Project Introduction
Netspectre invites the player to experience life of a hacker in an original cyberpunk universe. The gameplay stands on three pillars, each allowing the player to appreciate a different aspect of this experience:1/ The heart of Netspectre lies in the metaphorical hacking, taking place through solving netsecurity-themed, procedurally-generated, tactical puzzles. This allows the players to feel like a hacker through feeling smart and resourceful as well as through evocative audiovisual aesthetics.
2/ Inbetween the hacking runs, the players use their resources to upgrade their hacking machine in order to keep up with the increasingly complex security mechanisms. This invites the player to feel like a hacker through interacting hands-on with the technology and hardware.
3/ The hypercapitalist nature of our world means that another important aspect of life for the player is navigating the social currents of their megacity, i.e. the various markets for contracts, components, and other opportunities. To this end, Netspectre incorporates short stories to contextualise the hacking gameplay within a wider narrative framework. This allows the player to experience being a cyberpunk hacker through their relationships to others and the world around them.
Netspectre is a roguelike designed for high-replayability, with a single playthrough taking 30-60 minutes. It is currently in pre-alpha: completely playable from start to finish, thoroughly playtested and iterated to achieve cool and innovative gameplay, and now looking for resources to work on its audiovisual presentation and to scale its narrative content.