November 2024: Dev Update #5

We are at the point with the demo where the level is done, the wiring programming is complete, but what is taking so long? It’s just a demo level right? Well, there’s a reason it’s taking so long, we want to make sure the demo releases with a basic network OS and network stack. What does that mean? It means we want you to be able to test out logging into a switch doing some basic CLI (command line interface) programming. Maybe some show commands to start off with, or doing basic level port configurations.

But what does this mean? We are basically trying to mimic how an actual network functions, with frames, packets, headers and everything. It’s really exciting stuff. We figure once we get the baseline of this network programming done, at that point it should speed up our development. We already have a lot of levels designed on paper (more like visio) and are working on creating them in Unreal.

I also wanted to talk about our vision for the game. This may change as we get closer to an early access release but this is what we’ve been talking about internally and I want to share that. So we first envision two types of players:

Someone who just wants to play a game. This player isn’t too worried about learning networking and may care more about just wiring closets to make them look pretty. Someone who wants to use this game as a learning tool, studying for certifications or furthering their career.

This means when it comes to our level design we are trying to accommodate these two types. We plan to have different difficulties for levels something like: Casual and Learning. Casual would mainly focus on just the wiring part where Learning would include the wiring along with some CLI programming.

Each of these levels we plan to introduce networking concepts such as why VLANs are important, access vs. trunk ports, VOIP, DHCP/DNS, and more. Even if you’re playing in Casual, you have the chance to learn and understand these concepts.

Now that’s our single player mode. We also want to do a creative mode. A creative mode would be you start off in a datacenter with blank racks and you stack and rack networking gear (switches, routers, firewalls, servers) and create your own virtual network. This would be perfect for people who maybe want to have a virtual lab and test and troubleshoot. Maybe you want to challenge a friend to try and fix your network? The possibilities are endless.

There is still a LOT of work to do but the past few months we have made great strides in getting the demo ready along with the underlying network OS and we are hopeful to have something to show soon. This has been a huge learning experience for all of us and we are grateful that so many people want to get their hands on this. Thank you all for your patience.