Immune System Defense

Patrick Clements

Jeremy Pesner

Introduction• Dr. Zheng drew parallels between OO

programming and biological systems in a published paper

• Also wanted an educational game to have interested students play. Should be fun, but also educational and factually accurate

• We were called upon to merge all these ideas together

Educational Games• Have been in existence about as long as

computer games

• Educators tried to capitalize on the “magic of Pac Man”

• In 1981, Thomas Malone set out five main characteristics that he believed educational games should possess

Malone’s Five Points• Clear goals that students find meaningful

• Multiple goal structures and scoring to give students feedback on their progress

• Multiple difficulty levels to adjust the game difficulty to learner skill

• Random elements of surprise

• An emotionally appealing fantasy and metaphor that is related to game skills

Previous Educational Games

Educational Games Today

Our Game and CompetitionImmune Attack Immune System Defense

• Developed by the Federation of American Scientists, Brown University, and University of Southern California

• Modern looking graphics

• Fairly complex controls to non-gamers

• Little replay value, no difficulty setting

• Player is educated through a fictional scenario

• Developed by two college students with XNA Game Studio Express

• Simple graphics

• Very simple controls, anyone can pick them up easily

• High replay value (through randomized levels), several difficulty settings

• Player walks through the realistic biological process

The Immune System

Software Process• Early Ideas:

– Real-Time Strategy Game (Turn-based combat)

– Shooter game (Shoot pathogens down)– Tower Defense Game

Software Process• How a Tower Defense game operates

• Relation to our game– “Towers” = immune system cells– “Attackers” = pathogens– “Citizens” = generic body cells– Extra controls for user

Software Process- Gameplay• Points

– Used to “buy” more cells after a stage– Cumulative– Earn points based on the number of “citizen”

cells remaining after each stage

• Scoring– Number of cells remaining each round– Total number of pathogens destroyed

Software Process• Implementation

– Cells derived from Base class with multiple interfaces

– Updating and Hit Testing– “Vicinity” targeting

Future Works• Randomly Generated Levels

– A vein network created from branching nodes

• Various Types of Pathogens– More biologically accurate and entertaining

• Different Degrees of Difficulty– Allow the game to suit more users

• Framework?– Scripting for use with several different body

systems

Conclusion• Without formal testing available, evaluate

with regards to Malone’s elements of good educational games

1. Clear, meaningful goals

• Defend cells from infection

• Compete for high scores with other players

2. Multiple Goal Structuresw/ immediate feedback

• Point feedback at the end of each level that depends on the performance in each stage

3. Multiple Difficulty Levels

• Clear lack of adjustability

• Rigid gameplay (all users play the same exact game)

4. Random Elements of Surprise

• Movement and placement along with targeting allow the game to be different every time through

• Though random, this does not provide a surprise and thus lacks some ability to keep users coming back

5. Emotionally appealing fantasy related to game skills

• Game based strongly in reality

• Emotional appeal rests in the students dislike of being sick and desire to be healthy again as quickly as possible

Conclusion• Game loosely adheres to Malone’s

elements• Some games are successful without many

of the concepts (Simulation games for example)

• Real value comes from actual testing– How entertaining is it?– Does the entertainment lend itself to the

learning process?