PAX Prime is done, so here's what's happening next!
Hello hackers,
Matt has been dropping short and sweet updates here as we all deal with the madness of the Hacknet launch. I wanted to stop by, and give you guys a full rundown of the launch period, and what the next couple of weeks has in store for the team.
The Launch
The launch of Hacknet has been an amazing ride. Days before the release we had many community members knocking on the forum threads, telling us just how excited they all were to get the game installed on their machines. Streamers were starting to play the game live, and from there everything just snowballed. From the moment the game hit the stores, the feedback flowing in from our enthusiastic fans was overwhelming. Long into the night of that first day, our inboxes were overflowing with kind words, great suggestions, fans helping us squash bugs, and general messages of support. So from all of us at Surprise Attack Games (and I'm sure Matt would agree) I wanted to thank each and every one of you - you have helped make the launch of Hacknet a great success!
PAX Prime
We just finished up showing off the game at PAX Prime in Seattle - big thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth!
Because Matt will be in transit for most of the week (flying from Australia takes a while), he won't be around on the Steam forums regularly for the next seven days. Fear not however, he will be diligently slaying those bugs on the 20+ hour flight! He has also quit his day job after the success of the launch, which means when he is back in the country, he will be working on Hacknet full-time which means we can create, test, and release new patches at a much faster rate.
While Matt won't be too active on the forums, I will be posting regularly so keep me company. We also just got our awesome intern back (SaltyRoy) who will be also floating around and capturing those bug reports and uploading them to our database, so make sure you make him feel welcome.
The Immediate Future
So our plans for the immediate future is to squash all the major issues users are experienecing. It would be great if you could report all bugs to the bug thread so we can keep a tab on everything new that is popping up, but also if you could report back if a patch fixes your issue - this will help us pinpoint if an issue has been totally resolved.
Once the build is stabillised and the bugs are locked away, our focus will be on a Linux and Mac build of the game so users of those platforms can begin hacking. Unfortunately we cannot give a timeframe for these releases, but if you are a Linux or OS X user, keep an eye on our community reddit, we will put a call out for testers when the time comes!
After that? We have a few things up our sleeves!
So keep on posting, and once again, thanks so much for your help and support!
Steve - Community Manager
Developer Update and Hacknet Patch 3 (v3.011)
I just got back from SimTecT, where Hacknet was lucky enough to win the 2015 Serious Games Showcase and Challenge Indie Award, and I've rolled out a patch to fix the most pressing issues that showed up while I was gone.
Most notably, the Junebug error has been dealt with (very sorry to everyone who was affected by this!). I've fixed several other smaller issues, including the quickload buttons on the load screen being broken for some users, and made some stabilization improvements to the save system while I work on the bigger fix.
I've also confirmed that i'll be flying out to PAX Prime next week to show Hacknet there - if you're around, say hi!
I've got loads to catch up on after being out of contact at the convention, so I'll be working through messages and posts when I can over the next few days. Thanks for all the great feedback, all the really helpful reports, and all your patience with the bugs. I'm working on it!
Thanks,
-Matt
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Hacknet Patch 2 (v3.009)
Hacknet patch 2 just rolled out, with a lot of fixes for issues that have come up.
Fixed "John Boorman" save file issue (and most save file loading errors)
Fixed many issues that were causing people to lose save files. Note: This is a big one, and is caused by the Steam API (and subsequently the cloud save API) failing to load on startup. I've made a lot of changes to make this more stable, and I've also added in local backups for everything. There may still be some problems, and I've never encountered this, or been able to test it locally (which is probably why it was left in in the first place), but i'll be keeping a close eye on the forums to make sure this is dealt with as soon as possible if it's still around.
Made the active mission canceling system much more clear with CSEC. Players were never intended to pick up contracts during the endgame sequence, or accept multiple contracts at once. The new UI makes this much more obvious. A more robust fix, supporting multiple contracts, will hopefully come in a later update.
Fixed issues causing strange (Broken) pointclicker behavior for some users
Fixed issues with "scp" command not correctly downloading files to specified directories and filenames in some cases
Fixed being able to use the netmap while the os hasn't finished loading
Fixed several issues with... specific medical firmware.
Fixed some issues with FTPBounce.exe visuals - visual upgrade still to come.
Fixed a bug that was preventing player from getting the "Rude" achievement.
That's all for tonight. More fixes and additions very soon - getting everyone up and running smoothly is my top priority.
I know there's still a lot of people getting crashes on startup. I haven't found a graphics card yet that reproduces this for me, but i'm working with some people to track down the issue. It only happens on some systems.
If you're still having problems with this, try the steps in the pinned forum thread about the issue. If that doesn't help, rest assured that I'm working on it, and fixes are on the way.
Thanks for all the support,
-Matt
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Hacknet is now live!
HACK THE PLANET!
First of all, thanks so much to our amazing community. The past month has been filled with excitement, many kind words, tonnes of players helping us squash some bugs, and now, a successful release!
So if you aren't too busy playing Hacknet, tell all of your friends to jump in and buy it, especially while it's 20% off during the launch week.
Stay tuned for many exciting new posts coming from Matt, as we work towards a Linux release, new features and more.
Also, come say hello to us during out live stream which is starting in five minutes - http://twitch.tv/surpriseattackgames
See you on the forums - Steve
Hacknet featued in PAX Australia's PAX Rising Showcase!
Hello hackers!
Great news to share this morning, with our friends at PAX Australia announcing that Hacknet will be part of the PAX Rising Showcase, alongside five other great locally developed indie titles.
So if anyone is planning to make it to the show, make sure you come and say hello!
Also, we just wanted to thank everyone for the tremendous amount of support you have all shown us! Chatting with you guys has been great, and we can't wait for all of you to jump into Hacknet on August 12.
For those who want to pre-order now, you can do so via the Humble Store which will net you a Steam key on release.
Stay tuned - we'll be doing some dives into the mechanics of Hacknet very soon!
