Adaptive game assistant

This adaptive assistant was written for the remote testing of the adaptive version of the Captain Slovakistan game. It is licensed under MIT license.

It requires Python version at least 3.7, and the Python yaml package (pip install -r python-requirements.txt) to run. The cybersecurity game the assistant runs requires Vagrant and VirtualBox. Full instructions for installing are in the the installation guide.

The assistant loads configuration from the levels.yml file.

Assistant usage

The adaptive game assistant is ran by running ./assistant.py or python assistant.py in the project folder. Essentially, it automatically runs the commands listed below in manual usage, but all the user has to specify is that they want to advance to the next level.

Basic commands:

• (S)tart - starts the game from level 1.
• (N)ext - continues the game to the next level.
• (E)xit - properly ends the game and exits the assistant.
• (C)eck - Checks versions of all required apps.
• (H)elp - displays a full list of commands.

For more information about the game, including the levels' instructions, see the game text.

Structure

The assistant consists of a Game class, that represents the game itself, and a game_loop() function, which keeps an instance of a Game and translates inputs from the command line into method calls on the Game object.

The assistant is written with modularity in mind, so it should support other adaptive games, as long as they provide a correct levels.yml file, and has complete tagging in the Ansible playbooks.

levels.yml

levels.yml is the configuration file that tells the assistant what possible levels are in the game, what tags to run to set up that level, and what machines need to be provisioned for that level.

Every line in the file represents a level, and each line must have the following format:

level_name: {branch_name: [machines_to_provision]}

Manual usage without assistant

How to play the game without using the adaptive game assistant.

1. Run ANSIBLE_ARGS='--tags "setup"' vagrant up. During the instantiation of br machine, you will be prompted for network interface which connects you to internet (usually the first or second in the list).
2. When the player finishes a level, it's time to prepare the next one. Some levels have multiple versions (level2a, level2b), some levels have only one version (level3). The file levels.yml lists all possible levels, along with the vagrant boxes that need an update for the level to be ran. To prepare the next level, run ANSIBLE_ARGS='--tags "<level>"' vagrant up <boxes> --provision, where <level> is a key from levels.yml, and <boxes> is the corresponding value from the same file. (Examples: ANSIBLE_ARGS='--tags "level2a"' vagrant up web attacker --provision, ANSIBLE_ARGS='--tags "level3"' vagrant up web --provision)
3. After the game is finished, run vagrant destroy to remove the game components and virtual machines. The game can be reran after this step.

Troubleshooting

Set-up hangs on provisioning machine br

==> br: Running provisioner: ansible_local...

On Windows, the setup of the game rarely hangs on provisioning of the br machine. When playing via the assistant, you will have to exist by pressing Ctrl+C. Then, you should kill the stuck process in the task manager (usually called similarly to Ruby interpreter or Vagrant) Then you can resume the game by launching the assistant again, running abort, and then start again. (You can also attempt to make the assistant pick up where it ended before it got stuck, by not running abort, and running start only.)