Greetings, operatives!

Development of “Untrusted: Hackers at Large” is going well and it is likely that the release date will be Q1 or Q2 2026. Wohoo! We have a – tentative – date!

So, without spoilers, how are things going? Lets take a brief look at what’s been cooking.

Campaign and game content

The game internal build is, more or less, playable from start to finish. All chapters have been written, although content is still being worked on regularly (balancing, new quests, etc) and while it is not final – not at all – it feels good to have most of the building blocks in place.

Assets (comics from the very talented Gustavo are still coming in, so are the Icons from Sketch studio, as well as other additional UI components), but most of them have been completed.

Likewise, the OST is almost completed (and I’m in awe of the musicians who have made this original sound track). If “Untrusted: Hackers at Large” is even half as good as its OST, I’ll be happy!

On track with the development, I’m planning to start an internal test to further check that the game is fun, while still providing a good challenge! A busy autumn is coming!

User experience improvements

The feedback from the steam demo (and the updated version shown at NG25) has been invaluable.

The most requested feature? Disabling the CRT effect 🙁 (which is now an in-game option)

However, many more UI improvements have been implemented. Visual cues, interaction improvements (e.g. click a word to copy to clipboard,), improved user interfaces (eg. with a button to automatically fill the login screen) etc. are too many to list, but many of these came directly from you: thank you!

Some are subtle, some are more “in your face” but I’m sure more people will find the user experience a lot better. I can’t really get away with a development update without at least a teaser screenshot, so here’s one, albeit it doesn’t really show much, does it? 🙂

Localization

Localization still hasn’t been completed, in fact, it’s the less complete part. This unfortunately requires the game content (quest, events, dialogue) to be completed first. Which is why the Steam demo hasn’t been updated in ages: the NG25 demo in fact, was English only. Localization is indeed still planned though!

New Demo on Steam: when?

Tentatively, the updated demo on Steam will be up before the end of 2025, depending on when the localization is completed. Make sure to join the discord to be notified!

Untrusted @ Nordic Game conference!

As mentioned above, in May I had the pleasure to introduce the world of Untrusted to a new audience, at the Nordic Game conference 2025 in Malmö, Sweden.

Lots of new faces had the chance to try the latest demo build, which provided me with a lot of extremely useful feedback (with the added bonus of also getting few new players for the original Untrusted 🙂 )

Here’s a photo of the untrusted booth!

Why this short update? You haven’t shown anything!

I tried to do some video devlogs during the development, but I’m really slow (and not very good) at making them. Given the – little – time I have, I’m concentrating on making the actual game.

As much as I’d loved to make another devlog video, that would have set me back by another month at the very least, I’m really gaining speed in development, and I want Hackers at Large to be as polished as I can for release.

I’ll try to make more of these short development logs here to at least keep you more in the loop!

That’s it for this devlog!

* logs off abruptly *

“Untrusted: Hackers at Large” is taking part in the October 2024 Steam Next Fest! If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the free demo – make sure to wishlist it and tell your friends about it if you like it! The demo will be playable at least until the end of the month, probably more.

As an additional note, the Season 9 started a few weeks ago and from today until the end of November, the ingame fall into terror event is live!

Season 7 has been the most balanced game season yet, and for this reason, we’re not going to see many changes. Unless these minor changes are breakind and will bring some boring/stale meta, it’s unlikely that the following seasons will see major changes as well.

You can read the patch details here:

The main difference is that, unfortunately, the ChatGPT-powered bots will be disabled on November 1st, 2023 after Valve explicitly requested their removal.

If you are not familiar with Untrusted or why they are a “big-deal” for our small community, you can see a short video here about them:

Wait, what happened?

It’s no secret it’s often hard to get enough players to kick-off a lobby, and once a game is going it’s a lot easier to get people in, so having LLM-powered bots certainly made it nicer to cut waiting times a little bit.

Some of you may have noticed that after the chat-gpt powered bots were released on untrusted, I had started improving them a little bit, as part of my maintenance effort of Untrusted, and then the updates suddenly stopped.

Long story short, after an initial inquiry, I’ve been asked by Valve via their official ticketing support system to remove chatGPT from Untrusted or it would get pulled off Steam. This happened on September 18th. Since then, I’ve asked multiple times if I was allowed to share the exact wording they used (please remember that Steamworks developers have to abide to an NDA) but haven’t gotten a reply yet.

