Senior Design Projects
ECS193 A/B Winter & Spring 2022
ImmunoWars mobile app game tutorial
| ********** | |
| Name | Michael Larson |
| Affiliation | UC Davis Health Radiology & Larson Labs LLC |
Project's details
| Project title | ImmunoWars mobile app game tutorial |
| Background | Games can be a powerful way to entertain and educate people about their health. ImmunoWars is a proposed game where the player gets to virtually control a few white blood cell soldiers as they battle various microbe bad guys. In the full version of the game (not this proposal), the player will unlock different "organ" battlefields and new characters and abilities based on actual attacks our bodies use to fight germs (with an in-depth explanation of the inspiration from nature/deviation from reality for those interested in learning more about the immune system). This proposal is to create the tutorial and introductory "Petri dish" level. |
| Description | This proposal is to create a guided tutorial and then free-play mode in the the most basic playing field, the Petri dish. The player will learn 1 at a time how to control 4 of the good guy white blood cells (WBCs) while they fight off various germs in a petri dish (a 2D playing field with user-definable color "agar"). I will provide sprites (either in 2D or in 3D--whatever is preferable for you, the programmer) that the player can control. These characters will have an energy bar that gets drained as the character gets hurt by bad guys or performs attacks that require energy. For the petri dish level, there is no concern about the abundance of oxygen (which will be of concern in the more expanded version in organ battlefields, where the player also has to maintain blood vessels or grow them to keep red blood cells and oxygen flowing). The bad guys will also have energy and attacks, with all but the virus class of bad guys having the ability replicate from 1 to 2 bad guys. The player will be able to select a difficulty for the free play portion of this proposal. |
| Deliverable | A version of a game playable online where the player can select from the home screen 1) Tutorial, Free play or Settings -A) Tutorial would be a 5 level guided walk-through of how to use each of the 4 white blood cells (WBCs), each WBC with its own unique abilities (see attached PDF for details), plus a 5th to show how to use multiple WBCs as a team together --i) Level 1 introduces the neutrophil character, aka Nitro Phil/Poly Morpha/PMN with their punch, oxy burst, and neutro net attacks --ii) Level 2 introduces monocyte/macrophage character, aka Max Phage, Mona Nuke, or monocyte with its bite, mac attack, or cyto kind --iii) Level 3: cytotoxic T cell aka Mr. T/Toxxy/T cell with stab, bit power-up and super stab attacks --iv) Level 4: B cell aka Bomber, Bea or B cell with antibody missle attach, bit power-up and plasma attacks. --v) Level 5: 2 of each of the above WBCs join forces to take on a lot of WBCs. -B) Free-play mode with a Play Now button or sub-settings menu to change the number of bad guys, the difficulty of the bad guys, the number of good guys at the start, and the Petri dish agar color. Bad guys are detailed in the attached PDF. -C) Settings would allow to change the petri dish color, bad guy difficulty aka "virulence", the number of good guys starting off in the free play level, and gene/gender preference to change up the sprites/names of the good guys). Also needs to include a ridiculous disclaimer how "ImmunoWars is not intended to prevent, diagnose, treat, cure, or cause a disease. Results may vary. If this is a real emergency, dial 9-1-1. Ask your doctor if ImmunoWars is right for you." |
| Skill set desirable | -Game programming skills (familiarity with Unity is OK to use but not required; individual subscriptions to applicable toolkits may be provided if needed) -Mobile app programing experience (Android preferred) or willingness to try if not familiar with game programming -No fear of asking questions |
| Phone number | ********** |
| Client time availability | 30-60 min weekly or more |
| IP requirement | Client wishes to keep IP of the project |
| Attachment | Click here |
| Selected | No |
| Team members | N/A |
| TA | N/A |