From Herobyclicking
If you have ever used the tilde key to bring up a console screen to enter a console command on a PC game then you have at least a sense of what to expect with Hack ‘n’ Slash. It’s not cheating, it’s dissecting. It’s looking at the game through the developer’s eyes. It pulls back the curtain but keeps the nostalgia of classic console gaming intact. Plug in and debug, it’s time to hack...and/or slash.
Hack ‘n’ Slash by Double Fine is a puzzle adventure game in early access on Steam. Developed from Double Fine’s Amnesia Fortnight 2012 crowd-sourced game development event, Hack n Slash can now be played by the masses, albeit in a pre-finished state. Brandon Dillion, project lead on Hack ‘n’ Slash, was inspired as a child by Indiana Jones. “I still think there’s more romanticism in the occupation of “treasure hunter” than just about anything else,” Dillon states on his blog in March of 2014. But in Hack n Slash it’s not the strength of the arm swinging the sword, but the wits and creativity of the user.
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Your hero (green clad and pointed eared, of course), like so many, finds herself imprisoned in a land of turmoil, befriended by a quippy-tongued sprite (HEY!) and mysteriously connected to the villainous wizard who has corrupted the code of land. Unlike so many heroes your implements to save the land are not blades and spells, but hacks and reverse-engineering. A USB sword that hacks and changes the commands and stats of your exposed enemies and artifacts that peek into the layer that is usually unseen to the player are among your arsenal. But chief among the tools needed to succeed in Hack ‘n’ Slash is patience, clevermess and a willingness to play around with the actual code of the game.
Let’s be clear, Hack ‘n’ Slash does actually allows you to affect the game’s code in lieu of impaling or slashing. You change enemies factions or efficiency. You shift platforms, manipulate time and peer through walls using, well Dillion breaks it down like this in a response in the comments on the Hack ‘n’ Slash blog:
“To dive in a little deeper technically, we feed the bytecode through our decompiler that constructs a call graph…..”
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Let’s be clear, most readers will have no clue what any of this means. It also goes on into another full paragraph of explanation. But none of this is actually needed to be known, much less understood, to play the game. Mostly. If the game functions on reverse engineering its code to progress story, then the player must similarly adjust their mode of thought to process the puzzles laden throughout the game. I won’t lie. I frowned at the screen plenty of times. It was a frown that was generated from frustration. It was frown that said, “when I do this action that is not working in this game, it works in other games.” It felt good to utilize my repertoire of gamer-know how. Until that wasn’t enough. I needed to put my logic and <gulp> math brains on.
That’s not a bad thing. The increasing complexity of the puzzles made me appreciate the guts of the game and how the mind of a developer functions. But that didn’t help me solve a handful of puzzles. After a fair amount head scratching and forum lurking on Steam I was able to navigate through some particularly challenging puzzles. Most of the time I just needed to sit back and actually process the problem and remind myself that the puzzles ARE the game, not just a roadblock to the next screen. When I relaxed and let myself fail and crash the game (which is encouraged, at least it felt that way) it felt good. I looked forward to trying again and again.
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The bouncy rhythms or the soundtrack paired with the the style of the game further inscribes its mark upon the player. There is no question, your are in Double Fine country. I truly appreciate the spirit that rolls off of Double Fine games, but especially Hack ‘n’ Slash. I felt as if Tim Schafer and the Double Fine crew were sitting behind me in spirit saying, “oh come on, algorithms are fun. See!” I cannot deny having fun, though I am no “algorithmist.” I feel no shame in admitting that.
Hack ‘n’ Slash is available on Steam for early access. Additional puzzles and the final dungeon will be available upon the full release of the game.
http://www.hacknslashthegam...
Day 19 | Double Fine Productions
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
this looks soooo freaking amazing !
can't wait for the full release
I saw alittle bit of the play-through so i don't spoil the game too much for myself.
Perhaps its my expectation, i was expecting a psychonaut-ish 2d adventure,was kind of disappoint it isn't but still share some similarity in the setting.
The hacking concept & setting to solve puzzle is really interesting. Maybe its just the early stage, i thought the game mechanism is rather over-powering, to appoint that i think it makes the puzzles easy to solve.
am a fan of Double-fine games, will probably get it at some point. As its an early access game, i don't want to spoil the game for myself too much before its completed.
If you Folk's from Double Fine are reading this, Please complete "Grim Fandango Remastered" ASAP that will be Brilliant. And maybe also a Spiritual successor game to Psychonaut? :D
Hack 'n Slash. Doesn't get any simpler than that lol.
Looking good - Hack 'n Slash
First screens reminds me of old Zelda games haha This one is in my opinion the most intriguing of the 3 games of today. So original!
I'm interested in winning Hack ’n’ Slash