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Game idea: Designing a puzzle game to guess passwords?

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 09:53
larienna
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This idea might be more suitable as a video game app.

In order to teach people how to make secure password, I thought of a puzzle game where you are given a certain number of passwords the user currently uses and you need to guess the missing password. The more clues(passwords) you use the less points you score. So the idea is to find a logic pattern between passwords.

Difficulty could be scaled by the complexity of the encoding and by the size of the password. Passwords will be composed of chucks with a diffent coding logic and bound together using another logic. All coding techniques would be encodable by humans, so no need to have a computer to encode/decode your password.

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 10:16
#1
Jay103
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larienna wrote:In order to

larienna wrote:
In order to teach people how to make secure password, I thought of a puzzle game where you are given a certain number of passwords the user currently uses and you need to guess the missing password. The more clues(passwords) you use the less points you score. So the idea is to find a logic pattern between passwords.

I have no idea how this would work.

But if you do get it to work, I think you might get a visit from the FBI.

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 12:21
#2
FrankM
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**********

Jay103 wrote:
But if you do get it to work, I think you might get a visit from the FBI.

Here's my understanding of how this would work, minus the mechanics of actually doing it.

The "binding logic" is the targe's overall heuristic for making a password. For example, it might be "Disney character" plus "favorite number" plus "home state".

pluto13vt
mickey13vt
daisy13vt

Another might have "name of service" plus "percent sign" plus "username".

facebook%luser
linkedin%luser
gmail%luser

The game will have some way of producing each of those bits and assembling a target password. It will also be able to produce additional samples as needed. The fewer sample the player needs, the better the score.

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 12:29
#3
Jay103
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I figured something like that

I figured something like that except .. as a board game I don't see how that would work, and I'm not sure how it would teach you to have secure passwords.

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 13:26
#4
larienna
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FrankM, it's almost like what

FrankM, it's almost like what you said. The teaching part is more to open your mind to different combination of encoding algorith. The primary objective it still a game.

The mechanics is you start with a password, then you are given a website for a second password to hack it. You can try a certain amount of time (or unlimited) or ask for the answer. If you do so, it lower your score but gives you an additional password.

So if your first password is:

facebook: facebook1234

google: google1234

then Amazon will be amazon1234

Here we have 2 chunks, the first is variable to the site, the second is constant. But it you have:

facebook: facebook6

google: google7

Then amazon would be amazon1

Now the second chuck is the number of the first letter of the first chunk, where A=1, F=6, G=7. This is an example where 2 chunks are related.

Then you could encode the first chunk in leet speak like:

facebook: f4c3b00k6
google: g00gl37
amazon: 4m4z0n1

So various coding algorithm could be used for each chunk, and certain chunks can depend on other chunks.

Hope it's more clear

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 13:31
#5
Jay103
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Do the players come up with

Do the players come up with these sets? Are they shipped with the game? What part of it is "board gamey" rather than, say, a phone app?

And still, it sounds like teaching people to hack other people's passwords, which is not necessarily going to win you fans.

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 14:56
#6
larienna
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Might fit less as a board

Might fit less as a board game. As a board game it will have to be a sequence of passwords where you have to find the last one.

I normally post on both forums any ideas what ever the medium.

There will be a fixed list of websites, but the password will be generated using a random set of encoding techniques. So there will be more password possibilities the more encoding techniques there are.

There cannot a pure random password because it must be guessable. So there is a random logic rule selection. But once chosen, the password sequence use the same rules.

It could be a command line game or an mobile app.

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 15:05
#7
let-off studios
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Learning Tool

I think something like this would be best packaged as a learning tool that allowed the user to practice and demonstrate using various text encryption and cypher strategies. Like, this mini-game would be a second part or sub-app to the main program. In one segment you have chapters dedicated to a single cypher, and in the other segment you have the mini-game, where you can add or subtract cypher strategies to passwords you attempt to crack.

This all ignores the fact that, in the real world, computer programs are developed specifically to automate brute-force hacking and cracking - so I doubt that the FBI will care. However, personally it's always pleasant to see ways to assist people in developing passwords more challenging than "qwerty123" or "password." So go for it! :)

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 15:36
#8
larienna
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it could be doable as a pen

it could be doable as a pen and paper board game. You have a stack of card with website names and description.

You have another stack of cards with encoding pattern. The user draw X encoding cards, 1 website cards and the user creates a password according to the instructions on the card.

Then the other players have to guess the password, if they fail, they show the solution, and the user draw another website card and encode the new password.

Password could be written on a post-it that you stick on the website card. It takes a bit more time to play than the video game, and you cannot play solo. But it's doable.

Of course, it could be a minigame for another game.

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Fri, 05/25/2018 - 21:54
#9
FrankM
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Minigame

As a minigame inside something providing context, it's better than a lockpicking minigame.

The overall game could include a couple fictional services that are central to the plot... the player will want a way to crack into those fictional accounts (though the others might have useful clues).

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Sat, 05/26/2018 - 10:37
#10
gxnpt
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sounds like a mastermind or a clue variant

A card based clues game -
once purchased from bank the clue is only available to purchasing player unless they choose to share or sell/barter it with another player -
goal is to get correct missing password at lowest total cost -

each incorrect guess also has a cost so try to be sure before guessing

setting:

multiple sites (known to all)

multiple standard object sets - known to all

multiple site specific object sets - known to all

multiple sets of passwords for those sites - need to determine the missing password - other passwords are clues

multiple target individual profiles (sets of personal data)
personal data object items - specific data items are clues

A variety of assembly rules (to assemble from data objects) - each rule is a clue

A variety of modification rules (to modify data objects) - each rule is a clue

meta rules for how the sets go together and interact

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