Binary Boy!

Summary:

Binary boy’s computer has been infected by a hacker! In order to save his data the user must help Binary Boy to stop the attack and find the hacker who has infected him. Along the way Binary boy must make use of multiple information security and cryptographic tools and techniques to take back his computer and reveal the hacker.

Theme/Genre

Binary boy is a story based game that follows a series of mini games each teaching an unique cybersecurity topic. The game follows an overarching plot that outlines how a cyber attack may take place. This game takes place on Binary Boys computer, and each level takes the user to a new part of the computer. Thwarting the attack introduced in each game leads the user to more clues on how to stop the hacker.

Audience

The target audience of the game is elementary and middle school students. The game’s objective it to familiarize the player with cyber security terms and techniques without going into too many details. However, the difficulty of each challenge and the dialog can easily be scaled to a high school level.

Game Flow Summary

The user begins inside his home computer when he notices he is under attack. Binary boy’s first task is to take down the adware viruses using his binary blaster. After completing this, he continues on an adventure, learning about cryptography and cyber security, and . Subsequent levels continue to cover various security attacks and protective measures.

Educational Design

Learning Objectives

The goal of the game is to introduce the user to a variety of cyber security terms and techniques. While there is no code involved, each mini games provides a unique perspective into a computer’s security structure and simulates how each attack might take place. Throughout the game the player is introduced to adware, unsecure connections, DDoS attacks, phishing, SQL injection, and ransomware.

Puzzle/Challenge Structure

The game is segregated into mini-levels, each levels content and gameplay difficulty progresses as the games continues.

Play Flow

Each mini level contains a unique type of game play, include first person shooter, drag and drop, speed typing and strategy. The user is guided through each level until and prompted with instruction upon the start of a new level.

Storyline

Setting

The game takes place inside of Binary Boy’s computer on the world wide web! The character is able to navigate all throughout his computer and can even travel to neighboring servers by surfing the web. The user will face challenges in the file system, motherboard, and at the router level.

Characters

The game follows the adventures of Binary Boy. This is the play who the user controls through the game. Along the way the user will face a narrator and various enemies but no other primary characters.

Visuals

Binary Boy was developed using GameMaker Studio (Game Maker Language). The player’s avatar is created using sprite sheets and other 2D graphics.

Challenges

We only had free trial versions of GameMaker, which made development difficult. It was also hard to finish all of the content on time, as there are a lot of levels.

What we learned

2 of us had never used GameMaker before, so we spent a lot of time learning the software and IDE. Additionally, we learned how to plan out individual levels of a story game and relate them to educating young students.

Future Extension

There are many additions that can be made to this game prototype. For example space was left for a level simulating breaking through a user authentication protocol into the hackers desktop. There would also be efforts made to streamline the user interface and to add audio to the game. For the DDoS level extra functionality can be added too that will slow down Binary Boy as more packages damage either him or the server. Finally, there are levels with user input in the game that could be extended to teach about buffer overflow and sql injections.