The preview showing of Cyphers Game

We have gathered first impressions of Cyphers Game”. During the preview showing, it was successfully tested on PCs and VR goggles by high school students. The official premiere will take place on 21 April at the PAX international gaming event in Boston. Check out the trailer and sign up for the waiting list on Steam today!

Students from several high schools in Warsaw and Pomerania were the first to play Cyphers Game. During the two days of the preview showing (31 March and 1 April) they could play the whole game in a specially arranged space of the Reduta Bank Polski. They had VR goggles and PC stations equipped with pads at their disposal.

What is Cyphers Game like?

Cyphers Game is a multiplatform game available on PC, mobile devices and VR goggles. First timers who have had a chance to play it see it as a reference to adventure games with arcade elements. Cyphers Game will appeal to you if you like “stealthy games” – said participants of the event. The gameplay combines point and click adventure elements with logical puzzles. It is three missions performed in three different locations, but closely related to each other. Their goal is to defeat the enemy by breaking cyphers and using intercepted secret information. The entire game can be completed in about an hour and a half.

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Probably the first type of game in the world

This is probably the first game in the world based so faithfully on historical characters and events. The game takes players to the end of 1920 in the very centre of the Polish-Bolshevik war. There are missions to complete which are crucial to the conflict that lasted for two years. Their goal is to cut the enemy off from Korosteń (on the territory of present-day Ukraine) – a railway junction and a technical and supply base for the Bolshevik army.

Everything the players encounter during the game was created on the basis of source materials or was accurately reproduced from historical exhibits. Missions are documented historical events, and each of the characters has a different key task for the outcome of the battle. This historical accuracy was achieved thanks to close cooperation between the game’s developer Chronospace and historians from the Institute of National Remembrance. The game promotes widely unknown achievements of Polish cryptologists who broke Bolshevik cyphers, determining the fate of the war. At the same time it shows that wars are fought not only with “cannons”, but also with information. And cleverness may prove to be the greatest advantage.

Playing and exploring

Immediately after the games, students answered one hundred questions about the events and historical figures presented in the game. Although the questions were not easy, and the young people were usually learning about the presented events for the first time, they answered correctly many of the questions (see questions).

As Magdalena Hajduk, director of the Office for New Technologies, emphasised during the event, research into how young people react to a new way of telling stories plays an extremely important role in all of the Office’s projects.

– We are entering unknown territory. We don’t know where this road will lead. That is why we are carefully observing the reactions of young people and teachers and the benefits they derive from our activities, said Magdalena Hajduk. – The boundary between education and entertainment is becoming increasingly blurred. On the one hand, we want to enter this trend, and on the other, we want to use technology in the most responsible way.

The research is conducted with the support of inFuture Institute, which analyses how young people acquire knowledge today. This information is one of the most important elements of BNT’s strategy. Although it strongly develops new technologies, the Bureau’s aim is to convince the youngest generations to embrace technological minimalism.

– We live in a time when new technologies are implemented first and their impact is studied later. We want to make sure that our solutions bring real benefits to those who use them. Through historical education we want to support young people, who today are so lacking in authority, in forming a mature identity – emphasised Magdalena Hajduk.

BNT’s future plans include using algorithms to create the most personalised educational offer possible and using artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics to create avatars of heroes of Polish history. Virtual influencers are to stimulate historical curiosity in young people. As representatives of the Bureau stressed, representatives of generation Z are perfectly capable of deepening their knowledge if something interests them. BNT’s task is to show that history can be interesting. Future projects of the Bureau will be even more intertwined with culture, entertainment and science in order to use as many channels as possible, reaching audiences with the historical message.

A treat for music enthusiasts

A separate thread worth emphasising is the sound setting of the entire project. The music performed by a string and brass quintet and a piano has a symphonic sound and is closely linked to the content of the game. The game’s main musical theme is also a kind of cypher. According to Przemek Treszczotka, composer of the soundtrack, attentive listeners will find quotations from classical composers in the main piece, referring to both the strategy and emotions of the game. At one point in the piece there are even words punched out by the piano in Morse code. Local musical motifs also appear in the game. The Ukrainian “Shchedryk” from the early 20th century known worldwide as “Carol of the Bells” can be heard during the mission in Korosten. The composition, based on an old Ukrainian carol, was created by the prominent Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. In the part of the play taking place in the carriage house, a soldier can be heard playing the accordion. The sound was recorded especially for this scene on an authentic century-old Russian bayan. 95 per cent of the sounds you will hear in the game – such as the operation of equipment, footsteps, or the workings of mechanisms – were recorded specifically for the game. One of the non-standard solutions used in the musical setting is the placement of the sound of individual instruments in different parts of the space. Thanks to this, players, especially when playing in VR goggles, have the impression of being surrounded by musicians playing individual instruments and moving between them.

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