Computer Catch

Inspiration

Our inspiration for Computer Catch was the dangers of cybersecurity now that computers and the digital world have been expanding for the past decades. We wanted to teach people about the different ways hackers can attack people and steal information. To teach people, we have made this game to not only inform people of all generations, we also want them to have fun, interactively.

What it does

There are two minigames that the user has to complete to get the answers to security questions to hack into a criminal's text file containing proof of guilt. Throughout the process, players will learn how hackers steal information and therefore why and how they should stay safe on the internet. Our first minigame is a fun trivia crossword, that allows the user to make guesses and get feedback, to get their first clue. Our second minigame is a spot-the-difference game between two emails, one that exhibits phishing and the other that is a normal email. Finding all the differences allows the user to get the second clue. The clues are put into a list that the user can access later to solve the security questions. Throughout this process, the user has learned different ways a black hat hacker can steal their information by supposedly harmless means. After answering the security questions, the user gains access to the text file.

How we built it

We built this app using Scratch as it would be easier to import images, as this game is very graphically based. The minigames were constructed separately and then combined with UI and game elements afterward. Using a parallel process, we were able to complete this project within the time limit given.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges we ran into was coding the suika game which was supposed to be the third minigame. Unfortunately, we were not able to complete this task because scratch has many limitations on what we can and cannot do, unlike text-based coding platforms. This limitation also made coding the crossword and guess the difference game harder, in some ways, than if it was done on a text-based platform. This limitation from block coding caused us to think of very roundabout ways to complete certain tasks needed for the minigames.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the fact that we were able to get two of the minigames up and running without many bugs. Additionally, two of our members learned how to use scratch, coming from different coding backgrounds. We believe that even though our game does not have all the elements we originally wanted, we still can teach people about cybersecurity issues in a fun way!

What we learned

We learned how to use scratch for complicated projects, different than how we have used scratch before. We also learned how to compromise with each other and how to effectively work together as a team and play to each other's strengths to be successful with our game creation.

What's next for Computer Catch

In the future, we would like to add more minigames, such as having the suika game run successfully. We would also like to add a "final boss" which would be where the user would have to guess the password to get into a text file and therefore learn how to make strong passwords.

Built With

• scratch