Objectives (group)

Long-term goals:

To create a game that allows players to explore body tissues from a microscopic vantage point. The characters in this game may include lymphocytes, leukocytes, cancer cells, parasites, RBCs, or imagined ones (such as a nanomachine, or a shrunken human).

This game will have different challenges to overcome in different parts of the body, and may include: a racing or obstacle course through circulatory vessels, scavenger hunts (perhaps to collect the correct antigens, to then present to T and B cells and initiate immune responses), commanding an army of cells to: 1. eliminate pathogens in an acute inflammatory reaction, 2. clear up the resultant necrotic and cell debris, 3. regenerate and rebuild the area (this outcome may include permanent scar tissue, or complete regeneration, depending on how much damage was done), fight individual battles (against microorganisms, mutated cells, self-reacting immune cells i.e. in autoimmune diseases), finding and delivering toxins to the liver to be metabolized (this challenge could be time-senstive, so that if a player is too slow the body is poisoned), rectifying a peptic ulcer (this may involve: 1. fixing underlying causes: increasing mucous production, epithelial cell populations, clearing away h. pylori, decreasing HCl and pepsinogen secretions, and 2. repairing the areas), altering the metabolism occurring in the liver depending on blood glucose levels and nutrients available (i.e. perform gluconeogenesis when there isn't glycogen or glucose available), altering metabolic pathways in muscle cells depending on the oxygen demand or energy needs.

There are many possible plots, body areas, and challenges to elaborate on.

The target audience of this game will be high school students, and university students. Background or short tutorials will be given for every challenge, so that scientific concepts (that may be beyond those taught in high school) will not alienate the intended audience.

Short-term goals:

Create pre-production documents (storyboards, plot and character descriptions, game manual), an interactive application to present the game manual, and initial attempts at 3D rendered and rigged characters.

After April, these components will be unified and placed into a 3D lymph node environment; the character(s) should be able to navigate this environment, and the encyclopaedia should be accessible through game menus, or by clicking on objects in the 3D environment.