Stage Process

During the past weeks I've been working on project Codegate in a weird way. I kind of know where i want to go with it and have a general idea how to structure it, but I invent content for the game as i go. I know for sure i want to make different stages in the game, that you need to surpass to get to the goal. How i mapped it out is like this:

Start > Firewall > Barrier > Codegate > End

I haven't really decided on how i will make stage Codegate work. But i would like to make it into 4 different levels, and in order to advance you need to get through these 4 levels. For this puzzle though i want the player to go outside of the game to get the answers. I want to keep it as open ended as possible and not make it so easy to figure out. I want to capture the essence of being a real hacker, not everything is done for you when your trying to hack into a server. You will find different problems that will stop you in your tracks or make you start all over again.