R(Nought): Covid-19
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Screen Shots
Game Description
R Nought, in epidemiology, “is the number of cases, on average, an infected person will cause during their infectious period. “ (source 1) What this game does, is pits the protagonist against a growing number of Covid-infected tourists in a hot vacation spot on the coast. The protagonist cannot afford to purchase an early plane ticket home and must do everything in their power to protect themselves as they earn cash and get out of town before they contract the virus. Players will avoid burglars, purchase, and find protective gear, and do whatever it takes to buy that plane ticket. R Nought incorporates mechanics that encourage players to practice social distancing and allows for various playstyles to either speed run the game and compete for the fastest time or hang out an explore the chaotic town.
Overview
Title: R Nought
Tagline: “Hey! That is not 6 feet, get away!”
Genres: RPG, Single Player Game, Survival, Simulation Game
Platforms: PC (Mobile later)
Target Audience: PC and Mobile players of ages 16+ that enjoy Pokemon-esq games
Plays Like: Pokemon
Goal: Avoid contracting a disease and get out of town
Major Mechanics:
- Square Tiled map
- 8-direction character movement
- Obtaining wealth to purchase items
- Purchasing from vendors
- Viral Load Meter that fills when contracting virus
- NPCs infect each other with the virus naturally
- NPCs infect players within “6 feet” of them
Key Experiences
- Barely avoiding contracting the disease
- Escaping a robber
- Finding a new obtainable upgrade
- Managing economy
World
The world consists of a mid-size beach town that is a strong attraction for tourists. The player finds themselves waking up to a series of text messages, one from their significant other warning them of a new virus, and another from the local news about the virus finding its first few victims in their vacation town. The goal of the player is immediately to find protective gear to assist in avoiding contraction of the virus, and to do so they are going to need the standard protective supplies: A facemask, some gloves, and hand sanitizer. Spatial awareness is a key skill a player may find useful when adventuring and may find the game progressively more difficult with the number of victims increasing exponentially.
Players are not only encouraged to practice social distancing in-game, but also hopefully see how the virus can spread naturally from person to person in a small period of time, even with a small infectious radius of 6-feet, and apply some of the social distancing practices used in game to their personal lives. By the time the player has left the town, it is expected that nearly 80% of town will be infected.
A challenge that players may face is that as the number of people get infected, maneuvering around town becomes much more difficult, and if they happen to get trapped between two infected people and contract the virus, they are immediately sent to the hospital, which carries a hefty bill of $1500. There are many areas around town that the player must get to in order to complete objectives, and to do so there may be a multitude of infected pedestrians wandering in the player’s way. As the game progresses and players are more equipped to protect themselves, more opportunities for exploration will be introduced, with many side explorations being rewarding with either cash or other in-game consumables. More consumables will be added in future versions of the game in addition to various alternative sources of income.
Selling Points
- Convenient gameplay experience that has unique elements and is fun and sometimes strategic
- Allows for exploration
Development Log
Playtesting Reports
Presentation
Team Reflect
Our team did a fantastic job communicating and collaborating on map design and integration. Evidence of this epic feat of collaboration is the large and complex map that was created as a result and the integration of all the different digital prototypes that we implemented in our game. If we had another 2-weeks to work on the game we would:
- Do a complete game wipe of all the NPCs and rebuild the patrol routes, wandering/patrolling scripts.
- Alter the art assets of players/NPCs to look crisper and have variation of character models.
- Incorporate more of the ideas we have for mechanics and story line from the conceptual prototype.
Credits
Ryan Larson
Email: rlarso@uw.edu
Primary Role:
- Map Designer
- NPC logic implementation
- Story Development
- Pixel Art Asset Desiger
- Component Testing
- NPC Behavior Scripting
- Player Behavior Scripting
Bio:
- University of Washington Computer Science and Software Engineering Senior
- Map Design Enthuesiest
- Futurist
- Optimization Fanatic
Eyas Rashid
Email: me@eyasrashid.com
Primary Role:
- Audio Design
- Project Management
- User Interface Design
- Integration Testing
- Animation Specialist
- Conceptual Design
- Dialogue Implementation
Bio:
- University of Washington Computer Science and Software Engineering Senior
- Anti-social Gamer
- Plant Enthusiast
- Mountaineer
- Foodie
- Coffee addict