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[Music]
so
essentially I'm here to talk today about
a game that I'm working on called off
grid um and I'll give you a bit of an
overview of its development history so
far some of you may have heard of it
because uh Rich medson who's making
offgrid um is always heavily involved
with this event and mil ways um I want
to go through a few of the hacking and
social engineering mechanics in our game
and also uh talk to you what you what
the talk is about is the the modding
that we're doing and how on Friday you
can come and join me in a workshop and
we can put you inside the
game um so who is this Boo this is me
I'm Steph Keegan um I'm an artist writer
developer I've been working in the film
industry and the games industry for
several years um I've been working
mostly in VR for the last decade um if
any of you are VR fans out there you may
have heard of some of the things I've
worked on Pixel ripped and windlands and
if you have played windlands 2 you also
might recognize my voice because that's
me um I'm sarala sort of tends to happen
in indie games when you run out of
budgets the developers end up being the
characters and earlier this year I I
joined the company sopus who are making
off-
grid um I just wanted to give you all a
warning that I know very little about
code I am not a coder I'm an artist um
and that will become imminently clear
when I talk try to talk about more
technical stuff in this
talk yeah that's
me so Samus is
very hard to spell um I'm always getting
it wrong it's an indie game Studio
founded by Rich Metson and poter
shanberg um two very lovely guys and
sadly aren't here today and they really
wish they were um they want to make
games that matter so essentially further
the maturity of the medium and um have
something to say um and at a talk at
another hacking conference years ago
Rich saw a talk that inspired him to
make this game uh and they've been
working off grid
for roughly 10 years um as is the way
sometimes when you're trying to support
yourself as an indie development team
and don't want to take money from the
man you have to support yourself so
we're still going though anyone who may
have backed us on Kickstarter don't
worry it's still happening we're still
uh squirreling away and for those of you
who don't know here is a quick
trailer
for
okay uh it has a really nice soundtrack
I don't think any of you could hear it
but it's really
good sorry yeah that's my bad I didn't
tell them it was going to have sound
sorry guys but you can all of imagined a
really nice soundtrack you'll have nice
different one in your head okay so what
is off grid um it's a mod stealth
hacking
game um and it um it's it's it's not
going to be it's not broad it's uh it's
made by people who really care about the
industry and know what they're talking
about and so um there are themes of like
net neutrality privacy uh digital rights
um it's uh but it's also made by British
developers who with a British sense of
humor so it's quite tongue and- cheek
and
satirical um it's set in the not too
distant orwellian future or at least it
was when we began making it 13 years ago
but it seems like it's just set in
reality now
unfortunately um and a bit of an
overview as you play as his character
Joe he's kind of a technophobe he
doesn't know anything he's basically me
but he um he's sort of pulled into this
world unexpectedly when his daughter Jen
is arrested um she's been involved in
something some sort of secretive hacking
thing uh fighting the man and she's uh
their house is raided in the first say
level introduction and uh suddenly Joe
is thrust into this world and he doesn't
know anything about it but he is led by
a mysterious stranger called Smedley who
is a hacker friend of Jens and with the
help of Smedley you begin to try and
unravel what is going
on so yeah um in 2013 when I'm going to
say we even though I wasn't involved
back then but it's just easier uh we uh
when we began thinking about it we we
wanted it to be grounded for impact it's
we wanted to make jokes and and and
laugh but we wanted it to matter so it
was really important to us not to be
alienating or confusing and and so we
were worried that our law would be too
heightened we're games developers so we
wanted to do weird things and uh
exaggerate the tech and the and things
and back in 2013 some of our ideas
seemed a bit out
there um we scaled back on some of our
Network and surveillance Tech because
they seem too
unrealistic and uh we really wanted to
make mundane household objects hackable
and some of them were ridiculous and we
in the end were like we can't put that
in no one would believe
it
now a lot has changed the real world has
actually outpacing our fiction which is
uh depressing but great for us as
devs um sorry my mic's that's my fault
I'm weing around ideas that we rejected
for being too out there have now got
back into the
grain nothing ever stays on the clipping
floor um yeah we had to actually make
the network and surveillance tools more
pervasive for it to become more
realistic so that was
interesting and as for mainan objects on
Wi-Fi this is a cat
toilet what really bothers me about this
picture is This Woman's not only
watching her cat poop she's monitoring
on the Wi-Fi at the same time like what
is that doing that your eyes
aren't um yeah I actually own that
toilet please don't hack my cat
toilet um so the conception of the game
is that it would be a game about data
privacy um so inevitably things U
mechanics are covering things like
hiding cloaking covering your tracks uh
that kind of
stuff so it naturally fell into a
stealth genre kind of uh game but um
rich and Pon were Keen to give it to
make it original and do their own thing
so they've Al wanted to kind of merge it
and mesh it with twist on the the
hacking genre and the way they've done
that is um they they treat we well we
treat data like a tangible thing in the
game so it's like a breadcrumb trail
which you can pick up and I don't know
if you can see that but there's you kind
of cons you have these kind of like
Google Glasses that can scan networks
and you can see the data around
you um so essentially as you play the
game uh the main goals are to get
physical access to the
building
uh you kind of want to scan for data and
you use that to crackle social engineer
and to access
networks um but also you want to be
careful how much you do that you don't
want to be discovered on the
network um and there's much more
in-depth like Rich would tell you a lot
more in detail about it but uh I'm just
going to give you a brief overview um so
my favorite thing about it actually is
the MPCs so they built this NPC system
and the NPCs are kind of driven by an AI
that is goal oriented and so um when you
build an NPC and that's what we're doing
at my talk on Friday is uh building you
as NPCs is you create character profile
for MC and they'll be things like they
like things they dislike uh their
favorite song or their kind of
personality type and with that
information as you scan and and get
build up a much more detailed profile on
them it will help you do things like
distract them better or brute force
their
passwords and in this picture is a guard
is sleeping and the character Jo is
