Research and Tier 2 NPCs

Hey all, A lot has happened, and I'd like to show you the next iteration of Hackero and what comes next. Since the launch two months ago the game has received a lot of bug fixes thanks to your help! Non-working missions were identified and you provided a

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Public Release Date Announcement

Hey everyone, This is the update many of you have been waiting for: I’m finally ready to announce the release date for the first public release of Hackero Next! I began working on Hackero Next back in May 2024. What started as a major backend rewrite for Hackero Classic—

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Adding Content and a Batch of Small Bugfixes

Hey everyone! Summer’s over, and I’m finally back to working on Hackero and its already 4 months since the last post?? 🤨 Over the past few months, I’ve been juggling a lot — other projects, life, and everything in between — so Hackero had to take a short break. Progress

Breathing Life into Next

Hey all! Welcome to the next monthly update on Hackero Next and what I’ve been working on. In the last post, I talked about new mission types, the concept of detection, and the road to the first release. Since then, I’ve not extended the detection system further—nor

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Detection vs Logging and the road to first public release

Hey all! It’s been a while—about a month and a half since the last update—so I wanted to share the progress I’ve made over the past few weeks. I also took a short holiday, which was much-needed and helped me recharge a bit. But before I

Progress Update & Mission System Preview

Hey all, I've been a lot at work on Hackero Next, and I want to give you a detailed look at what's coming in the next version. The next version of Hackero will be made public once the mission system is complete. While it's

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Moving to Dedicated Infrastructure

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a major infrastructure upgrade for Hackero.io. If you’ve noticed that the game runs faster and smoother, that's because I’ve moved everything from the old VPS at Contabo to a much more powerful dedicated root server

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Hello 2025

Happy New Year, everyone! 🎉 This is the first update in the new year, and it may not bring as many exciting news regarding the game, but I think its time to give an update. Improved Vulnerability Scanning I already talked about the feedback regarding the vulnerability scanning logic. From what

Hackero's Storytelling Engine

Hey all, Hackero Next is moving forward! The first batch of keys is out, and the feedback on the hacking mechanics has been super helpful. Some players have found it tricky to figure out what the analyzers (described in the last post) are actually useful for, so I’m working

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Diving Deeper into Hacking [2]: Scanning for Vulnerabilities

Hey, hackers! It’s time for the next update, and I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on. In my last post, I already gave a preview on the topic this blog post will talk about: how to identify vulnerabilities in your target systems. Today, I’m

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Diving Deeper into Hacking: Exploring Vulnerabilities and Exploits in Hackero Next

Hey all! It’s time to give you an inside look at what hacking in Next looks like. While Hackero Next isn't quite feature-complete just yet with classic, some of the features I've implemented are already deeper and in my opinion more exciting than in the

Hackero Next

Filesystem Permissions

As mentioned in previous posts, Hackero now includes support for filesystem permissions. In this post, I’ll provide a brief explanation of how these permissions work and what they are used for. Understanding Permissions Permissions are closely tied to system users, which are discussed in detail here Each directory can

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Hackero NEXT

Hey everyone, It's been over a year since the last update on the development status of Hackero. Many of you have been asking if this project is dead, and I can assure you it's not. I’m still working on it. Due to personal reasons, I

Hackero Next

Server Users

With the new architecture, one of the first mechanics I’d like to showcase is server accounts. Originally, servers only had one user you could log in as (root). This provided full access to the entire filesystem, process management, and more. This will change in the next release. The new

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Hackero Next - Technical Decisions

In this blog post, I’d like to explain some of the decisions that led to the development of Hackero Next. If you’re not a techie, feel free to skip this. When I started Hackero in 2019, I based it on an existing backend framework called Feathers.js. Feathers.

There is something on the horizon

Hey all! Its already way too much time since the last update in December and I'd like to update you on the current progress. The players in the closed alpha were busy reporting bugs and problems and I was writing tests for the game and it feels like

It is already december (#15)

Next RELEASE is on Wednesday 28th of December 7PM CET Hey all, the year soon comes to an end and it is already December so it is time for an update. This year was a year that came with a lot of changes for me. The biggest of all is

It's been a while (#14)

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while since I've given an update about the project. I've also seen that in the discord there have been some rumors about what's happening and complaints about it being so quiet. First of all, hackero

[UPDATE: RELEASE DATE] Folders, Files and Archives (#13)

— UPDATE — The next update will be released on Wednesday 23.11.2021 - 7 PM CET It is time to announce the next big change coming to hackero! I normally try to give monthly updates to give you an insight into what progress I'm making. This time it

The next release! (#12)

It is time to announce the next release! I've continued work on things that were suggested by the community. Since I've reworked the desktops I felt it was time to as well touch applications which pretty much stayed the same since the beginning. Improved Passsafe First

Reworked Desktops & Secondary Servers (#11)

It's been a while since the last update. Real Live kicked in and I had a really important project deadline at work and have been on holiday. Therefore I nearly had to pause with working on hackero.io but I've got more free time lately. I&

Improved Backend - Extended (#10.2)

In this update, I'd like to talk a little bit more about the new backend. First of all, I've managed to migrate the majority of the backend to the new infrastructure. All these lockdowns also have something good about them ;) All gameplay-related code the user interacts

Improved Backend (#10)

The last update is just a few weeks ago but it's already time for more information about the next update. To make it short, I've finished migrating the first parts of the backend to the improved backend systems and get it somewhat stable. It is a

Easter Update (#9)

It has been quiet for the last few weeks so I feel like it is time for another short update on the current progress As many of you know I'm working on hackero in my free time. Unluckily I've had a lot of things to do

Research and more update (#8)

About a month ago I've written the last blog post about changes. It's now time for another update. I've put a lot of work into the next update as it revamps a core aspect of the gameplay, software and NPCs, and other systems that