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lymph node scene

A (possibly Avatar-themed.. too many sparkles?) concept image of medullary sinus 'pathways' leading to germinal center globes (after our discussion about how the medullary cords would be made out of lymph cells).

Inspired by the concept art from: TERA, Geoff's metastatic bone cancer, Wensi's sketches, sparkles..

Character Design - Minions

To begin, we have a Naive B cell in the G-zero phase (Picture 1).

Picture 1.

Next, we have a naive B-cell that has begun it's path down the thymus-dependent maturation route (picture 2). The green bits are antigen.

Picture 2.

Here, the naive B cell has been activated with signal 2 (picture 3). As the cell progress from the G1 to the S phase, I envision the endoplastic reticulum sorta increasing in sheaths. Note too that they can now be influenced by IL to change isotypes?

Picture 3. Aka centroblast...?

Picture 4.

Picture 5.

HUD images / sketches

Game play icons, health bar, and map. Icons from left to right: immunopedia button, inventory button, nanorg stats button, cell stats button.




Inventory window/display. On the left is a rough nanorg/humanoid body, with boxes to place items (i.e. goggles on the head, boots or flippers on feet, antibody or MHC complex items on the hands).

On the right is a palette that holds drugs (anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral), vitamins, energy supplies, and other immune-boosting items (like sleep).

TG= triglycerides; ATP = adenosine triphosphate. There are also proliferation and differentiation cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, TGF-beta, IFN-gamma).

Nanorg statistics window. The red-green cell orb on the upper right fills up with experience gained in gameplay; when it reaches 100% the nanorg levels up. Each level increase provides roughly 10 skill points, which can be funnelled into vitality, strength, luck or knowledge attributes.

HP = hit points; these increase with vitality and level. CP = cell points (affects how many and how well you control immune cells); these increase with knowledge and level.

Cell statistics window. These represent the cells the nanorg can control (the number will increase with game progress/levelling).

The tabs on the top let you view either 'myeloid' lineage (eosinophil, basophil, megakaryote, and monocyte) or 'lymphoid' (T, B, and natural killer/NK) cells.

Through the tabs on the left, you can access 'early' (mostly naive and centroblast) and 'late' (mostly memory and plasma) B cells. Geoff's cell stat sheets can be accessed by scrolling through b cells shown on a dock.

Immunopedia window. This will present background information on the science, fictional story, and play/logistic concepts of the game.

Character Design - Playable Character

Here are some brainstorm sketches for the characters. Starting with Picture 1, we have a basic example of a possible design for the male version of an anthropomorphic player character.

Picture 1. Nano organism male version.

Included are some quick motion studies (picture 2) and an idea I had that these nano-organisms have very malleable bodies, membranes, and cytoskeletons (picture 3), so they can take on this more "humanoid" form. To explain this a little more, the way that I envision these beings is that they are like amoebas. They don't have joints. Instead they use cytoplasmic projections and such to move. They swing their internal "bone" structures around like pendulums to morph themselves and propel themselves forward.

Picture 2. Leg motion study.

Picture 3. Morphing.

Amour stuff to come! Think silicone shells!

Game World design

Picture 1: game map
Picture 2: design for medulla
Picture 3: design for secondary follicle in cortex
Picture 4: design for paracortex part
Picture 5: design for HEV in paracortex

UI sketch

This is a really quick/loose illustrator sketch (showing a window border, cell inventory boxes, and a map).

I'm trying to hash out:

• icons of:
  
  • map
  
  
  • cell inventory
  
  
  • status/health bar
  
  
  • spellbook/game manual/immunology encyclopedia button (something more than a question mark, but not too complicated..?)
  
  
  • game score
  
  
  • -- insert some game element I'm missing here? --
  
  
• the idea of having a border around the viewport/scene/window


• screen dimensions

Mélange

(courtesy of Jenna and wordle!)

Portland!

Wensi, Geoff and I are very excited to announce that we will be discussing biomedical games, our project, and research at the next AMI conference this summer.

Here is a happy and anthropomorphic B-cell!

fibroelastic reticular cell conduit

The network of reticular fibers/highways that antigen, cytokines, and cells travel on in lymph tissues.

Some Boss Pathogens

A list of pathogens that lead to swollen lymph nodes:

• Bartonella Infection / Cat Scratch Disease: I'm all for using the more scientific term for this disease-



• TB / Scrofula in the neck: a TB lymph node infection in the neck, and affects immunocompromised children.. with antibiotics it has a near 100% remission rate, but presumably our dystopian futuristic setting will have super-bacteria immune to these?



• Bubonic Plague!



• Toxoplasmosis: A parasitic disease with a pretty antagonistic/villainous name



• Tularemia: this is a parasite that causes swollen lymph nodes, among some other unpleasant symptoms, but infects macrophages (which may be another level of complexity we don't want to address yet?)

A book chapter that briefly talks about agents / the differential diagnosis of Lymphadenopathy (on page 219).

Learn Immunology with music!

Dr. Brain nostalgia/revisited

These are (imo, though I may be biased) excellent games that balance metaphors, with (realistic) scientific concepts. They're visually fun, increase in difficulty, and are peppered with rewards for every new skill or goal you achieve.

The interface is mostly intuitive, each level is introduced with a nice lady talking about the background science, and the game story motivates players to (in this case) save the lost mind of Dr. Brain..

Dr. Brain games feature a 2D storyline of discrete/modulated game levels; these levels usually pose real time strategy or a variety of puzzle challenges.





ps - I still have copies of these games if anyone has a pc that can run them?

pps- the Time Warp of Dr. Brain game has a first level called: Primordial Soup, which is a real-time strategy game, simlar to Sean Wang's MRP and also starcraft, where you command legions of cells that must proliferate and mutate to conquer your opponent's amoebas.

Primordial Soup level screen capture:

Somebody made similar game as we are at 1982!

Lol, guys, this game called "Intellivision Microsurgon" is about one player would move a robot inside human body and find viruses, while the other player would shoot antibodies at the viruses to heal the person. Enjoy this ancient game from 1982!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms_yLmub6PM

PS3 - Heavy Pain

Hey all,
Here's an interesting review for a game called Heavy Rain.
It's a choose your own adventure game, but with some interesting twists. Basically, throughout the game you have to make on the spot decisions, and each decision affects how the story will go... It's hard to explain... so just watch the video until the end!

point form immunology, and sketeches!

Some B cell activation notes

(Please excuse numerous spelling errors, and playing it fast and loose with page formatting .. !)

Also, from the developers of Quest Atlantis:

neat links

Quest Atlantis: An educational 3D multi-user environment for kids!

Scratch: Not a game, but a programming language that lets children design their own interactive stories.