Shadow-Terminal
Browser fictional hacker simulation game
Overview
Shadow-Terminal is a browser-based fictional hacker simulation game. The player takes on the role of "Agent Zero," infiltrating a fake corporation across five structured missions — a way of packaging security-adjacent problem-solving (server-side logic, session/auth handling) into an interactive game format rather than a conventional web app.
Technical Architecture & Specifications
Key Features & Implementation Highlights
- Five structured missions, each with its own objectives and progression
- JWT-based authentication protecting player sessions
- Server-side game logic that prevents client-side tampering with mission state or progress
Challenges & Tradeoffs
The key design decision was keeping all game logic — mission state, progression validation, and objective tracking — strictly server-side rather than running any of it in the browser. For a hacker simulation game, client-side game logic is inherently untrustworthy: a player who knows how to open devtools (which is literally the target audience) could trivially modify client-side state to skip missions or forge progress. Server-side validation with JWT-protected sessions ensures that mission completion requires actually solving the challenge. The tradeoff is higher server load per player and added round-trip latency for each game action, but for a security-themed game, the integrity guarantee is non-negotiable.