About
Network Nightmares was a game created as part of a research project in 2012 and submitted to fdg2013. Mastermined by William Ryan, the game was part of a larger curriculum exploring network security. All artwork by Jackie Crofts. Programming and sound design by Dean Verleger. Level theme music by Max.
Gameplay
Played from the POV of a hacker, the gameplay includes slingshotting projectiles or “viruses” at targets, aka “network nodes”. Hitting a node with a virus “infects” it, and alerts ai entities, aka “network admins”. Network admins follow paths to infected nodes and work to recover them. Infecting a “hub” node infects all connected nodes at once. The goal of each level is to infect all nodes on a network before the network admins can recover them.
A secondary mechanic deals with the “lives” or available viruses the player has. The player starts with 3 viruses. When a node is infected with a virus the player slowly accumulates additional viruses at their disposal. The more infected nodes, the more rapidly viruses are awarded. The player loses when they run out of viruses.
Links
Research paper
Source
Play (with Flash Player)