes, Ctrl-4 does work, thanks for the tip!


Bizarre! I haven't been able to reproduce it. Can you share your code for that level (if it's been modified at all)?


Unmodified. Chrome 33 on Linux


I'm not sure what the real intention of the level "Multiplicity" was, but just placing an exit anywhere you want works just as well!


Multiplying the exits is useful ;-)


Heh but then what was the real intention of the earlier maze level? I already multiplied the exit there :)

Anyway, really nice work with the game!


Thanks! The intended solution to the maze level was commenting everything out. But of course, all of these have multiple solutions :-)


A simple nuclear trick for LvL two and on: http://pastebin.com/c7vqzrU3


How long before "Twitch plays Untrusted"?


Any tips for level 17? I can't seem to figure out a solution for the teleporters using the getObjectCoords hint that was given


You can re-target the teleporters. And several teleporters can target one teleporter. And you can iterate over all teleporters and check where they are. I've said too much.


I did it by drawing on the canvas to mark the way. (I'm trying not to spoil it, apologies if this is too vague).


I'm stuck on the teleporters one as well. Can we please have another hint?


This level is hard. It took me a while until I found the coords for the transporters I was looking for but in the end I done it :). tip: find the transporter from the spawn point and the one where the exits is and link them together


I forgot about comments on lvl 2 and used if(0){} and was wondering what the 4 was until I remembered //, hah


> "If you can read this, you are cheating! D:"

Loaded the site, popped open the Chrome Dev Tools, and was thoroughly disappointed.


Why were you disappointed?


Well, the title says you play the game by modifying the game's source. Turns out you don't modify the game's source, you modify specific snippets of code that are provided on the page.

Last weekend I hacked around in the source of various online games, I anticipated this to be a similar experience but was disappointed to find that we weren't supposed to actually change the game's source.


Well you can play it that way too, if you want. Try overriding some of the internal functions using creative methods. :)


    map.validateExactlyXManyObjects = function() {};
lets you put an exit tile next to your character on every level


Been there, done that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7548257


I'm really surprised that we never thought of that. We'll try to prevent this exploit soon :-)


I didn't get the last 3 DOM-based ones. I just randomly hit my arrow keys and until I completed the levels.

Otherwise a very cool game!


Oh, only level 19 is DOM-based - level 20 and 21 are different. You may have been unable to load correctly them due to the stress on the server, but you should check them out at some point :-)


woot. got 21 too finally :)


Level 1 just reloads after I get to the exit.


The game was broken for a bit, and it's possible that your saved state got corrupted.

Try restarting the game by running localStorage.clear() in the JavaScript console, then refreshing the page. Does that fix it?


Same here, even when running locally. I just had it never paint the walls- that's the right solution right?


Seems to be overloaded now. Multiple 503s.


Any tips for level 9? I can't seem to find a handle on the raft to be able to modify its behaviour directly.


Build a bridge :) https://gist.github.com/anonymous/0dea3ab11a2e71e6e7c7


Is there anything else you could modify to change what the raft does?


Yes...but I can't do it at an intelligent time.


Do you have any tools available to you that let you execute code at a chosen time?


hah, I tried that multiple times, i get: You are not allowed to use call!


Yeah, it seems odd that the setPhoneCallback is forbidden in this level, because that solution would fit the sequence of levels very well. Luckily, there are other ways to cross the water, and some other commenters in the thread already hinted at them ;)


setPhoneCallback works perfectly for me in level 9 -- in fact, it's my intended solution: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/6e5606649b3cb0d60797


Seems this was a combination of my mistake and a bug that you might have fixed in the meantime. I intended to assign the player object to a variable player but made a mistake. The resulting error message was "player.setPhoneCallback not allowed" or something like that, but that was yesterday and with a different browser version (Firefox). Now when I tried to reproduce it, I get "player is not defined", which is much more helpful :)

I suspect that the GP ran into the same problem.


Don't forget about the function phone! :-)


There's a variable that stores the rafts direction...


If you can't modify it, make a new one.


What if there's more than one raft?


Any way I can go to a level directly? I was on level 12 but my computer died, and it did not save any progress.


Did you check the menu at ^0?


Ah, they were saved there! Thanks!


This is awesome but it keeps repeating the first level! I get the solution but then it just reloads everything.


The game was broken for a bit, and it's possible that your saved state got corrupted.

Try restarting the game by running localStorage.clear() in the JavaScript console, then refreshing the page. Does that fix it?


Is there any solution to the ambush level other than the obvious solution of moving the drones out of the way?


Of course. I made them harmless and walked right through them.


Tried that, but for some reason I couldn't disable the onCollision by assigning it to some dummy function. Do you mind sharing your solution?


I wish we could retrieve the solution we used for past levels. :(

Okay, I think I've replicated it. I just overrode onCollision with empty braces, so the final definition looked like this:

    map.defineObject('attackDrone', {
        'type': 'dynamic',
        'symbol': 'd',
        'color': 'red',
        'onCollision': function (player) {
            player.killedBy('an attack drone');
        },
        'behavior': function (me) {
        },
        'onCollision': function (player) {
        }
    });
Note that you're closing the game's braces, inserting another definition, then re-opening braces to match the game's closing ones.


