Indie Alert: Hacker Vs. Hacker Makes That E3 Wait Momentless

Oh, what’s this? An Indie Alert coming out just as E3 begins it’s kickoff? How strange. Well what we have for you today will not only make that wait between press conferences (hint: check out our coverage of them here, here, and here.) go by in moments, but it’ll also pull your focus away from all that boring commercial game news. Tonight’s game is a browser title called Hacker Vs. Hacker, and it’s hitting the scene hard. Want to hear more? Read on and see!

Hacker Vs. Hacker is an Age Of Games online title developed by Foofa Studios, an Italian indie team that develops both for the web, and downloadable titles (Remember Fantasy Kommander? That’s them) and has been working with AoG for creating content in an indie-supportive environment. It is, at it’s core, a tower defense game featuring two competing hackers, with viruses sent down the ‘tubes and computer hardware-inspired defenses - apparently LED’s are the best way to defeat trogans; who knew? – making their stand against them. The twist? It’s a two-way fight. Not only do you have to defend against the rather tricksy AI’s attacks, but you also get to ram those very same viruses down the pipe at him in an attempt to fully infect his system before the same is done to yours. Even on the slowest gamespeed things can get hectic, which means that, by the time you hit the highest levels in the campaign, you’ll need an insane APB to play for a perfect score.

Now something that Hacker Vs. Hacker does have – and I know a lot of you will groan when you hear this – is a pair of gamemodes which are locked as per one’s AoG site registration. Verified users get access to the survival mode, while sponsors, AKA the ones who are willing to shell out a bit of green, get the unlimited mode. We’ve all seen flashgame paysites before, which means that most will assume AoG is just like the rest of them. It does, however, have a notable difference: it’s indie. Yes, that’s right, Age of Games is an indie focused game development and game sponsorship website which uses the collected funds to support developers who make large-scale browser based games, that doesn’t fall into the trap that MochieGames does with it’s overdone social aspects. AoG is made for the developer, rather than the user, and that, really, is what makes all the difference.

Hacker Vs. Hacker is, in many ways, one of their first products to make a splash large enough to be hitting the radar of the indie sites, and what it offers with it’s basing on Age of Games is a very tantalizing setup for indie developers. The game, is awesome, but really, it’s the potential behind it that’s really getting the attention. It’s a great way to burn an hour or two (or three. Or four) and get ready for Gagagadget’s E3 coverage. Make sure to check back often, because we’re going E3 all week long.