Noteworks

the networks-themed strategy game


The Project

Noteworks is a senior comprehensive project by six Computer Science majors at Carleton College. The project was originally conceived as an exercise in visualizing large-scale networks and making the structure and language of the internet more accessible. The final result is a real-time-simulation style game that is intended to immerse the player in a world of network terminology, resources, and security attacks, while also providing a high-level understanding of network topology.

Noteworks is built on the cocos2d python framework, which is in turn based on the Pyglet multimedia library and OpenGL. The multiplayer aspect of the game makes use of the Twisted library. All graphics and story elements are original works; the music and sound effects are from Creative Commons and other open source sound libraries.

The People

Dave Abel

Dave "Dabel" Abel comes to Noteworks to encourage the education of Computer Science. He enjoys Progressive Metal, Microbreweries, Snowboarding, and is on a lifelong mission for the perfect armchair in which to philosophize. His current goal is to travel to Mars in 2023 to begin human colonization.

Yasin Dara

Yasin was a poor country boy from North Dakota when he joined the Noteworks team with nothing but his twelve gauge and a mysterious love of computers. Thanks to his work on the development of Noteworks' AI, he is now a preeminent scholar in the field of machine learning.

Holly French

Holly comes to the Noteworks team with an interest in improving user experience and making smooth and navigable game play. She loves bubble baths, candlelight dinners, and long walks on the beach. She can often be found wearing Birkenstocks with socks and trying to grow a neckbeard. Her dream is to open up a Hungarian food stand in New York City.

Yiran (Robert) Guo

Robert's love for and committment to the Noteworks project is eclipsed only by his love for and committment to regular use of Vaseline. When he's not devoting his intellect to the development of educational computer games, he's lending his luscious voice to Pixar films, books-on-tape, and dramatic readings of eulogies.

Katherine Siegal

Katherine approaches game design with an eye to making technical information more accessible to all audiences and facilitating visualization of the systems that underlie our world. She is well-versed in Lebanese dialect and hopes to one day combine her Arabic language skills with her desire to make the web and the world of information technology more beautiful.

Sad'e Smith

Sad'e believes in the power of games as an educational tool because of their accessible nature. She hopes that Noteworks will one day make an extraordinary impact on society. She enjoys user-centered design, Java, and graphic design. When not working on Noteworks she skateboards, studies social movements, does DIY projects, reads poetry, watches Pretty Little Liars, and listens to Drake.