Finalizing The New Release

The new release of Hax is almost ready, with a lot of bugfixes, enhancements and a hacking campaign. Currently, my plan is to release it by the end of May.

I have been working hard on the new version for the last two months. Luckily, I have not been occupied so much by real life during this time, allowing me to work on Hax almost every day.

Most time was of course consumed by the campaign. As I already mentioned, it is a remake of the main campaign storyline of another hacking game that was abandoned 7 or 8 years ago. I had the storyline, the game installation, and the source codes. I spent most of the time rewriting the source code into Groovy scripts and configuring the data center. I had to create a simple mail system and a file transfer system. At some point, I decided that without domain names, the campaign is a no-go, so I implemented a simple application-based domain name system. I also needed some automatic testing of the campaign and individual servers, so I created a framework for testing data centers automatically (using JUnit).

But I also managed to look at some other aspects of Hax. I managed to fix some nasty bugs I found during development of the campaign, as well as to improve and enhance some aspects of the product along the way. I also took inspiration from the feedback I got in the discussion group. Finally, I decided to set up a page on this blog after the release for tracking the development plan and ToDo list so that everyone can see the plan, or even vote to prioritize some features.

Currently, I am still finalizing the campaign. The main storyline is already finished. However, the original game had some sidetracks along the way, which I decided to implement as well. That is what I am working on right now. I expect to be done by the end of this month, so that is when I am going to release the new version (if nothing unpredictable happens). So stay tuned, it is gonna be a great release.