I tried to move the exit inside the walls. I was unable to edit any of the code. I thought that was the point?


Ctrl+5 to reload the level after you changed it. Did you do that? On one of the levels I created a new exit inside, and it worked.


Is there an easy way to transfer progress between computers? (other than saving your solution Gists?)


level 35! https://gist.github.com/anonymous/25b4b4b56f844368a37c here's to calling into the code behind using pattern matching and the nifty in operator


Loved it, but exiting on Level 1 just causes level 1 to reload for me and never unlocks level 2.


Does the mirror [http://alexnisnevich.github.io/untrusted/] work for you?


LV 20 Math.random = function() {return 1;} map.getPlayer().hasItem = function() {return true;}


Any tips on level 15? Once the player is killed what could I possibly do?


I can't figure it out either; i know that if you raise an exception in the area you can edit, it gets caught a few levels up where the toString representation of whatever you threw is parsed into status update info, with newlines interpreted correctly. But after that, even if you input chars that could build a bridge, it's not persisted to the next attempt :/


After a lot of trial, error, and attempted code injection, I found that it was much easier than I had expected. It can in fact be solved with a single character.


Hmm. Damn.


I actually figured something out with this which is weird, because I don't think it has to do with exceptions. I passed in a new object of an undeclared type and just walked across the water, which I can't explain.

Can anyone help?


I'm trying with

    player.killedBy(function(){throw new Exception();});
...but then that just means I get killed by "function(){throw new Exception();}".

Edit: never mind, got it. Overriding onCollision helps. :)

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/2868beb0cee19259ebb5


I think that's the purpose, the filename says something about "exception".


Remember in of the earlier levels when who-ever is talking to us, said that the name of the level could come in handy? Try using that ;)


The level filename is a hint.


you can close the bracket and inject some more commands… although you don’t have many characters in which to do it.


Overriding a certain method may help ;)


:'( I'm stuck at crispsContest.js lvl


So was I, until I took another close look at the code. It's easy to miss the part you can edit.


This level was driving me crazy (mostly because of the character limit). The solution that I found is kind of silly: it turns out the removeItem function is dumber than you probably think it is.


A good solution would be to remove an invalid item, and the function should silently try to remove the invalid item, but still allow passage. For some reason, even when you have the green key, but try to remove an invalid item, it still doesn't let you through, despite apparently returning false (passable).

Additionally it doesn't support injection there, so while "player.removeItem('greenKey'); player.additem('greenKey');" should work, it says "TypeError: undefined is not a function".


I approached it like this:

player.removeItem('greenKey'); return 0;} if(1==1){('');

Full link: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/c78b439d8f2369e03f68

Basically, this let's you delete the green item once. After that, it makes sure that return true is never reached (because of the 1==1), so next passages through green are allowed. Kinda liked the sneaky (''); myself :P


I thought https://gist.github.com/anonymous/cfe03f2ddb0052b38081 was kind of neat, as you still have to solve the puzzle a bit after using it.


aww, I tried to sacrifice my phone for an easier solution for the last problem, but apparently I need it in the end.


stupid drones, me.selfDestruct (tableflip)


Make your own drones.

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/c18b7b1e7ab1d672da55


This gave me a good laugh, thank you :D


I made a wall to circle around the drone. Pretty fun.


I found it easier to make myself invincible.

map.getPlayer().killedBy = function() {};

Drone just follows you around like harmless puppy.

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/dfb6822e683ea7418ea8


Neo: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets? Morpheus: No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to. :)


Works for the water as well. :]


hahah i love this game :D


I did the exact same thing.


Can anyone give me a hint for level 12?


You're defining a robot's properties, so you might want to define its properties. That'll open the door to higher-level navigation logic.

(Being obtuse is difficult...)


I made the robot follow a cosine curve. Cute but ridiculous solution.


wow that level took me forever. Ended up using things along the lines of if( me.getX() < 15) {move down then right} elst if me.getX()>15 and < 30 {move up then right} etc.


I encoded a route.

    moves = [['down', 5], ['right', 20], ['up', 1] /* and so on */]


I personally wired the bot to track and follow my movements. Then I just walked the bot through the maze.


You could create your own robot control system based on pressure plates as well


You could always implement a-star, a searching algorithm.


What if the triangular walls were straight?


map.getPlayer()['hasItem'] = function yes () { return true; };


Stuck at level 13 :(


I solved it by basing the robot's movements off my own using my position. Hopefully that's vague enough to be a decent hint but not a giveaway...


Just a hint: you can set your player's colour.


I won!


dang this is awesome


In level 10 ambush I set

        function (me) {}
for the red and yellow drones and

        function (me) {
            var r = 'right:'+me.canMove('right');
            var l = 'left: '+me.canMove('left')
            alert(r+'; '+l);
        }
for the green drones. But I always get 'right:true; left: true'. WTFFFFFF? :-( Please please fix that, please!!!


Level 10 can be solved by code injection :)

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/d65048c34bd6874478a1




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