Here is a link to our project website: https://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/hyperpickle/
Here is a link to the client’s website: https://picoctf.org/
Team HyperPickle was working with CyLab Security and Privacy Institute at Carnegie Mellon University to create an interactive web-based game for the picoCTF 2021, a two-week competition where middle school, high school, and college students are challenged with cybersecurity questions. The game was oriented around delivering a fun, engaging experience to attract a wide range of demographics to join the competition, and encourage them to answer questions created by domain experts. The game features the ability to exchange resources and make friends while exploring the cosmos.
As a designer on the team, my focus was on designing the economy for the game. Coming up with the numbers behind the availability of resources via mining, the prices that each different inhabited planet had that allowed players to profit via arbitrage, the costs for ship upgrades that would create a few bottlenecks so that players will feel like they are progressing after purchasing them, the amounts and kinds of resources that each inhabitant wants the player to deliver to them to gain their friendship and ultimately win the game, and the amount of time it takes to travel between planets which is closely tied to how many tokens it takes to speed up travel between planets.