About This Game

You're a hacker with a terminal, four terrible scripts, and an anonymous contact who needs files from places they really shouldn't be. The scripts were free, and you can tell.

Your port scanner checks all 65,535 ports, which is thorough and also going to take longer than you have patience for. Your password cracker just brute-forces everything and wakes up the intrusion detection system doing it. Both will technically get the job done, the way a spoon will technically dig a tunnel.

So you rewrite them, and the new probe only checks common ports and finishes in seconds, while the new cracker skips guessing entirely and reads the admin's own password hints straight off the filesystem. Nobody told you to fix these, you just got tired of using tools this bad.

There are no buttons, no "press X to hack", no minigames where you rotate pipes or match symbols. You sit at a command line with tab completion, a built-in code editor, and the full set of commands you'd expect, and you write scripts in a custom Python-like language that was built to be fun to learn and satisfying to master. Every script executes line by line, so you see exactly where it works, where it breaks, and how much faster it gets once you're the one who rewrote it.

If you've never programmed before, it's more sink-or-swim than a tutorial: you're straight into scripts that already work but could work better, picking up variables, loops, and functions by actually touching them. If you have, you'll skip past the basics quickly and start writing proper tooling. The language is close enough to Python that your instincts will carry over.

Every connection starts a countdown, the trace, and it speeds up the more noise you make. If it finishes you're caught: the connection is cut and you pay for it. So the question on every job is how loud you can afford to be: a blunt scan gets you the answer fast and sets the clock racing, a careful probe takes longer and keeps it slow. Better code is quieter code, and quieter code gets out before the trace catches up.

Your contact goes by second_hand, who operates through #blackdoor, a small IRC channel populated by hackers, script kiddies, and at least one person who thinks printing "hello" counts as a proof of concept, and doesn't do small talk. You get a server IP, a brief explanation of what's on it, "good luck", and payment on delivery.

The work escalates: unlocked test servers turn into corporate networks with intrusion detection, single-user boxes turn into multi-user environments where you crack a weak account and escalate privileges from inside, and simple downloads end up as encrypted files behind filtered ports you have to fight through first.

And underneath it all there's a story: a corporate conspiracy, and a secret that might be worth more than the pay. Why second_hand needs these files so badly, and what they plan to do with them, is something you work out as the jobs get harder.

There's no right answer. You get targets and tools, and how you combine them is entirely up to you.

Write a surgical probe that scans five ports and quits, or something that downloads every file on the server and sorts through it later, or just find the admin's password sitting in a text file some intern left in their home directory and skip cracking entirely. All of it works. The scripting language is simple enough to learn in minutes, deep enough that you'll still be optimising scripts hours later.

Spend your earnings on hardware upgrades (faster processing, more memory, better network) or on software tools that unlock new capabilities, or just write better code and keep the money.

Not every server plays by the same rules, and not every lock needs the same key.

Some run web forms that hand over their whole user table to a stray quote mark, or a "diagnostics" page that quietly shells out to the OS underneath. A real browser automation API means you can script your way through a signup form as easily as an SSH session, watching it fill in and submit itself if you're looking at the right pane. Some gate the good stuff behind a file that's normally locked, only readable for a few seconds out of every cycle. Keep trying, and grab it the moment it opens.

Some boxes run mail: connect on port 25, log into a mailbox, and read what people actually say to each other when they think nobody official is reading, or send a very convincing email as someone you're not and see who takes the bait.

All of it shows up as ordinary side work, posted by contacts in IRC same as everything else, just more ways for a job to go sideways.

You're never alone in #blackdoor. Hackers chat while you work, sharing tips, posting side jobs, placing bets on whether anon42 can find a port (he can't). Your contact DMs you mission briefings, and the channel reacts when jobs get done. Like any real IRC channel, most of the advice is unsolicited and some of it is wrong.

#lounge is a live channel where real players talk about anything: help, questions, scripts, general chat. It's not moderated in real time, though Steam's text filter still applies.

Every script you write is a real file, and every server is a JSON config. Edit scripts in the built-in editor, share them (or whole campaigns) through Steam Workshop, and download other players' work the same way. Anything you subscribe to shows up ready to use on your in-game drop server. No menus, just files on a server, like everything else.

• Real code: a custom Python-like language, a built-in editor and tab completion.

• Race the trace: noise speeds the countdown, and if it runs out you're caught.

• Story campaign: a corporate conspiracy, and a secret that might be worth more than the pay.

• Upgrade your rig: faster hardware and better tools, or just better code.

• Live chat: #lounge, with other players.

• Workshop: share scripts and whole campaigns, download other people's.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Generative AI tools were used during development to assist with brainstorming and editing some mission and other written content. All generated suggestions were reviewed and edited by me before inclusion in the game.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

Game simulates computer hacking and criminal activities including unauthorized access to servers, password cracking, data theft, and corporate espionage. The player is rewarded for these activities. All targets are fictional.