This week our objective was to develop 3 distinct narratives and a variety of game features for PicoCTF 2014. Through our research, by playing the game and by unpacking the heaps of data collected from PicoCTF 2013, we have determined that our project’s key demographic are non-expert users (users with little or no background experience in computer security) between the age of 13-18, of all genders, races and background. Our projects vision is to increase student interest in computer security and computer sciences by developing a game which is made for students of all backgrounds, engage students which won’t normally participate in computer security events, ensure the game is accessible to all students, maintain the distinctive look & feel of the picoCTF competition and last but not least, fun.

From our project vision, we have identified 3 distinct narratives to pitch to our client. The first narrative involves the concept of “saving the world”, our players will battle (hack) through a tower structure to defeat security systems to save the world from humans whom are being controlled by  an artificial intelligence. We feel that in this narrative, the concept of saving the world, can entice players to strive through the hardship of our challenging hacking questions, learning and overcoming what seems like insurmountable odds. And in the process, feeling empowered with this new found knowledge in computer security, increase their interest in the computer sciences.

Our second narrative is “proving yourself”, if nothing else, players are drawn to a competition to prove themselves. This narrative, which builds on our team name Daedalus, directly references the story of Thesues and the minotaur. The worlds future computer geniuses are sent to the futuristic labyrinth to prove their worth by defeating the maze and the mighty cyborg minotaur. The key strongpoint and weakness of this narrative is non-linear story telling. Being in a labyrinth forces a team of players to explore the world in different ways to find the best possible route adding a strong gameplay mechanic into the game. However, this also increases the difficulty in telling a simple and complete story due to the inability to control the sequence in which players might trigger events. Also, if the element of time is graded in this competition, then having this additional gameplay mechanic might unbalance the nature of the competition.

Finally, our third narrative takes root from the popular Hollywood action genre of being “Framed by evil syndicates”. The concept of this story involves our main character, a high school student, being set up by an evil syndicate to cover their tracks. The character will then be forced into a life of hiding to survive and to prove his innocence. He has to take it upon himself to change his identity, find out who framed him and take them down by means of indirect confrontation (hacking systems). With a simple google search, many recent box-office hit movies have used this simple theme to make millions, there is little doubt that the public approves of this narrative. However, due to the hacking of corporations such as banks and government agencies to change your identity, this narrative touches on many sensitive issues which may mislead our youthful players into misunderstanding the goals of this competition.

Now that we have 3 distinct narratives, we will be pitching them to the client to find out the bests and worsts of each idea and combining them in every sane way to finalize our game idea. Tune in next week to see a detailed description of our final narrative.