Created as part of a pilot program for the Air Force Association’s (AFA) CyberPatriot Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative (ESCEI), Dangerbots is a side-scrolling platformer featuring basic lessons about passwords, viruses, and pop-ups. The antagonists are all robots who have taken a villainous approach to using these concepts.

The player must complete all of the level in the game to win, but may do so in an order of their choosing. Each level focuses on a specific security concept and features related gameplay mechanics.

• The Pop-up Bot level has interactive pop-ups that the player can walk on or be trapped by. They can remove the pop-up by following the prompt in the pop-up window, clicking the X to close the window, or consuming one of their pop-up blocker items to clear all pop-ups currently on the screen.
• The Crypto Bot level features a simple brute-force interactivity to reinforce the concept that longer passwords are harder to brute-force. The player character must also apply strong passwords to the computers throughout the level to disable dangerous traps and secure their path.
• The Virus Bot level contains an infection counter and timer. When the player character collides with enemies, they become infected. The infection status initially just alters their heads-up display, but if they accumulate more infections, the player character can misbehave by misreading inputs or slowing the movement speed. Additionally, pop-ups may appear, and the screen itself might rotate randomly. To remove these infections, the playercan either wait for the infection timer to reset or consume one of their anti-virus items.

Challenges

Creating a game for the target audience (grades 3-6) that features engaging and understandable cybersecurity content is a challenge. Furthermore, there were no artists on our team, so most of the graphics were created by me, for better or worse (with the exception of the fonts and level tilesets).

What Went Wrong

There was a significant amount of unaddressed technical debt in the code. It was difficult to organize the code within the GameMaker program. Additionally, my understanding of the GameMaker Language and editor at that time resulted in repeated code and regrettable use of magic numbers. Each GML script was essentially written in a structural programming paradigm, with a tenuous set of dependencies between scripts. Finally, some of the level design was inspired by the difficulty of older games. This led to situations where the player could be frustrated if they did have the patience or dexterity to control the player character.

What Went Right

The game was well-received by the target audience. Written feedback from players indicated that the interactivities in the text prompts, like the brute-force password cracking activity, were intentionally replayed.

Lessons Learned

Get player/client feedback early and often if possible. Take the time to address technical debt regularly in order to avoid diminishing returns on productivity in the future. Don't use magic numbers.

Additional Media

Dangerbots is still available on the AFA CyberPatriot ESCEI website via the request link at the bottom of the page.

Illustrations featuring the Dangerbots game appear in the children's book "Sarah The Cyber Hero".