Hack ‘n’ Slash took the puzzle-programming subgenre additional than most of its friends by letting you edit precise LUA scripts in-game. By doing so you possibly can improve your Link-like character’s motion pace, change the behaviour of enemies, or – within the case of a puzzle that has taken 8 years to crack – uncover secret rooms.
Not lengthy after Hack ‘n’ Slash launched in 2014, gamers discovered a selected file amongst its scripts referred to as SecretRoom.lua. This specific file was encrypted and will solely be unlocked with a decryption key, which nobody may work out.
The reply was discovered this week by Glenn “Netrix” Anderson, after a tiny hint offered by the designer of the puzzle, Brandon Dillon. After discovering the answer, Anderson, who can also be a programmer within the video game business, tweeted that, “It was actually cool to participate on this expertise. The extremely proficient group that made Hack ‘n’ Slash a actuality has been an inspiration to me as a programmer and game developer.”
By fixing the puzzle, Anderson collects a $100 bounty positioned on the puzzle by one other participant in 2021.
I’ve been avoiding spoiling the answer or the contents of the key room, however Guillaume Fortin-Debigaré, a software program analyst who has additionally labored within the games business, has broken down the solution if you want to do it yourself. Once you get into the key room, you will discover “a particular message from Brandon Dillon to the participant earlier than triggering the game’s win state. Using graphics not usually proven elsewhere within the game, Brandon explains the game’s backstory, the lacking Act 1, and a few extra insights into the folks that made the game potential.”
It’s all the time enjoyable when a group remains to be exploring and uncovering new issues in a game years after launch, significantly when, as in Hack ‘n’ Slash’s case, the game is comparatively obscure. It’s no shock that this considerably daunting puzzle game about programming is interesting to so {many professional} programmers, although.