In the years since the original Hackerjam took place, when Extensions were first released, the community has gotten better and better at exploring the mechanics of Hacknet, and telling stories with it's tools. After all this time, the quality of work that's come out of Hackerjam v2 is amazing. Since I've been busy with my new game (Wrestledunk Sports), I got some help from Hacknet community moderator Spiderbenb with judging.
Lets get straight to the results:
1st Place - Hacknet: Flagged
By Matrix, Tukib, Snacks, Hertz, and A Casual Guy
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122137415
Matt: Flagged leans hard into Hacknet's strengths, and really shines as an example of design, writing and style that all hit a really high level of quality. It doesn't stop at just being good though - it's clever use of mechanics and scripts is surprising and deeply satisfying. If you've been wanting a new DLC for Hacknet - this is basically it. You should play it.
Spider: The level of detail that was put into the mechanics was fascinating. It has it's own set of rules and will even punish you if you break those rules. Even though Flagged leaves you on a cliffhanger, I found myself asking when more will be added to it. It was very satisfying to play through, and very quick to pick up on.
2nd Place - Murder Room
By Kwiper
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2123621115
Matt: Kwiper comes out swinging again! This is a wildly creative extension, and invents completely new mechanics with the very limited scripting that Hacknet has available. It's so fresh and interesting, while still having great fundamentals. So impressive!
Spider: This extension does not hold your hand in what you need to do, but the detail that's in this extension alone is impressive. You have to solve murders by uploading clues to a server, and everything get's updated to include those clues. It's a fantastic extension with new mechanics to play around with and I hope more will come to it soon.
3rd Place - HeartBeat
By Samper and Soussou
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2121781568
Matt: More than any other extension on this list, HeartBeat made me feel the way that I wanted players to feel when I was designing the original game. While it has some small problems with difficulty, guidance, and progression for the player, nothing beats the sensation of trying to get just a tiny bit more information out of a loop before you have to reset, scratching down notes and passwords on a piece of paper. Really creative, and well designed, I highly recommend it.
We couldn't decide on just one third place though, as these two were both so good, so:
Also 3rd Place - Dans La Mer Du Son
By Taro
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2121723167
Spider: At it's very core, it's a Visual Novel. There's not very many of these on the workshop, but this one stood out amongst them all. If you enjoy reading as much as anyone else does, this one is for you. The writing is very well put together, with minimal errors. I can't wait to see if Taro will do more with this.
Matt: Both Dans La Mer Du Son and HeartBeat will receive the full 3rd place prize each.
Honorable Mentions
Hexa By Ohana
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2087641550
Spider: HEXA was created by Ohana, and was also the first extension I played through. It's a very basic Extension but provides you with a working Jukebox that you can utilize on a few missions. As well as a Hardmode if you feel like the first playthrough wasn't punishing enough. Still a good time though.
System Rift By Aqua
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2123630193
Matt: I thought it was going to be impossible to top Shirt Review, but Aqua's got the goods in serious extensions too. This was a really excellent entry, that got a bit unlucky not to place by going up against other entries like Flagged that were hard hitters too. It's a really interesting take on AIs and digital sentience, and has great mechanics to back it up!
Who We Are By EnderFriend284
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2098856966
Spider: Who We Are was made by EnderFriend284 and tells the story of you waking up in the year 2489 and finding an unknown entity in your systems. It's a very interesting idea on A.I. and gives it a nice twist that's fun to play through.
That's the list!
Spider: To everyone else who created an extension for HackerJam 2, you've all done an amazing job and you should be proud of yourselves. Good job everyone, and thank you for joining in for Hackerjam 2!
Matt: Amazing work everyone! It's so impressive to see what everyone came up with - the extensions are so exciting and inspiring to me, and I'm so grateful for what they add to the game. Thanks so much to everyone that entered, and congratulations to the winners! You're all amazing!