The iPhone game I’m producing is coming along amazingly, and I think it’s time to share the progress. I’m going to show you some screen shots so you can see the gameplay. Some elements aren’t finalized, so when the game is released it will look a little different. But whatever!
You are looking down at an amoeba on a microscope slide. The amoeba will follow your finger around the screen so you can lead it toward food and away from viruses. You’ll also find other protists and DNA floating around.
If you bump into other protists, you become friends. That protist goes into the jar in the lower left corner (notice the euglena seen above is now in the jar), and you can view a collection of all the protist friends you’ve met during the game on another screen. There are 8 different types of protists you will encounter: other amoebas, paramecia, euglena, volvox, stentor, vorticella, coleps, and aspidisca.
If you pick up DNA, you get extra points. Each level has 3 strands that will float by, and if you gather all of them, you will earn double points for the rest of the level.
If you get attacked by a virus, you are no longer a smiling, healthy amoeba, but are instead sort of unsure/quizzical about what is happening to you.
If you are hit with a second virus, you are just plain miserable.
If you are infected with a virus, you can improve your health by picking up medicine that will occasionally float by.
Viruses are constantly floating by, but be extra careful around the red ones.
They explode into smaller viruses that fan out to attack you.
(Also, look how many protists are in the jar!)
Seriously, watch out.
You’re not always helpless against viruses though. Toward the end of each level (which is timed by that pink test tube to the right), a bit of radioactive material will float by.
If you come into contact with it, you will be radioactive, impervious to viruses, and you’ll blow them all away!
But if you don’t get the radioactive super power, you might get infected with a 3rd virus as the level progresses. If that happens, it’s game over and you explode!
I wouldn’t go so far as to call this game truly educational. For starters, viruses can’t be seen with a light microscope, and are about a billion times smaller than amoebas. And of course, there is no anti-viral red and while pill that amoebas take if they are infected. That’s just silliness. I love silliness.
But while this game certainly takes liberties with some concepts (including protists having smiley faces), the general spirit of the game is educational in the sense that it’s exposure to biology. At the very least, you can learn the names of a few different kinds of protists, as they will be in labeled jars when you see your collection. And you’ll have fun gathering food, DNA, and friends in a microbial world. At least, I hope you do!
AMOEBOiD will be available for iPhone and iPad in April 2012.
