I've been thinking about hacking minigames lately. Would it be possible to make a game in which the hacking was a major draw of the game, instead of simply a tedious roadblock that must be overcome from time to time? As a programmer, I'm familiar with the ecstatic, euphoric feeling you can get from solving a programming puzzle... some of the best of which I've gotten from reading and editing the assembly code of a running executable. In fact, it's quite similar to the rush you get- that "aha!" feeling- from solving a difficult puzzle in an adventure or puzzle game.
Many hacking minigames are quite simple. They're often similar to existing games like Pipe Dreams (Bioshock, Alien Swarm), Frogger (Mass Effect), Concentration (Mass Effect 2), or Mastermind (Fallout 3). Some games like System Shock 2 use simple but previously unseen game mechanics. In many of these games, hacking is not a primary focus so it's understandable that the game developers didn't want to force players to spend a lot of their time learning a complex game.
A few games, on the other hand, seem perfectly suited to having a primary focus on hacking. The universe of Shadowrun is fantasy cyberpunk, and ostensibly a third of any game set in that universe should be set within cyberspace or activities related to hacking (the remaining two thirds would be related to magic and mundane combat). Would it be possible to move beyond simplistic minigames towards a deep, satisfying hacking sub-game? Could a hacking minigame be good enough to produce that satisfied feeling of accomplishment?
Many hacking minigames are quite simple. They're often similar to existing games like Pipe Dreams (Bioshock, Alien Swarm), Frogger (Mass Effect), Concentration (Mass Effect 2), or Mastermind (Fallout 3). Some games like System Shock 2 use simple but previously unseen game mechanics. In many of these games, hacking is not a primary focus so it's understandable that the game developers didn't want to force players to spend a lot of their time learning a complex game.
A few games, on the other hand, seem perfectly suited to having a primary focus on hacking. The universe of Shadowrun is fantasy cyberpunk, and ostensibly a third of any game set in that universe should be set within cyberspace or activities related to hacking (the remaining two thirds would be related to magic and mundane combat). Would it be possible to move beyond simplistic minigames towards a deep, satisfying hacking sub-game? Could a hacking minigame be good enough to produce that satisfied feeling of accomplishment?
