Botnet of Ares is an incremental hacking game where you exploit millions of devices.<p>I first made a prototype of the core mechanic back in 2020. For a while I did not have too much time to dedicate to the project, but the idea had been in the back of my mind ever since.<p>After befriending Tobi, who now contributes to the game's development, and performing several playtests with very positive results, I've decided to commit to the development of Botnet of Ares.<p>Botnet of Ares is meant as a critique of security practices in some consumer electronics and IoT devices. It is also a response to the excitement & anxiety many of us feel regarding recent developments in generative AI & large language models. Real life botnets are very much a thing, and so is automatic exploitation of such devices. Botnet of Ares asks the question: what would happen if an AI Agent were trained to exploit and uncover vulnerabilities across the entire Internet?