Inspiration
When we first started coding, we noticed that so many exercises involved ciphers. It feels like every Computer Science student has worked on projects like the Fibonacci sequence, Caesar Cipher, or Pigpen Cipher at some point. In the beginning, coding felt confusing and even a little scary—especially when we didn’t fully understand how ciphers worked.
That’s why we created this game! It’s for beginners like us who are just stepping into coding and cybersecurity. We want it to be a fun and easy way to get started, helping new learners feel more confident. Think of it as a warm-up before diving into bigger and more exciting challenges in this field!
What it does
This game helps players get familiar with some common encryption methods, making it easier for them to work on their projects. By playing, they can start to understand tricky concepts that might seem overwhelming at first. It’s a fun way to build confidence and get comfortable with technology, coding, and especially cybersecurity! Those who do not do tech also can play it for entertainment, and enjoy solving puzzles, and problems.
How we built it
We use Python and the Turtle library to handle the coding and game logic. As for the graphics, we have a designer who hand-draws all the characters, maps, enemies, and other elements, giving the game a unique and artistic touch.
Challenges we ran into
Of course, bugs and syntax errors are always part of the process. Fixing code from midnight until morning can be exhausting, but finally getting it to work feels like heaven! The first time we consumed 10 Red Bull and 6 water bottles a day.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re proud of three things. First, we all love Soul Knight, and we’re excited that we got to hand-draw our own characters inspired by the game. Second, our idea comes from our own experiences, and we pushed through challenges to complete the project. And third, most importantly—we worked together as a team!
What we learned
A lot, not only new tech knowledge, we have new friends, discover University of Chicago, doing teamwork.
What's next for Cipher Slayer
We have big plans for our first collaboration! In this project, we’ve included Reverse Cipher, Caesar Cipher, and Morse Code, but we hope to add more lessons in the future, like Fibonacci, Pigpen Cipher, and more. We also want to improve the game's UI/UX and develop new features.
Our first step is to share this game with our friends, especially freshmen and students in the basic coding class where I work as a TA. We hope it helps them take their first steps into coding with confidence!
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