PhishingTrainingGame

Phishing Training Game is a gamified cybersecurity awareness experience designed to help users recognise and respond to phishing, spam, and legitimate emails in a realistic workplace setting.

Players take on the role of a Junior Operations Assistant at SentinelPoint ( a Fiction company) , where they are responsible for managing incoming emails from clients and internal departments. Throughout each shift, players must carefully review emails and decide whether to reply, report, or delete them. The challenge lies in identifying subtle phishing attempts and avoiding costly mistakes.

The game incorporates real-world phishing tactics, including spoofed domains, urgent requests, and business email compromise scenarios, encouraging players to apply critical thinking rather than rely on obvious clues. A reference notes system is provided to simulate workplace guidance and reinforce learning.

Progression is structured across multiple levels (shifts), with increasing difficulty and variation in email scenarios. At the end of each shift, players receive feedback on their performance, including correct and incorrect actions, missed threats, and an overall score. A medal system (Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Fail) provides clear performance evaluation and motivation.

The experience is enhanced through audio cues, interactive UI, and narrative elements, including an introductory dialogue that sets the tone and highlights the absence of a cybersecurity team—placing full responsibility on the player.

The game aims to:

• Improve awareness of phishing and social engineering attacks
• Encourage careful inspection of email content and context
• Simulate real-world decision-making under mild pressure
• Reinforce best practices in a safe, interactive environment

Overall, this project demonstrates how gamification can be used as an effective tool for cybersecurity training, making learning engaging, practical, and memorable.

Feel Free to do the Pre-Game Questionnaire if you want participate in this research:

Phishing Awareness and Online Scam Prevention – Fill out form

All Names, Companies, and events in this game is purely fiction, if anything were to represent the real world, it would be mere coincidence.