“I Know This” is a game I made for the Global Game Jam 2015 along with Gavin McCarthy (art, design), Adam Axbey (sound effects) and Matthew Simmonds (4mat) (music); I did programming and design. The name we chose for the team was Two’s Complement.

As seen on Kill Screen (who posted the first article on the game, thanks a million!), Polygon, Popular Mechanics, Rock Paper Shotgun and many more! We’re flabbergasted, and very grateful for how popular our silly jam game has gotten.

Downloads

Windows x86 (version 1.1) : iknowthis_win_v1.1.zip

Mac Universal (version 1.1) : iknowthis_mac_v1.1.zip

Linux Universal (version 1.1) : iknowthis_linux_v1.1.tar.gz

Soundtrack

4mat released the OST he made for I Know This on his Bandcamp, pay what you want!

I know this! (OST) by 4mat

Update Notes

v1.1 (2015-02-20)

Linux : Build now works! The Unity 5.0 beta version it was originally built with had issues with Linux, now built with RC2

Mac/Linux : Builds should be executable out of the zip or tarball without the need for chmod

Mac/Linux : File icons and names now display correctly, though they are not sniffed from the machine, it’s a pre-built list coming from mine

Mac : Hacking now affects percentages (yeah… I should’ve tested this a bit more thoroughly)

Fixed “magenta rectangle” overlay on Shader Model 2.0 or lower GPUs

Delete key works as well as backspace key to clear red characters

Tweaked Clicky interactions (6 honeypots instead of 5, the wrong text was triggered when finishing your first hack, mentions more clearly that red text needs to be removed)

Admin scan bar flashes and turns red when you’re running out of hacking time

Hacking timer now starts at 35 seconds (originally 30), and will get shorter or longer depending if you fail or succeed hacks (cheap adaptive difficulty!)

Added license file with credits and acknowledgements (released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike license)

Version 1.1 should clear all known bugs except for the seemingly rare “return does nothing” and the “redtext has HTML code in it” bugs which I can’t reproduce accurately at the moment. Let me know if there are new/other issues! And thanks for your patience.

http://theinstructionlimit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/1171251761978458112.mp4 Thanks to Jon Remedios for play-testing the game at the TGGJ!

Straight outta Isla Nublar

Remember that one scene in Jurassic Park? The one where Lex hacks the computer system in order to lock a door and protect everyone from the raptors, and exclaims…

That was basically the whole premise for our game.

When I saw the movie as a kid, that scene (and the file system UI that Lex “hacks”) always stuck with me as a quintessential faux-futuristic Hollywood representation of how computers work. I learned a bit later that this GUI was not made for the movie, but actually existed on SGI workstations and was ported to Linux as well, so it’s more legit than it looks! But in the end, it’s still a really great artifact of 90’s VR hopes and dreams, in which everything is better in 3D, even file browsers. (and Web browsers, too)

The Game

It starts with the same basic premise as the scene in the movie : you have to find a file. To make it more interesting than your average hidden object game, you need to hack specific Search Nodes (purple files) which, upon successful hacking, will help you narrow down which potential Golden Folder contains what you’re looking for. Don’t pick the wrong one though, all the other ones are full of viruses and bad stuff!

Fun fact : the filenames you’ll see in the game are lifted from your hard drive, and 8.3ified for formatting and retro-chic reasons!

Hacking involves mashing your keyboard until code appears, and hitting the return key where the line endings are, just like in real life. The hacking minigame was heavily inspired by hackertyper.net, a fantastic way to feel like you’re real good at making up C code on the fly. However, we gamified it (oh, the horror) by not letting you go further than line endings, and adding a timer.

As you hack (or fail to hack) search nodes, sentinels will spawn and start looking for you. If they catch you, they warp you back at the root folder. Not a huge punishment, but enough to make you at least a little careful.

And then there’s Clicky, your favourite Office Assistant ripoff. He means well, but he sometimes gets in the way… and hides a dark secret. :o

Closing Thoughts

I don’t know that the game really qualifies as a jam game, because I worked for many evenings after the jam to smooth out the rough edges, make better Clicky interactions, fix the endings and other various bugs. The party version of the game was without music, I asked 4mat to produce something for us after the fact, and we were so so so lucky to have him contribute the lovely tunes you can hear in the game.

This was also my first experience with Unity 5, but I barely touched what it can accomplish. I’d say that the Audio engine is really nice, ducking was painless to implement… and the new UI stuff (even if it’s 4.6 and not 5) was a joy to use compared to the old GUI system.

And Gavin is the best! First time jamming with him, and it was a great match of design sensibilities, work-mindedness and just plain fun. <3