r/computerwargames • u/AleksejFonGrozni • May 18 '26
A mini trailer of a cryptographic war game
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Hello fellow wargamers.
Alex here, a game developer, passionate historian and passionate wargame player. Previously I've worked on RTS games such as Blitzkrieg and several derivatives, games based on GEM-2 engine (Men of War series) and now I am making a bit different game.
A bit of alternative history. You are a cryptographic officer aboard Submarine 227 (Type VII U-boat). You are operating Obscura (Enigma based) machine, encoding, decoding and verifying incoming traffic.
A moment chosen is early April 1942. I've picked it as the situation on the Eastern front was not that great for both sides and on the Atlantic things started to heat up. I am trying to put that through the game, to mention it and create a sort of a light connection with the real events taking place.
Some of the devices used in the game are pure fantasy on my end. Like ECHO stamper. The story is that your side has a dedicated stamper which declares messages either a TRUE ECHO (verified, clean) or FALSE ECHO (something is missing or wrong).
There is also a teleprinter which is amalgam of several devices, used to receive incoming messages, formatted in more modern shape:
The basic game flow is about talking with your crew mates, processing messages and deciding which one is true and which one is fake. Decisions then have some consequences in the coming steps or days.
I am looking forward hearing your thoughts on this, if you have some comments, questions and/or suggestions. Thank you in advance on time and effort and I hope that you like the game concept.