Hey all! Wanted to get one final dev update before the end of the year and we have some great news to share.

As I mentioned in our previous dev update we are working on simulating how networks operate. From Layer 1 up to Layer 7. This past weekend we had a big breakthrough in our programming. We accomplished the following:

MAC Address Assigning
Patch Panels
Wireless

Let’s talk about each one for a moment and why this is a big deal for us.

MAC Address Assigning.

If you’re familiar with the world of IT, every single device that connects to a network has a MAC Address (also known as a physical address). So when you connect a device to a switch, that switch will learn that devices’ MAC address and put it in a table to reference. But also, on each switch, each port has its own unique MAC address as well.

So what this means is we have accomplished auto MAC Address assigning of switches and their ports as well as allowing our switches to learn MAC Addresses from devices. We’re very excited about this and hoping it speeds up the IP Addressing programming.


Patch Panels

Wait a minute, patch panels are a big deal? Yes, yes it is. To reiterate what a patch panel is, it’s just a piece of hardware that is normally found in a network closet that acts as a central point to organize and manage network cables. So what kind of programming was needed for this?

In real life, a patch panel doesn’t do anything but allows termination of cables on two sides. There’s no programming on it, it just sits there. But in our game? How do we translate that? Well, we figured it out.

In our programming we had to give the patch panel some sort of logic so that it can detect when something is plugged into it and allow the other end of that termination point to detect it is online. We want to simulate the real world as much as possible but we did not want to actually run cables from the patch panel to the various termination points in our levels. So we sort of tricked it.

The front side of the patch panel will detect the cable from the switch. The back side of the patch panel will then wirelessly detect that workstation across the hall if that is plugged in. With this now working, we sort of killed two birds with one stone.


Wireless

We sort of programmed wireless by accident as we were working on the patch panel logic. It’s still early in our programming logic for wireless but we’ve tested it, and we have wireless working. Of course there is still a LOT to do for wireless (like creating ranges, weak spots, wifi channels etc…etc…) and I doubt we will have wireless in the demo but I wanted to bring it up because we do plan on having wireless be present in our levels.


We are inching our way to a demo release and we know people want their hands on this. We promise you all, as soon as we have an idea when we have a date for the demo release we will shout it from the rooftops!

We know that once we get more of the network stack built and programmed, it will speed up our development of the game. Work has already begun on the level designs in Unreal. We have the pre-production visios done for the first set of levels and now we just need to build them in Unreal and apply the network logic.

Thank you all for continuing to stick with us on this incredible journey. 2024 has been a huge year for Walrus Game Studio. Not only did we release our first TTRPG book but also this year has been the start of building a great community. If you haven’t already, join our discord if you want to chat with us, ask us any questions. Happy Holidays all!

Hey all! We know it has been mighty quiet on the dev front. I just want you all to know we are still working on the game!

We are at the point with the demo where the level is done, the wiring programming is complete, but what is taking so long? It’s just a demo level right? Well, there’s a reason it’s taking so long, we want to make sure the demo releases with a basic network OS and network stack. What does that mean? It means we want you to be able to test out logging into a switch doing some basic CLI (command line interface) programming. Maybe some show commands to start off with, or doing basic level port configurations.

But what does this mean? We are basically trying to mimic how an actual network functions, with frames, packets, headers and everything. It’s really exciting stuff. We figure once we get the baseline of this network programming done, at that point it should speed up our development. We already have a lot of levels designed on paper (more like visio) and are working on creating them in Unreal.

I also wanted to talk about our vision for the game. This may change as we get closer to an early access release but this is what we’ve been talking about internally and I want to share that. So we first envision two types of players:

Someone who just wants to play a game. This player isn’t too worried about learning networking and may care more about just wiring closets to make them look pretty.
Someone who wants to use this game as a learning tool, studying for certifications or furthering their career.

This means when it comes to our level design we are trying to accommodate these two types. We plan to have different difficulties for levels something like: Casual and Learning. Casual would mainly focus on just the wiring part where Learning would include the wiring along with some CLI programming.

Each of these levels we plan to introduce networking concepts such as why VLANs are important, access vs. trunk ports, VOIP, DHCP/DNS, and more. Even if you’re playing in Casual, you have the chance to learn and understand these concepts.

Now that’s our single player mode. We also want to do a creative mode. A creative mode would be you start off in a datacenter with blank racks and you stack and rack networking gear (switches, routers, firewalls, servers) and create your own virtual network. This would be perfect for people who maybe want to have a virtual lab and test and troubleshoot. Maybe you want to challenge a friend to try and fix your network? The possibilities are endless.

There is still a LOT of work to do but the past few months we have made great strides in getting the demo ready along with the underlying network OS and we are hopeful to have something to show soon. This has been a huge learning experience for all of us and we are grateful that so many people want to get their hands on this. Thank you all for your patience.