It’s now the year 2032. In the recent past, a major cyberwar decimated much of the global internet infrastructure. What remains of it has largely been seized by pre-existing power players. Many countries have shunned the global internet and attempted to close their electronic borders (with varying degrees of success), while governments in general have lost much of their power in favor of corporations, loosely-tied criminal and vigilante groups, and even skilled individuals. In a world where information is more valuable than gold (but maybe not Bitcoin), “Spy” may now be the world’s top-paying job title.
Disclaimer: Spycursion is an ambitious game in early development. We present to you this information as a vision for how it will unfold. That said, some features may not be in the game when it launches. We will add these missing features — or completely new features — in later updates, depending on what players ask for!
Objectives
As a Spycursion player, your objectives will be… whatever you want! It will be a sandbox game, where you can play several roles, which may influence your abilities and bonuses/penalties:
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- Federal Agent: De-anonymize and track down criminals, contribute to the global order.
- Developer: Create/sell software for other players… perhaps with backdoors.
- Tycoon: Make money by any means necessary (typically business/politics) — but you’d better keep your hands clean!
- Hacktivist: Hack for a cause; expose corruption and create an open internet.
- Braggart: Hack for reputation; it’s all about fame!
- Mercenary: Take jobs for money, from whoever pays the most.
Game Concept
At the core of the game is basically a mini-Internet — simulated devices of all sorts, running software written in an in-game programming language called Slang (short for “Spy Lang”). Some of said software is open-source, some of it is proprietary… nearly all of it has security holes just waiting for you to exploit and/or patch! You’ll start off with access to a handful of basic public services (search engine, news, webmail, etc.), and as you explore, you’ll discover other public and private services run by other players or NPC’s.
Over time, various events will occur which will encourage (or force!) you to take some action. Bounties will be placed on well-known criminals, making them a target of other players and feds alike. Cryptocurrencies will rise and fall in value, influencing and influenced by the in-game economy. Software security holes will be publicized, encouraging hackers and putting corporations on the defensive.
Unlike most other hacking games, there’s a very “out in the world” element to Spycursion. Wi-fi hacking, phone hacking, and even shoulder-surfing and eavesdropping are all fair game. Missions will vary in design from the simple (“Trace the sender of an e-mail”) to the complex (“Steal a file from an air-gapped computer in a high-security facility”). Some can be performed from the relative safety of your character’s home, while others will require you to travel to another location, possibly risking the wrath of airport security.
Spycursion will also contain a single-player campaign, in which you will explore the history behind the cyberwar and discover just how the world came to be this way.
Open Source
Yes, the Spycursion client will be open source! Don’t like that UI screenshot you see up there? No problem; just break out your favorite editor and sculpt it to your whims. Or build your own client from the ground up using our API! The choice is yours, and in Spycursion, many more choices will be, too. We greatly look forward to sharing more about this game. Stay tuned!