Until that happens (if that happens), I can just only say that the issue here is with their policy, point 5 that states that you should not publish content you don’t own or have adequate rights to.

Generative-AI is changing the landscape and it’s understandable their lawyers are taking the safe route.

Even if the ChatGPT bot is running on servers owned by myself and ChatGPT is never called directly by the users, which I believe is an important distinction (and valve has been made aware of this fact), the request still was made.

In my personal and biased opinion, going against all generative-AI made content with a blanket ban is not the right solution. I don’t think openai is breaking copyright (which I really doubt, but I’m sure we’re going to discover that in the upcoming months or years) and I don’t blame Valve for going the safe route, but I would have appreciated a faster back and forth in the ticketing system in the absence of a clear policy, if anything.

So what now?

I had two choices at this point:

Choice A: split the web and steam community, and keep the bots only for web players, breaking cross-compatibility (As a reminder, you can play for free on itch or kongregate, but the Steam version gives you a little bit more goodies and is overall a better experience)

Choice B: turn off the bots.

From now on…

I’m turning off the bots on November 1st, and hopefully Valve will set a clearer, more permissive, policy on generative AI which will allow me to turn the bots back on. Though to be honest, this experience entirely put me off the development of bots for untrusted.

I’d like to point out that Valve hasn’t set a hard cutoff date, but asked generally what my plans were. I’ve shared those with them, and I’m going through with those.

Goodbye alpha, beta gamma and delta. It was fun while it lasted.

Good news everyone!

Today I am very happy to officially present to you the teaser of “Untrusted: Hackers at large”, the single-player prequel to “Untrusted”.

Hackers at large

I am still very far from a playable build (I think I’ll need at least a couple of years before there is something playable by the public!) but as you can see, development is progressing. Slowly, but it is progressing.

So without further ado, here’s the teaser!

—

I’ll also try to (more or less) regularly give an update on the development: you can find the first development log video here:

Make sure to wishlist Untrusted: hackers at large on Steam!

Season 8 Announcement

We are also getting close to Untrusted’s Season 8. Season 8 won’t bring a major update (some of you have asked for new classes, but at this stage there’s very little room for adding new classes without making the game excruciatingly complicated (than it is already). There’s maybe the place for one more class but it’s not coming for Season 8, although there are some new changes that should shaken up the meta significantly.

I don’t have a proper ETA at this time, but I hope Season 8 will start around mid/late October 2023.

In the meantime, we’re doing a community event that will bring some new avatars for Season 8’s launch!

Community Avatar Event

This event, inspired by a #feedback request in the Discord Server by theagainmen (but in fairness, many other had suggested something similar, so here’s a thank you to everyone who shares their opinion!) aims to create some new interesting avatars for the next season, this time, with the help of the community.

It’s the first edition of this event, and if it goes well, we’ll be doing it regularly, eventually with changes on the method.

Here’s how it works!

• Signups will open for a certain day/time
• The first 16 (though more can signup and be considered as replacements) players will then join a private lobby at a specified date and time.
• You’ll play a game normally, and at the end, those who played, will vote the MVP (again, in the discord)
• The MVP will then be able to suggest the design, name and description (that will need approval) of a new Avatar that will be purchasable during Season 8.
• You’re allowed ONE of these games only, per event, unless you died or got arrested <= N2 (disconnections do not count, as people will use that to circumvent this problem in case they don't like their role. Sorry.). Players who died <= N2, can sign up to the next game if they want to.

We’ll try to do more of these games, depending on how many people are interested and how easy it is to handle such signups/game schedules.

Good news everyone!

Season 7 starts today!

This patch includes five new skills for a much more deep and interesting play, allowing new strategies and increasing the claimspace of many classes with five new skills (one of which passive) and many significant gameplay changes: many classes have been re-balanced according to the data and feedback collected during Season 6.

So without further ado, lets see the full changelog below! See you in an OPSEC soon!

Untrusted – v1.170 – Changelog

All “Famed Operatives” are on sale for one last chance during season 7!

