Plague Inc was definitely the inspiration for making this game. The idea was "Plague Inc in reverse". It was early 2020 and I wanted to build out a simulation to see what would happen if COVID ended up spreading outside of China to the rest of the world, how would containment & mitigation strategies affect disease replication & national economies. As much as possible, I used real epidemiological models & formulas to build the game's "disease engine".
Unexpectedly, the game seems to do a pretty good job predicting what ended up happening--riots and economic turmoil. Although one possibility I did not add to the game was that the vaccine would end up not ending the pandemic--because at that time it was understood that vaccines prevent diseases. Our understanding of what vaccines do now has shifted. Looks like I got that bit wrong.
oh shit i do not remember writing my comment i’m so sorry for being so rude. i appreciate this detailed story of what got you into making the game, fun to learn about
An excellent and very fun game! Lots of effort put into it too :) You could potentially simulate other viruses like SARS, Ebola, an outbreak of tuberculosis, the Black death or perhaps HIV/AIDS?
Thanks! In the full version SARS and Black death are included already, and I was really excited to plug in Ebola as well. But one thing I discovered after plugging in the disease data into the game is that it's actually super easy to contain an Ebola outbreak! So I ended up removing Ebola for being too easy (despite being a truly terrifying disease).
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so the web version is the trial and the download is the full game?
you will never be plague inc
Plague Inc was definitely the inspiration for making this game. The idea was "Plague Inc in reverse". It was early 2020 and I wanted to build out a simulation to see what would happen if COVID ended up spreading outside of China to the rest of the world, how would containment & mitigation strategies affect disease replication & national economies. As much as possible, I used real epidemiological models & formulas to build the game's "disease engine".
Unexpectedly, the game seems to do a pretty good job predicting what ended up happening--riots and economic turmoil. Although one possibility I did not add to the game was that the vaccine would end up not ending the pandemic--because at that time it was understood that vaccines prevent diseases. Our understanding of what vaccines do now has shifted. Looks like I got that bit wrong.
oh shit i do not remember writing my comment i’m so sorry for being so rude. i appreciate this detailed story of what got you into making the game, fun to learn about
An excellent and very fun game! Lots of effort put into it too :) You could potentially simulate other viruses like SARS, Ebola, an outbreak of tuberculosis, the Black death or perhaps HIV/AIDS?
Thanks! In the full version SARS and Black death are included already, and I was really excited to plug in Ebola as well. But one thing I discovered after plugging in the disease data into the game is that it's actually super easy to contain an Ebola outbreak! So I ended up removing Ebola for being too easy (despite being a truly terrifying disease).