HeartGuard VR

HeartGuard VR was developed by Octavia Lea (https://comfycrow.itch.io/) as part of her MSc in Ethical Hacking and Cybersecurity at Abertay University.

The work led to a publication at the 2024 Games and Learning Alliance Conference (GALA 2024) organised by the Serious Games Society: Lea, O., Shepherd, L. A., Szymkowiak, A. 2024. HeartGuard VR: immersive romance scam education. In: A. Schönbohm, A. Bucchiarone, F. de Rosa, M. Ninaus, A. Wang, V. Wanick, & P. Dondio (Eds.), Games and Learning Alliance: 13th International Conference, GALA 2024, Berlin, Germany, November 20–22, 2024, proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 15348). Springer.

Overview
Romance scams are a form of social engineering whereby a scammer leads victims to believe they are in a romantic relationship before making a monetary request. Victims suffer a "double-hit": the loss of what felt like a real relationship, in addition to the financial aspect of the scam. HeartGuard VR is an immersive virtual reality (VR) serious game experience that explores tactics used by romance scammers in an effort to educate the public about how these scams are carried out and how they can protect themselves.

How to play
Gameplay revolves around the player, taking the role of an AI security assistant, reading messages sent to the main character’s (Claire’s) device, immersing themselves into the story and determining if the messages received are genuine or a scam. 

This game requires SteamVR. Grabbing can be performed by either the grip buttons or the triggers on the controller. Resetting the default position can be done using SteamVR's re-center feature. 

Project team
Lead developer: Octavia Lea
Primary supervisor: Dr Lynsay Shepherd
Secondary supervisor: Dr Andrea Szymkowiak

Contact details
If you are interested in collaboration or pursing a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction with games technologies or cybersecurity, please get in touch: lynsay.shepherd@abertay.ac.uk