I’ve been so happy lately. I have a day job in which I get to flex and learn more Unity skills. I have a partner willing to help me develop Immune Defense and who co-dreams with me about other adventures in molecular biology to come… Life has been stable and I am making tangible progress on a design for Immune Defense… I have been so happy. Oh, and I have friends. Sweet friends. Friends who do things like come to visit me from far away. Friends who get married and invite me to the ceremonies. Suddenly, friends are hazards to game development progress! Oy!
Of course, friends would not be as much a hazard if I were a full time dev, but since we’re an indie operation, my free time is all I got. So this week in indie game development, we learn to relax and enjoy life…
There are new developments. So, as I may have mentioned, we are re-designing Immune Defense for phones. We are building on our play testing results that show us that adults and kids like playing but that they need more guidance to “figure out level 4.” Meaning, they need more guidance to figure out how the cells interact with each other. Learning how the cells work on their own is complicated enough. Learning how they interact is, so far, too hard to understand. In the original level 4 we tried to show that cells secrete molecules (like TNF) that can activate other cells. In the most recent iteration, (the version I took to the AAAS meeting in February) I tried to introduce antibodies, and see whether players could figure out that antibodies can activate cells. I kept notes as I watched about 100 kids and adults play. I fielded questions, gave verbal explanations and drew pictures. I kept track of which explanations and pictures worked. I learned that seeing an image of the antibody doing its job, and the knowledge 1. activated cells eat faster, 2. cells have antibody receptors, 3. antibodies activate cells were all needed to get players involved in using antibodies. With these pieces of information, players actually enjoyed the process of activating the cells in order to eat more bacteria.
So our phone game will have the images and the explanations. What I am working on in addition to these is to create a game mechanic that encourages the player to take the actions I want them to take. What I mean is that I am balancing energy and inflammation more tightly, making the effects of player actions more obvious so that I can use them to nudge the player toward my goals. For example, we have 5 waves of bacteria, energy goes up when you eat them and down when you buy more cells. Inflammation goes up when you have more bacteria or when you have more activated cells. After players get used to the ebb and flow over several levels of 5 waves, when they see that the energy is higher than usual and that bacteria are not dying… they will be looking for a solution… and then buying a new type of cell and looking for information about how to use it will happen more naturally.
Well, that is the plan, any way. This is why my spreadsheets are so valuable. I am making 5 waves of bacteria and now, I have a new type of level, a virus level. Viruses are irregular as far as “waves.” Viruses infect cells and stay inside cells for very different amounts of time before the pop out and become a “wave” of infection. I am currently balancing the energy gained by eating and the cost of fighting viruses… Additionally, we are designing ways to show how antibodies aggregate viruses and how viruses can be neutralized by the correct kind of antibodies. I will show you some level designs, once the spreadsheets for viruses are finished.
Thank you for your support!
