Inspiration
The moment the hackathon started, we instantly began to think of multiple project ideas. We decided that, since most of us have a few years of programming experience and a passion for coding, we would make a programmable puzzle of sorts. We got thinking of a story of a white-hat hacker attempting to break into some form of digital safe, which lead us into incorporating ciphers and cryptography as our program's main attraction.
What it does
Our program serves as a type of puzzle game. The user gets a list of several messages, each one using its own cipher language. After selecting an encrypted message, the user is then tasked with decrypting the message. Once they have successfully decrypted the message, they are given a single digit to the password of the ultimate puzzle, the locked iron safe. When the user solves enough ciphers and collects all of the digits, they can then open the safe and win the puzzle.
Challenges we ran into
Since it was our first hackathon, it was hard to choose exactly which project idea to go through with. We all agreed that ciphers seemed like a fun and unique idea, and got to work. As it turns out, creating the algorithms for ciphers can actually be pretty tricky. First, each of us had to learn how to read each cipher language to get a better understanding of how they work. Then, we had to write the logic behind them. Some ciphers were much more complicated than others, leading to us spending nearly an hour or two programming and furnishing the harder ones. Creating the UI was also troublesome. We used "Tkinter", a graphic user interface for python programs. We had to decide which font, font size, button and text placement, and padding looked most appealing while remaining functional.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are extremely proud of the ciphers we coded. Programming ciphers and encryption methods are extremely fun, and even more satisfying to see when they work. We had a blast trying out different phrases of text to encrypt, what levels of encryption we should use, and trying to decrypt each other's ciphers.
What we learned
The study of cryptology is not only extremely interesting but also very useful in terms of security and defense. Encryption is an important process most people seem to forget about, even though all of our most valuable data and files all rely on strong encrypting methods. As a team, we now have a better appreciation for encryption. We also believe if more people understood its importance, then they would go to greater lengths to protect their data.
What's next for Cipher Wars
If we get the chance, we'd love to continue working on this program to include even more challenging ciphers. We would also update the UI to make it look more professional, given we had more time and knowledge of Tkinter. Other than that, all of us have developed a passion for cryptography and may continue research in the field in the future.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.