CipherList: The Terminal

A 6x6 Matrix Puzzle Game. #

You can find the game here on my personal Itch.io page.

The source code is available here on my GitHub.

Based on breach protocol style matrix puzzles. The goal is to select values from a 6x6 matrix that most optimally complete the keys on the right. The player is awarded points based on the complexity of the sequence they are able to select in the matrix and get it into the limited number of spaces in the buffer.

Game modes:

• Free play mode where you can just solve the puzzles for fun or practice.
• Timed mode where you are given only 60 seconds per puzzle and there are a total of 10 puzzles.
• Timed mode where you get as many points as possible in 5 minutes.

Game Design / Inspiration:
The design of this game pulls in elements of older Mainframe and DOS based computer systems that require usage of the F keys (or PF keys).
That is part of why the UI is not as intuitive as it could be, and does not allow you to click some buttons. It is meant to be a combination of the old Windows XP days and my childlike ideas of hacking into the "Mainframe" back then.

It does offer gamepad support, but is limited to Xbox and PlayStation controllers. Any other gamepad will be assumed to be an Xbox controller and you may need to translate the button mapping to what is displayed on screen.

This game was built using MonoGame.

Synthwave soundtrack (songs by Jake Kirkbride):

• Losing Light
• Around
• Neon Thump

Sound effects were all Creative Commons licensed (allowing for Commercial use) and sourced from freesound.org. These are not copyright or owned by me, and they have their own licensing agreements.

All of the sprites and artwork were created by Jake Kirkbride in Aseprite.

With an obvious reference for the background:

• Bliss (Windows XP wallpaper) by Charles O'Rear

The Fonts were Bitmap Fonts created by ChevyRay on Itch.io and part of their amazing Font pack that can be purchased here. I break their rules and do some scaling on them, but trust me they're much better than I make them look in my game here. :)