(Hacker voice) I’m in. We’re pentesting the mainfraime this week with 868-HACK! A small-scope puzzle-y rogue-y game by one Michael Brough: multi award-nominated IGF game designer of other similarly overlooked titles like Imbroglio, Cinco Paus, and Zaga-33. Michael’s games were originally designed for iOS mobile devices back in the hallowed days of the early 2010s, in that bubbling time when roguelites were just getting their foothold. Listen in as we isolate the nodes, jack the creds, warp some viruses and dump them on the other side of the router. Think you got what it takes to hack the big leagues, kid, or are you one siphon short of getting point-attacked in the NCIS firewall?

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Transcript

1:08 - Game stats

6:51 - One sentence description

8:28 - Platform Origins: iOS First, PC Port, No Android

12:21 - Hacking Aesthetic, Art Style & Tutorial Walkthrough

17:24 - Points as Primary Goal Debate

22:27 - Run Scoring Systems

26:24 - Difficulty Escalation

33:23 - Gameplay debates

39:09 - Progs & Ability Combos

45:04 - Sound Design & Aesthetic

47:40 - 868-BACK Sequel

52:50 - Movie Hacking

1:00:34 - Plan B DLC Mechanics & Harder Starting Conditions

1:04:08 - Awards, Critical Acclaim & Eric Dolphy Jazz Analogy

1:10:30 - Rankings & final thoughts

1:24:06 - Similar games & show wind-down

Next episode: UFO 50

Contact us at [email protected]!

https://grogpod.zone

Intro music: GROGPOD Theme 1 by Balatro composer LouisF - https://louisfmusic.com/

Outro music: 868-HACK background music and 868-BACK background music