Biohazard: Gameplay

The player progresses through the game levels as a single character, advancing in his/her career. The player increasingly encounters diseases that have either mutated or are extremely rare in the medical field. Prior to beginning the first level, the player is able to build and customize his/her character. After hearing about the mission briefing, players can choose which tools and resources they want to bring along, from a menu. We believe that this will support reflection, and research into the tool use.

Managing Time and Controlling Disease:
The gameplay in each level involves two primary parameters: 1) finding information to successfully diagnose and treat the patient, and 2) making choices so as to minimize subjecting oneself and others to infection.On each level, Biohazard simulates the spread of disease throughout the environment. The player must treat patients while attending to time pressures and minimizing the risk of spreading or contracting illness while moving through the game space (hospital in level one). These pressures force the player to reflect carefully on decisions, weighing the consequences of each decision.

Victory Conditions:
The player wins a game when he/she identifies the disease, prevents further infections and, if relevant, cures those already infected. On each level there will be an appropriate win-condition, such as issuing a public health notice, phoning the CDC, finding a serial killer, or simply telling the hospital that there is no cause for alarm.

Failure States:
If the player does not succeed in identifying the disease within a specific period of time, more and more people will get infected and eventually there will be no medical personnel available for conducting medical tests. The player controlled character is, of course, also always at risk of getting infected. If this occurs then the time which the character has decreases significantly as he is likely to begin developing debilitating symptoms of the disease (including loss of vision, inability to move/walk quickly, et cetera). The final failure state of the game is death of the character. Consistent with 'Learning By Doing' Pedagogy, mistakes are a critical component of the game as they encourage players to reflect on the choices they made and how future problems might be avoided.