UTSA cybersecurity games: Project Cipher and Pyramid of Knowledge
The UTSA Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security builds games that teach cryptography and cybersecurity to school students. The games are now offered through one downloadable launcher on the center's website.
Updated
Two beta games and a card game
The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security at the University of Texas at San Antonio, usually called the CIAS, designed Project Cipher and Pyramid of Knowledge under a National Science Foundation grant. The grant aimed to find effective ways of introducing middle school students to cybersecurity through game-based learning. During July 2018 both games were open to community feedback in a beta release, and Larry Sjelin, the center's director of game development, asked teachers and players to report bugs, connection problems and how well they learned transposition ciphers and cybersecurity principles.
Project Cipher teaches cryptography. Players learn techniques for encoding and decoding secret messages, and levels ask them to identify which kind of cipher is in use and then decode the message. They can play in a story mode or a free play mode, and once the concepts are familiar they can pick harder difficulty levels.
Pyramid of Knowledge works differently: it is a testing tool that lets teachers build their own quizzes. The online tool scores automatically, randomizes answer positions and supports multiple choice, and it runs like a trivia game show. It ships with STEM content on cybersecurity and math.
Both games pay out coins for completed sections, and the coins carry over to Cyber Threat Defender, a collectible card game launched in April 2016 and aimed at middle and high school students. A PC version launched on June 5, 2018, and the card game had reached more than 100 schools and school districts by then. Sjelin described the aim as connecting the three games into one network, with the game server collecting only score, player status and points earned.
What is true today
In November 2026 the CIAS website offers the games on one K-12 cybersecurity games page, built around a free CIAS Game Launcher for PC. The page lists Project Cipher for fourth grade and up, Pyramid of Knowledge as the teachers' quiz tool, and Cyber Threat Defender: Digital for players aged 11 and up. A separate page describes the digital Cyber Threat Defender as a video game version of the tabletop cards that plays against computer opponents on PC and Mac.
The three separate game pages that existed in 2018 no longer exist. The center also lists newer games in the same launcher, such as CyBear's Network Defense and CyBear's Computer Adventure, for grade 3 and up.
Questions about the UTSA cybersecurity games
What does Project Cipher teach?
Cryptography. Students learn to recognize and decode ciphers, including transposition ciphers, through story levels and a free play mode.
Can teachers write their own questions in Pyramid of Knowledge?
Yes. It is built as a quiz tool for educators, with automated scoring and randomized answer positions, and it comes with ready-made cybersecurity and math content.
Where can the games be downloaded now?
From the CIAS Game Launcher on the center's K-12 cybersecurity games page. The launcher holds Project Cipher, Pyramid of Knowledge and Cyber Threat Defender: Digital.