This final dev diary for Numb3r Stations looks at in-game codes, also known as steganography, also known as: making the game actually fun. 

In the previous two updates I talked about how development of Numb3r Stations went from the starting gimmick (listen to real spy radios to choose a prompt) to a developed mechanic. But there was still something missing from the game - as thematic as the prompt selection can be, and even with the prompts being really very evocative, Craig and I knew there needed to be something more.

Fortunately, a few months ago I played the wonderful Quill by Scott at Trollish Delver Games.

The beauty of Quill is that it doesn't merely ask you to write out prompts, it sets out a mini-challenge (the inclusion of specific words) in your letters, which gives the act of composing one a slight edge - you have to ponder your words, at least once. 

This was the inspiration to include "codes" In Numb3r Stations. Thematically it made perfect sense - you receive a message in code, so why wouldn't you encode to reply? The reasoning was easy to justify; if you don't include the code, your handler cannot be certain it was you who sent the message. Pesky counterintel is always on the prowl. 

However, we weren't about to ask the player to encode their entire message - that would be busywork, which we were trying hard to avoid in the act of decoding before. 

Enter "Fun Steganography". 

Steganography is the technique of hiding messages within a message that looks ordinary - the most simple examples can be acrostics or messages made with the capital letters of the text. And it turns out these can be a lot of fun as writing challenges, which is exactly what we wanted! 

Taking inspiration from Quill, the first few codes we came up with were things like "include a specific word in the second paragraph of your text" but then soon discovered we could push it a little bit further: include the name of a constellation, an alphabetically sorted list, lyrics from your favourite song, as well as things like acrostics and text manipulation.

This is what drives the game forward and the challenge that makes it fun: can I write what I want to while sticking to this (slightly silly) creative constraint? 

Why, you have to agent. The success of this mission depends on it. 

And that's really the core "fun" of the game - a slightly quirky writing challenge which is perfectly justified by the theme and is surrounded by immersive mechanisms and prompts. We hope you enjoy these, and please do let us know if any of them are too easy or hard!