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2016 looms as year of the computer hacker

Arts

A PC game where players fill the shoes of a real-life computer hacker is emerging as a game to watch in 2016.

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Hacknet is the brainchild of South Australian gamer Matt Trobbiani and was released in August 2015. It has since been downloaded more than 100,000 times on internet-based distribution platform Steam at $US10 apiece and has just been released for Mac and Linux operating systems.

It also made best 2015 games lists on numerous websites including Giant Bomb, Gizmodo and GameSpot.

Trobbiani said the United States and Russia had been the two biggest markets for the game, despite it only being currently available in English.

“We’d probably have sales in every country that Steam supports – even if it’s just one or two,” he said.

The University of Adelaide computer science graduate said he was still making minor changes to Hacknet to make the experience more seamless and was also working on a multi-player version.

Trobbiani said he got “incredibly lucky” with Hacknet, which he described as a “super modern, super realistic hacking simulation”.

The 25 year old said he was often asked if he had much experience as a hacker himself.

“My favourite answer to it is that I am not the amazing hacker that the game might make me seem but I never paid for printing at school.”

Key Contacts:

Matt Trobbiani

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