A game on cybersecurity where you play as the hacker
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As data becomes an increasingly valuable commodity, threats to security are more important than ever. To increase awareness, we wanted to make an educational but fun game about cyber attacks and recommended defenses. To generate unique descriptions and levels and to enable human-like interactions, we integrated Google's Gemini API into our project.
You play as a hacker who can use multiple Attack Cards of different types to extract data (and thus money) from your chosen victims. Victims have certain Defenses (cybersecurity measures) that protect them against certain Attacks. The player selects a victim and an attack. If the victim has the appropriate defense, the attack fails. Otherwise, the player is prompted to complete a small task to carry out the attack.
- Phishing attack: The player must write a phishing email to extort money from the victim. An AI determines if the phishing attempt was successful or not.
- Metadata attack: The player is given AI generated metadata belonging to a fictitious image, and must identify personal information.
- Person in the middle attack: An AI produces a sample text message from the victim intercepted by the player, and the player must decide if it reveals personal information.
- Fingerprinting attack: The player is presented with data on the victim's ad engagement, and must choose an ad category to target.
- Hack attack: The player gains access to the victim's device and installs malicious software. Each successful attack provides the player with a random amount of money, while unsuccessful attacks cause a loss of money. The game ends when all Attack Cards are exhausted.
Our initial plan was to create a full 2D playable version of the game, but due to time constraints, we had to split it into 2D Unity mockups and a terminal-based functional game.
Since our goal was to create a Unity project, our code is written in C#. We used Google's Gemini API for a variety of interactive elements, including generating unique character descriptions and responding to player input.
- Create playable 2D platformer game in Unity
- Enable attacks against organizations instead of just individuals, using different attack types eg. SQL Injection
- Add functionality to existing attacks to increase interactivity and engagement
- Refine code structure to make it more extensible
- Refine input functions and error handling to catch edge cases and provide better user experience
- Create additional levels with increasing difficulty
- Add a store where the player can use earned money to buy upgrades eg. stronger attacks, power ups (auto-detect best attack for chosen victim)