scanning him for information which he
can then use to manipulate him
later or you can just prank them um so
uh yeah you can distract them send them
somewhere you know like the whole what
was that um kind of vibe um and things
like sending uh black facts to keep a
secretary busy or that kind of stuff so
that's quite fun we've built a bunch of
tools and devices that you can hack but
the software is open and modable so we
encourage people to come up with any
weird and wacky ideas they have
and there there is no one way to solve a
level so you'll be able to figure out
your own fun ways to distract these NPCs
to get what you want um yeah so you can
hack vending machines send black faxes
and mess with monitors basically
anything technical is hackable which we
thought was pushing our luck back in
2013 and now we're just making
everything
hackable um yeah so I'm just going to
check my time okay we're doing good so
the the modding tours um this is some
old footage of uh the sort of level kit
Web building
the yeah this is some of the art inside
the game um but we make it in unity so
when you do so obviously we releasing
the game as an individual game that
we're making but the modding tools and
the level kit is um really open and it's
built in unity so if you wanted to build
your own levels you would use unity and
it was really important to us and in the
ethos of everything about the game is
that we don't have any special tools
that we don't give you you know when you
normally in moding games the developers
can do all these extra wonderful things
because they have a whole team and load
of secret database of their own stuff
but we don't want to do that and it can
be frustrating for me as an artist
because I want to do things and they say
yeah we can do that but we're going to
have to build a whole system so that the
moders can do it too it's always the
answer so yeah what I can if if I make a
level you'll be able to make the exact
same level
essentially um using like lure API and
tools for scripting you can create your
own character profs as I mentioned you
can build interactive objects um and
even having conversations with people
via text message in the game you we have
all these different modules you can use
to build complex scenes and we do
Envision that you will make really
better scenes than us and better games
than us we're kind of excited to see
what
happens and you can use my art and then
and there there's been several excellent
artists before me um or you can import
your own there is no limit to what you
do and you can script your own tools we
um the Google Glasses that the character
wears has a bunch of tools for scamming
networks and all sorts of interesting
things that pontis and Rich have come up
with and we also have a ton we want to
do but there's no stopping you from
developing your own tool in the game and
scripting your own hacking
tools um and just as an
example uh as a story this story um is
called fosterage it's uh it was made in
a mod by Yuri Martino a very sweet man
and he uh told this story about a boy
who was fostered finds out that he's
adopted um it's just an example there is
no you don't even have to set your mods
in our world you can do what you
want and yeah Lura is user friendly
which is great it's um and the reason
and we built uh kind of we're building a
Wiki uh that needs constant updating as
you all know and hopefully we'll get
more people updating it in the long run
um but essentially it's all there like
tomorrow I could give you everything you
needed and you would be able to build a
level um and even me a total dum dum
artist can do it and I don't like I said
before I didn't know any code at the
beginning of the year and now I'm
writing lower scripts so that I can make
my characters do all sorts of things and
uh run timeline animations and it's yeah
it's
great and so what this talk was about is
milliways um so McFly as many of you
probably know of I'm sure most of you
know who McFly is he actually and a
bunch of people built in 2019 built M
ways inside our modable stuff and uh it
was really cool um there'll be like
things you recognize in here like the
milway flags and the Dome and there's a
rocket in here somewhere I think you can
see it very much in the distance of this
picture there's a rocket tiny rocket on
the
screen um and so what they did is they
uh they built their own Wiki page and
decide and sort
of shared out the tasks to build all the
art assets and took the map and then
they made their own version of milliways
in in the mod and put themselves in it
and if any of you know McFly online
you'll recognize his profile picture you
know the 2D that profile picture he uses
is actually his character in
here um and there's a lot we can add so
this year obviously things have changed
there's new things around and we never
really finished the scene so we're
encouraging people to come on Friday and
to add to the mod and you can build
assets or there's updates 2023 there's
things we don't have we don't have you
so we could put you in
it uh yeah and we encourage other
villages to get involved and yeah there
there's no limit really come along and
see what we can
do and these are the times that I will
be uh running the workshops on Friday um
so so essentially yeah we come and put
yourself in a video game at 2:30 to 4:30
and 5 to 7: and it's going to be in the
workshop dome which I believe is there
somewhere um and I've talked really fast
because I was nervous about time so I
have loads of time for questions who has
[Applause]
questions the talk so thank you very
much for the talk you already had
Applause the this is nice but you can
give a new round while you are thinking
about if you have any questions if you
have any questions please line up at the
microphone in the
middle there if anyone wants to know
something about the game the
workshop oh you have a question you have
a question yeah when is going when the
game is going to be released because I
see it say coming soon oh I was hoping
someone would ask that cuz I meant to
bring that up so yeah it has been saying
coming soon for a long time it's
actually been saying coming out in 2019
for a long time as well which it hasn't
um that's a very good question so
essentially as is the way it's
been it did go on thatr for a little
while while we tried to keep a float as
a company and did a lot of um work just
to build up money for ourselves and keep
a float but what's really been great
this year is we've kicked up a gear
again especially this one of the reasons
I joined the team is to have a full-time
artist working on it um we're building
levels now um ponus is working really
hard on De veloping tools and um vent
crawling mechanics and that kind of
stuff so I don't have an exact date for
you but progress is happening and I
would like to see it within a year but
I'm I'm couldn't tell you for sure at
the moment but it is progress is
happening okay thank you are there any
more
questions no so if you are thinking of
some questions she will be here and
giving workshops as well and she will be
able to answer all your questions then
thank you very much for this interesting
talk and the overview of the game and uh
give one last round of applause please
thank
you
fantastic