Cryptographic game

Abstract

Cryptography has become a necessity in our daily lives. It became more obvious since the pandemic began. However, even before the pandemic, most of us are already depending heavily on cryptography. Such as government services that use singpass, banking services and internet access. Without cryptography, such things will cease to function, personal details would be available for all to see, anyone would be able to access other’s bank accounts, and anyone would be able to see what anybody is viewing on the internet. These are just some examples of the numerous scenarios applicable to daily lives. The need for cryptography is ever-growing as more appliances add connectivity. All these devices need to be protected by cryptography, increasing the importance of cryptography even further. Hence, people should know the significance of cryptography and the impact it has on their daily lives. Through the gamification of cryptography, this project would provide people with the opportunity to learn about cryptography and test their knowledge in a simple quiz game. There are essentially two parts to this project. First is a step-by-step guide, teaching the basics of cryptography with some examples in the format of a quiz. This is programmed on the Xilinx Zed Board with a GUI as a standalone system. The second is the game portion made using Visual C++ to test what is learned from the guide. There are 2 games in total, one programmed on the Xilinx Zed Board and another on windows. Both have been tested with positive feedbacks for ease of use, concept and learning outcomes. Further enhancements for this project would be improving input capabilities for the game on the Xilinx Zed Board, improvement to GUI of the project in general and additional content for the guide and game.