This project simulates a pandemic by shifting the player’s perspective from individual characters to a higher authority role, in which they have to isolate infected patients from survivors, through putting down walls or deleting them. The intention for this project is to both present and encourage reflection on the idea of social distancing, highlighting its importance during a pandemic while also providing insight into the challenges and effort required to implement effective isolation measures.
Inspired by the recent COVID-19 outbreak, the whole city of Dubai was shut down for four and a half months. Days felt like years and desire for freedom raised a question: why did they take such a long time for everyone to be settled. While studying multiple-object collisions, I envisioned how these interactions could represent the transmission of a virus, inspiring the idea of creating a pandemic simulation. I then proceeded to develop this idea by adding a wall feature to represent restrainment in the ecosystem, affecting relationships between the infected ones and the healthy ones.
I first started off choosing a colour scheme for the infected ones. I wanted the colour to pop out the most. Hence, I chose a red-yellow gradient to represent the infected ones and random colourways that are more towards the blue-green spectrum to represent the healthy ones. I designed rounds in this ecosystem, where players get 20 seconds in the first round to place walls. After each round, the timer deducts half a second for the next round where eventually, it will reach a minimum time of 10 seconds per round. This is designed so that players can begin to feel the pressure under a decreasing time period, while still maintaining a good game experience. The protagonists of this project, the infected and healthy patients, are represented by randomly generated polygons. These generated polygons have a random number of sides, varying between the range of 5 to 11, to reflect the diversity within society and to keep the visuals dynamic and engaging. I have also added sound and background music to further increase the user experience of the game, creating a sense of tension and urgency for the player.
This project is a reflection on the past experience myself, and many others had been through. Before creating this, I was always confused how it always takes a decade for the government to do anything. Now, through the frustrations of failing to place a wall in time and witnessing a patient become infected, to moments of guilt when all individuals fall short to the pandemic, I have gained a deeper understanding of the challenges in managing a pandemic and the serious consequences of inaction.
