Games Like Project RedTeam: Contract Offensive

The Art Of Hacking in Project RedTeam

Project RedTeam is a roguelite card game where every move mirrors real-world hacking tradecraft. You’re not just playing cards- you’re orchestrating intrusions across dynamic enterprise networks where every decision carries weight.

This isn’t a “hacking vibes” game. It’s built on authentic offensive cybersecurity concepts. The cards in your hand-Kerberoasting, AD Enumeration, SSH Authorized Key Injection, Rundll32 LOLBin Execution- represent real techniques used by modern red teams.

The ten tactic categories (Recon, Initial Access, Credential Access, Lateral Movement, Privilege Escalation, Persistence, Defense Evasion, Anti‑Forensics, Exfiltration, Ransom) follow the same progression real operators use. You can’t drop ransomware on the Core Identity Provider on turn one- you have to earn your way there while managing detection and containment pressure at every step.

Rooted in Real Enterprise Attack Methodology

Project RedTeam was designed by a cybersecurity professional with a decade of enterprise security experience and certifications in offensive cybersecurity penetration testing, defensive threat hunting, and digital forensics.

The motivation was simple:

I wanted a roguelite card game grounded in real network intrusion tradecraft, and none existed.

This is a game that is built around real-world network intrusion workflow concepts. It preserves the messy, multi‑stage reality of real breaches while delivering a challenging- but easily approachable gameplay loop.

Network zones like the DMZ, Application, and Server zones are modeled after real enterprise network architecture. Stealthy credential‑driven lateral movement has advantages against the noisy techniques used for initial access. Defenders are active participants: isolating compromised machines, removing your footholds, and shutting down the network paths you rely on. These dynamics reflect how real incident response teams operate under pressure and how an offensive operator adapts their tradecraft to meet the objectives.

The Gameplay Loop

You operate a private hacker-for-hire agency. Each campaign requires completion of 10 contracts with escalating difficulty against procedurally generated corporate networks. An endless mode follows the completion of the campaign portion of the run.

Before a contract starts, you hire an operator and select from a pool of available contracts- each with different risks, objectives, and target network profiles. You open tactic card packs to build your starting loadout and then drop into the network.

The target starts dark. Your understanding of the target's attack surface is limited. From there:

The network is organized into procedurally generated security zones: Internet, DMZ, Perimeter, Application, Cloud, Server, Internal, Management, and Core. Deeper zones hold more valuable targets and better credential paths, but defenders watch them more closely and the targets there are harder to exploit without the right attack strategy.

Between rounds within a contract, you perform Tactic Research that results in rewards such as tactic card packs, consumable and equipable agency items, and a chance to visit various marketplace tiers to deeply modify your current in-hand tactics.

Detection and Containment

Detectable actions increase the defender's hunt for your activity. Failures are noisy, critical hits execute cleanly. As detection climbs, defenders increase their network containment efforts. Your network footholds start to burn, your network attack paths thin-out, and the difficulty for successfully completing the contract objectives increases. If network-wide containment reaches 100%, then the defender's have eradicated you from the target network and the contract ends in failure.

You can choose to abort a contract early if the situation is deteriorating faster than your earnings justify.

Digital artifacts left on nodes when you hand in a contract cost money. Run Anti-Forensics before you exit, or factor the fine into your payout calculation. Leaving a mess is a choice, and often a reasonable one.

Sometimes the incident response team defends so aggressively that completing the contract objective becomes a non-starter. But no worries, contract objectives are more like suggestions anyway.

If the objectives go sideways mid-contract, we can always… secure funding for the agency through alternative opportunities.  

The Agency

Between contracts, your agency balance of funds determines what happens next. Each successive contract has a minimum entry cost- spend carelessly or fail to bring profits during a campaign and you won't be able to afford to start the next contract.

Your agency also accumulates capabilities and inventory items that increase your capabilities and improve you strategy:

Start a new agency and finish 10 contracts to reach the standard campaign end-game. Continue with this agency in infinite mode- contracts keep generating, difficulty keeps climbing, and there is no ceiling.

If your agency cannot afford to pay the next contract's entry fee- it will be forced to dissolve and a new agency must be created.

Even a failed runs have a benefit: XP towards your career progression is earned. Unlock and enable Agency Resource Development modifiers on your next run to change the game dynamics and stakes.

In-Game Content

Post-Release Updates

Project Red Team is developed by a solo developer. Feedback and bug reports are genuinely appreciated- they directly shape what gets built next.

CONTENT WARNING

Project Red Team depicts fictional corporate network intrusions for strategic gameplay. While the game references offensive security concepts inspired by real techniques, it contains no personal data, real organizations, or actionable instructions for illegal activity. All real-world hacking should only be performed ethically and with proper authorization.

This game is suitable for players interested in: cybersecurity, strategy games, and card‑based roguelites.