Zero-Day Syndicate
Run a hacker crew. Hire the talent, build the exploits, keep the heat off.
Zero-Day Syndicate is a management sim about the business of breaking in. From an isometric office you hire and train staff, develop custom exploits and frameworks, and run breaches, heists and botnets against real targets. The money has to be laundered, the heat has to be managed, and clout opens doors that cash never will. The operation grows through three technology eras โ Web 2.0, crypto, then AI and quantum โ and a prestige system carries what you learned into the next run.
Get it on Google PlayScreenshots //
Dev log //
The most heavily tested thing in the portfolio, and the log shows it: 144 entries, a green gate re-run at 177 tests, and eight release candidates before anything reached a public track. The numbered task codes (A1, A7, A9, C3.1) come from a working checklist kept alongside the repo, so the history is unusually legible about what was deliberate and what was a fix. Two entries are the good kind of embarrassing. RC7 exists only because RC6 predates a fix for nine strings that rendered a literal %% to the player, an escaped-percent bug that survived until someone read the UI carefully. And RC5 exists because the game loop kept running while the app was backgrounded, which is the sort of thing you only catch by putting the phone down mid-session.
- Update release log, TODO, and worklog; add fable docs
- RC8: versionCode 5 -- RC7 predates the escaped-percent fix
- Fix nine strings that rendered a literal %% to the player, and guard it
- RC7: versionCode 4 -- RC6 predates A9
- A9: nothing camps on the office any more
- RELEASE_LOG: RC6 row -- versionCode 3, all checks green
- RC6: versionCode 3 (codes 1 and 2 are spent on Play)
- A8.2.b: make the eight tutorial tips re-readable
- A7: tell the player when something worked
- PLAYTEST: first human pacing number -- row 1.1 confirmed at 64s
- RELEASE_LOG: record RC5's commit SHA
- Stop the game loop when the app is backgrounded (RC5, versionCode 2)
- RC4: the build that went to Play, and Track C on record
- Delete the credits screen; add the 512x512 store icon (C3.1)
- A2: RC3 built and verified -- there is a valid release baseline again
- A6: green gate re-run -- 177 tests, lint zero errors
- A1.3c: the last two generated messages -- offline earnings, exploit patched
- A1.3c: batch 4 -- the engine's own generated messages
- A1.3c: batch 3 -- world events, heists, the Fixer, freelance
- A1.3c: batch 2 -- tutorial tips and achievements
- A1.3c: id-keyed content, batch 1 -- the breach loop
- A1.3b: the last two persisted strings -- generated prose
- C3.2: feature graphic approved -- terminal concept
- C8 final: ship Japanese unreviewed as a recorded risk
- A1.5: ko/ja menu screens verified; Settings had no scroller
- A3 verified on an emulator -- and the code fix alone was not enough
- A1.6: final store listing copy in en, ko and ja
- A1.4: ko and ja complete -- 593/593 keys in both locales
- A1.4 (2/N): menu tree, tutorial, AdvancedTech; guard the crypto glyph
- A1.4 (1/N): start ko and ja; add a translation checker
- A1.3b: add target ids to breach results and backdoors
- A1.3b: fix the counter-op landmine and re-key freelance by id
- A1.3a COMPLETE: the property-carrying enums
- A1.2 COMPLETE: all 25 ui/ files externalized
- A1.2 (11/N): SafehouseUI, AuctionUI, FixerUI
- A1.2: make the stock position line a plural; pin PluralsCandidate at 3
- A1.2: record accurate remaining scope (114 genuine literals, 7 files)
- A1.2 (10/N): PrestigeShopUI and StoreAndHireUI
- A1.2 (9/N): StockMarketUI, HeistBoardUI, AutomationUI
- A1.2 (8/N): MainGameScreen complete; found a localization landmine
Showing the 40 most recent of 131 logged changes.
Every line above is a real commit from this app's repository, on the date it was made. Build chores and merge commits are filtered out.