HACK LOVE BETRAY
"Everyone in The City is strung out on this."
What This Is
Vaporwave social engineering puzzle game. The City's addiction.
Strategic long-term consequences meet falling-block puzzles meet neon dystopia.
Strategic depth. Time pressure. Permanent consequences.
32 missions + endless mode. iOS and Android.
The Crisis Triangle
Three paths to victory. Each with tradeoffs. Choose your weapon:
🟢 HACK - Fast, aggressive, risky
- Brute force systems
- Burns COVER (stealth), gains ACCESS (technical capability)
- Pure HACK = GHOST combo (2x multiplier)
🩷 LOVE - Slow, safe, seductive
- Social engineering. Charm your way in.
- Builds COVER, slower intel gathering
- Pure LOVE = HEARTBREAKER combo (2x multiplier)
🔴 BETRAY - Maximum reward, permanent consequences
- Burn bridges for instant intel
- Scorches nodes forever - no going back
- Pure BETRAY = SCORCHED EARTH combo (3x multiplier)
Every choice locks in. Permanent.
Core Gameplay
Story Mode: 32 Missions
Board puzzle path tracing. 60-second timer per board. Connect nodes left to right.
The handlers:
- CARTER (CIA) - Building blackmail files. Might be an AI.
- RIVKA (Mossad) - Counter-intel. Running players against each other.
- VINNY (Mafia) - Information warfare for territory expansion.
- KAREN (PTA Mom) - Most dangerous. No oversight. Pure spite.
- SPIDER (Journalist) - Terminal illness. Building doomsday file.
- ALEX (Your Ex) - Stalking through proxy. Being played by everyone.
- RACHEL (Corporate) - Espionage-as-a-service shell corporation.
- DR. CHEN (Therapist) - Only handler who knows all handlers. Real power.
Mission flow:
- Choose handler
- Read briefing
- Solve board puzzle (path tracing)
- Manage resources (ACCESS, COVER, INTEL, HEAT)
- Complete under 60 seconds
- Face consequences
Progressive difficulty. Unlockable handlers and content.
Endless Mode
Tetris-style escalation. Rapid-fire decisions getting progressively faster.
- 10 seconds initially → 3 seconds at max pressure
- Timer decreases -0.3s per decision
- 3 lives. Timeout = lose life.
- Chase high scores. Build streaks.
Pure arcade mastery.
Board Puzzle Mechanics
Path Tracing: Connect nodes from left to right. Multiple solutions exist.
Node Types:
- HACK nodes (cyan) - Technical exploits
- LOVE nodes (pink) - Social engineering
- BETRAY nodes (purple) - Maximum intel, permanent burn
Resource Management:
- ACCESS - Technical capability for hacking
- COVER - Stealth for avoiding detection
- INTEL - Mission objective (collect to win)
- HEAT - Risk level (too high = mission failure)
Scorched Earth: BETRAY nodes burn permanently. Creates new pathfinding challenges in later missions. Forces adaptation.
Scoring System
Base: 100 points per decision
Time Bonus: Remaining seconds × 10
Speed Bonus: +100 if ≥7 seconds left
Streak Bonus: Current streak × 50
Combo Multipliers:
- GHOST (Pure HACK): 2x
- HEARTBREAKER (Pure LOVE): 2x
- SCORCHED EARTH (Pure BETRAY): 3x
- BALANCED (60%+ one type): 1.5x
Example: 10x streak, 8s left, SCORCHED EARTH combo = 100 + 80 + 100 + 500 = 780 × 3 = 2,340 points
The City
Locations:
- Sector 7 (neon everywhere)
- The Docks (questions you don't ask)
- Midtown Heights (everyone's lying)
- The Grid (underground clubs)
- Eastside (gentrified yesterday, burning today)
- Chinatown Annex (real noodles, fake IDs)
- Finance District (money laundering in suits)
- The Slant (refugee district, no jurisdiction)
Atmosphere: Police drones overhead. Standard Tuesday. Nobody makes eye contact. Everyone's lying about something. Doomed but still running.
The game is The City's metabolism.
Visual Identity
Vaporwave Arcade Perfection:
- Neon pink (#FF2E9A), cyan (#60A5FA), green (#39FF14)
- Vanishing point grid backgrounds (vector arcade style)
- CRT monitor effects (scanlines, chromatic aberration, screen burn-in)
- ASCII borders and terminal prompts
- Zero emojis - pure bracket aesthetic
Psychedelic Effects:
