Malaria Game -- Game Design Help Wanted!
Hi all,
We'd love your input on a game we are designing now, about Malaria. As you know, Malaria is a serious public health problem in many countries, including India. An 8-bit game on a $10 computer might be a good vehicle for triggering family conversations about the disease --and its prevention.
It's a little hard to see in this mockup, but there is a flyswatter in the center. There are little mosquitoes (they look like the letter Y-- will be animated) that will fly around. These will be generated by the piles of garbage and the pool of water. Here is a swf mockup
The basic game dynamic is that you should try to kill the mosquitoes before they land on the children and bite them.
The idea is that killing lots of "enemies" is a pretty typical game dynamic-- and so it should be possible to make a game that makes it fun to kill a lot of mosquitoes. Of course, if you don't get rid of the garbage and standing water that generate the mosquitos, then the mosquitoes will keep coming. That's a game dynamic taken from Gauntlet.
However, we now have to take this core idea and stretch it into a game that could be compelling for a few hours of gameplay.
Any ideas??
Derek
We'd love your input on a game we are designing now, about Malaria. As you know, Malaria is a serious public health problem in many countries, including India. An 8-bit game on a $10 computer might be a good vehicle for triggering family conversations about the disease --and its prevention.
It's a little hard to see in this mockup, but there is a flyswatter in the center. There are little mosquitoes (they look like the letter Y-- will be animated) that will fly around. These will be generated by the piles of garbage and the pool of water. Here is a swf mockupThe basic game dynamic is that you should try to kill the mosquitoes before they land on the children and bite them.
The idea is that killing lots of "enemies" is a pretty typical game dynamic-- and so it should be possible to make a game that makes it fun to kill a lot of mosquitoes. Of course, if you don't get rid of the garbage and standing water that generate the mosquitos, then the mosquitoes will keep coming. That's a game dynamic taken from Gauntlet.
However, we now have to take this core idea and stretch it into a game that could be compelling for a few hours of gameplay.
Any ideas??
Derek
Views: 126
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Malaria Game v01.swf, 13 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Weir on -
The Gauntlet game dynamic seems like it will work well on a small scale, but I think you need a second level of gameplay to serve as a larger-scale mechanic. Since you're trying to promote education, why not make the long-term goal education? You could have each "level" be a region of some fictional village or state, and have the long-term goal to clear each level and then make sure the people there know the basics of malaria prevention.
It's unclear whether there's a humanoid player avatar; perhaps educating people is the only way to gain helpers to get rid of garbage and standing water. The gameplay cycle could look something like this:
Enter area -> Clear mosquitoes -> Between breeding periods, cover/drain water and clear garbage while educating new helpers -> Repeat until done.
Maybe the threat of mosquitoes, or even the symptoms of malaria, prevent people from helping out while mosquitoes are around. Perhaps each level starts with no helpers, so you need to educate before you can start targeting the breeding grounds. Maybe you start each level with a number of helpers based on how many levels you've cleared.
Education could take the form of grading pop quizzes: each NPC is asked a set of, say, 3 questions from a wide array of questions about mosquito breeding, disease vectors, malaria symptoms, and the like. The player would have to pick which of the 3 answers is incorrect, and successful grading would recruit an NPC. Or maybe you could use just a traditional testing system, but that might turn off some players.
Things I think might need to be avoided: make sure useful pools of water are covered, not drained, so you're not encouraging kids to drain drinking water. I'd avoid financial motivations or material resources like netting and drugs, as those might not be available in real life, and it would distract from the primary purpose of the game.
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Permalink Reply by James Derek Lomas on
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Greg, these are great ideas. The idea of educating other people as a game mechanic is interesting... I wonder if there are other examples of this.
Based on your comments, I'm now thinking about how the "swatter" could transform into a selection tool that would allow the player to direct NPC to pick up trash, etc. That could enable a whole range of new activities.
As for the actual anti-malaria actions-- I'm networking around to find a public health expert to consult on this. If anyone knows someone with expertise, definitely get in touch!
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Permalink Reply by Vivek Fitkariwala on -
Well it is a nice idea but I have a different idea which I would like to share with you.
Well in the game there will be a character which will carry a pesticide spray as his gun and from the top (or from side in order to increase difficulty or increase difficulty with level) mosquitoes will attack him and with his gun he will shoot them each hit will earn him some money or points.
Character will have health in numerical value.
Money or Points will also be in numerical value.
Each mosquito hit will reduce his health by some numerical value.
After completing each level he will go to a shop where he can buy two different types of items with the point or money he earned during the game and those items he can use in next level ---->
Attacking ----> Tripple shoot, better pesticides sprays etc (as I could thought off only these items till now).
Defending----->mosquitoes repellent, Full sleeves shirts and pants, Medicine names, antibiotics, gauze or net.
When the player will select, explanation of each item will be shown below like
--->mosquito repellent will repel mosquito and it will decrease damage by ____ points for ____ no's of mosquitoes attack.
--->medicine will cure you and increase this much health when used.
--->full sleeves shirt will cover your body part and prevent ____ no of mosquito for biting you. etc
In this way we would be able to explain different items and how they can be used for prevention.
Collecting money for buying costlier items while still using some items for successfully clearing the level will make the game challenging and using different combination of items will indulge their interest also.
As the cause of malaria can't be shown during the game so before the start of each level we can show like this
---->because the garbage are not dumped mosquitoes grew there so kill them and then dumped the garbage
in next level before starting we can show that because of contaminated water in cooler mosquitoes grew there
and different different reasons before starting different levels.
Though the cause will not affect the actual game (when character will shoot mosquitoes) but it can be used to develop a story in the game as how to keep your house protected from mosquitoes by giving different suggestions in different level.
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Permalink Reply by whymandesign.com Create innovate on
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Hi
Can we work with you to create a generic game format that can be reskinned to entertain and educate about different diseases and put on mobiles and the $10 devices?
Would it be possible to work with you to make a re skinned
version of existing software so we can help the public to solve other
social issues (Ideally using that http://www.TRAIDmark.org business
structure)? Maybe working with someone like
http://www.ONEworldHEALTH.org or http://www.earth.org which
is closing so maybe this is something I could help you take on so
everyone can share local knowledge? Also can http://www.WEBiversity.org
share video's and create http://www.TRUSTlibrary.org with your education
team?
Ed http://www.WHYmandesign.com
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Permalink Reply by Dr. Mike Reddy on -
Ok, let's see what can be achieved using a web audit technique - a "WebNet" - and consideration of what should be necessary for this to be a good "serious" game:
Firstly, let us consider actual practice and received wisdom on preventing/eliminating/eradicating Malaria. Sadly, it ISN'T fly swats. So, what is it? And, more to the point, what IS Malaria?
The symptoms of malaria include: High fever, Chills and Shaking, Extreme sweating and Fatigue, Malaise (Head, Muscle and Body Ache), Nausea and Vomiting [http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/healthy/travel/384.html]
This can quite well be represented by sprite animations, as well as explanitory text. Some representation of symptoms provides both a "bad" result in game play and allows learning of signs that can allow players to be aware that Malaria is present in real life; given that it is treatable if handled early, this could be a life saver. Also, it is important to note that only when mosquitoes have picked up the parasite from an infected person can they then infect others over the next two weeks or so. Having two classes of mosquito - those with and those without the parasite (remembering that it is only the females that carry it) - and infected and uninfected humans might be necessary; a bit like a zombie game then (!) as isolating already sick people is one potentially effective strategy. Garbage and standing water are NOT causes of Malaria, although the latter does aid the insects to breed.
The best prevention is to not be bitten - advance doses of preventative medicine, screens in sleeping areas, protective clothing and bug repellant - but these don't necessarily translate into gripping game mechanics, although bug spray might, at a pinch, be a good in-game mechanic, even if focussed on the humans rather than the mosquitoes. If anything, the other methods of prevention will be best represented in choice screens, like tooling up/equiping characters in an RPG.
There are some powerful political movements to eradicate, rather than merely prevent Malaria:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/...
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/African_leaders_start_drive_to_eradicat...
This report highlights the use of insecticide treated nets. The placement of these could be inspiration for a good puzzle-based mechanic: Place the nets properly in a given time to block mosquito access to an area, but maybe shapes have to fit together, or with a limited supply of netting or insecticide. A "tower defence" idea is bubbling in the back of my mind, but at this stage it is just about free association. I can see mosquitoes hitting nets and "fizzing" away, which could be quite satisfying.
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/topics/pages/malaria.aspx focusses on the fact that the main victims are under 5 years old. This suggests that the game should have a protagonist who is protecting NPCs rather than themselves, which would also allow a "lemming-like" graduated failure: "You saved 5 out of 8 babies in this level!" rather than "You have failed". A deferred goal like this allows both increasing difficulty and an easy start.
The main long-term strategy is developing a vaccine, with alternatives being to affect the insect reproduction cycle, but these are outside the scope of a "serious" game:
http://health.howstuffworks.com/malaria-prevention.htm
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/topics/pages/malaria.aspx
However, standing water is a more immediate vector for mosquito reproduction, and spraying likely breeding areas is one option being discussed. However, insect immunity can become a problem. Again, this is a more immediate mechanic that might lend itself to a turn-based or real-time strategy game. For example, it could be initially effective, but if over used could cease to function, forcing the players to adopt (or look for) alternative strategies. One excellent article on the "defeat from the jaws of victory" history of Malaria eradication is here (particularly page 2 of the piece):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/04mala.html?_r=2
Similarly, resistance to prophylactic medicines, ones that suppress or attack the parasite that causes the disease when it gets into the body through a mosquito bite, are described in this BBC site, which has both an example of the drawbacks of reliance on parasite prevention medicines and the possible alternative stragies:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7735858.stm
Further information for the really committed researcher:
http://www.appmg-malaria.org.uk/publications/
http://health.howstuffworks.com/malaria-prevention2.htm
Summary:
Sadly, much as I like the idea of fly swatting, I don't think that it is a good way to teach people about Malaria. It could be a good way to show deaths and the failure of strategies that are not all-encompassing. A game that has limited resources - only so many units of netting, doses of medicine, etc. - and strategic choices in deployment might best reflect current political obstruction to Malaria prevention.
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We are pretty much aiming to replicate the above swf file for our first demo. That's because we were offered a chance to present the demo at E3 in two weeks, if we can get *something* running on the platform. However, we'll be working on this game for a while.
As for the underlying dynamic-- we believe that killing mosquitoes (fly swatting) can be a great game dynamic and teach good malaria prevention-- precisely because it ISN'T sufficient for preventing malaria at a village level. We simply have to make the game such that it is far too hard to progress through the game by only killing the mosquitoes by swatting them. Unless the players address other issues (standing water, bed nets, etc), there will simply be too many mosquitoes.
One useful game dynamic was suggested to me recently-- we can have the player receive money on a continuous basis, based on the productivity of the village. If villagers get malaria, then they are less productive... So , in this way, the game is shaping up to be a sort of 8-bit "Sim-village." This is great, because we are really looking to find games that appeal to girls, and sim-games have been some of the most successful, in that regard. Plus, we might address some other issues, like agricultural practices, infrastructure, etc
:) Like I said, this game will be IN-PROCESS for a while. Ideally, we could get some funding to complete the game from an organization interested in malaria prevention and outreach.
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Permalink Reply by sagar watamkar on -
My suggestion.
In the game include a villain ”mosto” who trough tires , coconut shell here and there so this helps to grow mosquito in village our game hero search and destroy this things .
Game hero also act as medic who supply malaria medicine to the sick people in the village.
Game hero filled the ponds which having the mosquito larva and drops larva eating fish in big ponds and wells.
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Permalink Reply by Julian Rojas-Millán on -
I haven't read all the answer, but I suggest some abstraction to the art and story. Maybe isn't practical for this game given the stage of development, but in other similar projects you can change the setting and background story to be more attractive instead of a representation of the environment where the player lives.
I mean, your mechanics isn't quite differente of any shooter (from Contra to Gears of War), so why don't complement with some fiction as well?, for example place it in the near future as a science fiction game where a disease transmited by some flying being is attacking people, or some fantasy tell about good fairys and bad fairys and in the meantime tell how malaria isn't as much different and include the information you need to spread in order to educate people.
I think that would add some appeal to the game in order to make it more interesting to children. In game design, the package you deliver the message is as important as the message itself (in my opinion).
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