Dylan Emerson

Chris Malec
GDD3600
16 February 2021
403: Forbidden - Pitch
“403: Forbidden” is designed to be a point-and-click horror game centered around good
cybersecurity practices. It involves teaching the player how to develop safer practices such as
having strong passwords and not opening malicious links in emails. The way this is
accomplished is through a series of minigames like going through emails and generating
passwords. The game will not hold the player’s hand and tell them what not to open directly, but
it will have hints for if the player gets stuck or needs some help. If the player clicks on a
malicious link or creates a weak password, an evil entity may take over their computer. As the
player makes mistakes, disturbing or unsettling imagery may begin to appear throughout the
game. The game aims to keep the player on edge and engaged while learning about how to be
safer on the internet.
One of the mechanics present in the game will be going through emails and filtering out
the good emails from the bad emails. If the player clicks on a suspicious link, their computer will
negatively react to it, whether that be through a jump scare or other strange pop-ups. This relates
to the goal of the project, to teach employees about good cybersecurity practices, because it
warns them of the dangers of clicking suspicious links through an overexaggerated lens. In a
real-world scenario, an employee may see a phishing link in an email, relate it to the scary
experience they had playing “403: Forbidden,” and know not to click it.
Mock-Up of Gameplay

Octalysis Graph