The National Cryptologic Foundation worked with interns from Anne Arundel Community College to create a cybersecurity computer game to be featured in a kiosk at the National Cryptologic Museum. The team, who refer to themselves as CyberHawk Games, is comprised of students studying cybersecurity and game development.

The team has been asked to build upon their first game and develop a sequel with more difficult puzzles and a larger world - all with the goal of helping middle school aged students and up learn about cybersecurity and/or become interested in the field. In the game, you will become the main character and cybersecurity expert, Amanita Whitehat. Students can play the initial game here on the NCF website.

During this #cyberChat, the CyberHawk Games team will share the things they learned from creating Amanita's premiere adventure and how they will take those lessons to the next game. Included will be behind-the-scenes looks at the game design process, inspirations for the second game, how to work together as a team, how Easter Eggs come about, and time for questions from students. The team would love to have your constructive feedback and for you to be involved with their latest project.

This session is part of the NCF Cybersecurity series of virtual presentations. To attend the live session or receive a link to the recording, register now via Nepris. We will also post a link to the recording on the NCF website. You can view explore the archive of prior NCF chats on our website.

Key Questions

* How do you bring people with different education specialties to work together on a project?
* How do you decide on what the game should look like and what you do in the game?
* How do you decide what cybersecurity concepts to include in the game?
* What worked and what didn't from the first game?
* Questions for attendees: Can you find the Easter Eggs from the first game? What should we include in the sequel?

Expected Outcomes

Students will understand how to organize different skills and ideas within the engineering and design process to build a computer game.