New Features

+ New skill “Covert Support” : if doxxed, your target will be shown as NETSEC tonight.
+ New passive skill “CQC expert”: disorganized murder attempts are less likely to succeed against you.
+ New Skill “Arrest Recording” : gain 1 article if your target is arrested tonight.
+ New Skill “Relay Connection” : prevents ISP and Jamming on target player this turn.
+ New Skill “Critical Thinking”: Each failed hack grants you a use of this skill. Permanently improve your hacking chance.
+ New Consumable “Die of Frustration” : decreases the chance of getting the starting role you spawned as during the last OPSEC.

Balance changes

+ “Agent Leader” and “Investigative Mole” gain “Covert Support”.
+ “Loose Cannon”, “Bounty Hunter” and “Field Agent” gain “CQC Expert”
+ “Journalist” gains “Arrest Recording”
+ “Network Specialist” gains “Relay Connection”
+ “Blackhat” gains “Critical Thinking”
+ “Denial of Service” no longer sends a notification to all players. Only players that connected to the dossed node on that day will be notified.
+ “Planned Raid” now allows to specify the night of arrest within the next 3 nights.
+ “Obtain Evidence” no longer occupies the target.
+ “Looking for an Old Friend” *signficantly* increases the murder chance for “Resentful Criminal” if the Operation Leader has been found.
+ “Wake up call” is now a passive skill, RNG dependent and triggered automatically. The higher the *death* count, the higher the chance a SK will turn PB.
+ “Dumpster Dive” minimum debuff increased
+ “Keylogger Honeypot” reduced by 1 charge
+ “Wire Shark” cooldown lowered by 24h
+ “Upload Intel” spawn list rebalanced.
+ “Rival Hacker” gains “Setup”
+ “Resentful Criminal” gains “Move Hideout”
+ “Double Crosser” loses “Review connection logs”
+ “Script Kiddie Attack” now has unlimited charges.
+ “Ask The Right Question” now occupies the target and no longer tells if a player has the “Hack” skill: instead, it now tells the amount of successfully hacked nodes by that player.
+ “Analyst” loses “Midnight Meeting”
+ “Analyst” gains “Review Connection Logs”
+ “Investigative Mole” loses “Follow”
+ “Investigative Mole” gains “Midnight Meeting”
+ “Forensics Specialist” loses “Midnight Meeting”
+ “Offensive Mole” loses “Midnight Meeting”
+ “Blackhat” loses “midnight meeting”
+ “Blackhat” hacking chance lowered from “Very High” to “High”
+ “Blackhat” gains “Move Hideout”
+ Spawn lists rebalanced
+ Mutator Boxes now have a 25% chance of failing. Price adjusted to mutator boxes
+ Salty Meat, Soda and Service Pistol price adjusted
+ The success rate of consumables that alter spawn rate have been slightly rebalanced

Client-Side changes

+ Fixed a bug where the Forensics Specialist would be shown as their undercover role in the summary screen
+ Fixed (?) rendering issues with 2560×1440 resolution
+ Miscellaneous minor bugfixes/improvements

Server-Side Changes

+ Fixed a bug where the Agent Leader would not be prevented from using “Hack” on the target node
+ Fixed a rare bug in processing “Planned Raid” incorrectly under certain conditions
+ Miscellaneous minor bugfixes/improvements

Join your fellow operatives for a week of extra XP and coins during the Steam Mistery Fest 2023!

Extra XP and coins

During the whole week of the Steam Mistery Fest, all players will gain extra coins and xp. Neat!

Streaming bonus

Are you planning on streaming Untrusted during the Steam Mistery Fest? If so please reach out to root@playuntrusted.com for an exclusive avatar and some redeemable codes for in-game currency you can share with your viewers!

Join the official Discord: http://discord.playuntrusted.com

Good news, everyone!

With this patch, the summer 4-weeks long event, “Murderous Summer” begins!

One or two random players per OPSEC will obtain, during a non-specified night a new skill, called “Murderous Night”. This skill can be selected normally and will be listed as usual in the skill panel (some classes may lose temporarily one of their skill to make room for this one).

When selected, this UI will show up:

You can then select a proper weapon and a target: if you correctly deduce the target operative class type (based on the weapon selected – read the description of each weapon by clicking on it) that operative will die that night. Note that it is still possible to prevent you from doing your nightly action, and the target operative can use protection skills to thwart your murder attempt.

If you are successful, you will gain 4 event points. If you are not successful, your target will instead gain 4 event points.

Can you unlock the new 7 avatars and the new 5 badges before the event ends? good luck!

Below, the full changelog:

Untrusted – v1.151 – Changelog

New Features

+ The ” Murderous Summer 2022 Event” is live! The event will stay live for the next 4 weeks, ending on August 14th, 2022.
+ 5 new badges that can be obtained only during this event.
+ 7 new avatars that can be unlocked by obtaining event points during this event. You may obtain additional event points by purchasing the July Supporter Pack and by equipping the “Weird Pouch” consumble.

Balance Changes

+ ACTIVE DURING MURDEROUS SUMMER EVENT ONLY: During each OPSEC, some players may receive, for one night only, the “Murderous Night” skill. When activated, you can pick a target and a weapon. Each weapon is “linked” to the murder of a specific class type. Correctly deducing the class type of your target, will result in the target getting murdered and you obtaining Event Points. The target can still use protection skills as usual. Escaping a murder attempt from this skill (or if the class type has not been deduced correctly) will instead grant Event Points to the target. All extra event points will be converted into profile experience at the end of the event. This skill visits the target, but does not occupy them.

Client Side Changes

+ Minor miscellaneous fixes

Known Issues

+ Opening the game log from the in-game link may leave untrusted as “running” on steam

Good news everyone!

Season 5 starts today – there will be an upcoming loot event on the second half of July which will last two weeks, with exclusive content and badges!

Without further ado, lets see the changelog for patch 1.150:

Untrusted – v1.150 – Changelog

New Features

+ Season 5 is live! No new class this time, but some important changes! Please make sure to leave your feedback in #suggestions so that adjustments can be made if necessary!
+ Added the “Famed Operatives Series 3” avatars! They can be purchased in the identities browser from now until the beginning of the July event, which will start on [REDACTED]th of July 2022!

Balance Changes

+ “Resentful Criminal” gains the “Insurance” passive skill when “Looking for an old friend” is successfully used on the Operation Leader.
+ “Sociopath” gains “Unskilled Attack”
+ “Sociopath” maintains the “Unstable Mind” passive after becoming Operation Leader
+ “Forensics Specialist” spawn chance rebalanced
+ “Forensics Specialist” passive skill “Ambitious AGENT” will now trigger after the original AL and FA are out of play
+ “Computer Forensics Background” now includes “Impersonate” in the pool of possible skills that can spawn
+ “AGENT Training” now includes “Misdirection” in the pool of possible skills that can spawn
+ “Spearphishing Execution” is now more effective
+ “Exploit vulnerability” chance to fail has been significantly lowered
+ “Unsecured Device” chance to spawn as “X is not role” significantly lowered
+ “Hack” base chance minor rebalance

Client Side Changes

+ Added scrollbar to log panels (both personal and other players). Be aware that pushing “down” the log over the line limit with the ‘ENTER’ key in your logs will truncate the logs that are pushed “below” the limit.
+ Improved Streamer Mode
+ Miscellaneous minor improvements

Server Side Changes

+ Fixed a bug that would expose a mole in the game events, when an enforcer protecting someone was arrested by a sting operation while simultaneously getting dealed.
+ Fixed a bug that would make the target of “Setup” visit themself when paired with “Throw Under the Bus”.
+ Miscellaneous minor improvements

Known Issues

+ Opening the game log from the in-game link may leave untrusted as “running” on steam

Good news, operatives!

Patch 1.149 is out – while this is a minor patch, there are some additional considerations and an announcement – just right after the patch notes!

Untrusted – v1.149 – Changelog

New Features

+ Added June supporter token, available from purchase from June 1st.

Client Side Changes

+ The log generator will show the UI in the user-selected language, but will append text in the lobby-selected language.
+ Added”CTRL+S” shortcut from the personal log window, which will save, send and close your log.
+ Added”CTRL+L” shortcut which will toggle the personal log (open or save and close)
+ Miscellaneous minor improvements

Server Side Changes

+ Players who reach L16 will get a permanent coin boost after a game. Experience will still accumulate for bragging rights even after reaching L16.

Known Issues

+ Opening the game log from the in-game link may leave Untrusted as “running” on steam

And for the announcement, please check this page!