Immunity Game

BIO 4426 – Infection and Immunity Spring 2021

Game design project

Purpose: To design and produce a tabletop game that can educate future students on some aspect of immunology.

Why are we doing this? The ability to create something from scratch requires multiple levels of understanding of a particular topic: terminology, understanding concepts, synthesis of ideas, organization, etc. By completing this project, you will be showing that you understand the topic of immunology to a point that you can create a novel product that can teach others what you know.

What will you get out of this? The skills you will gain in this project include: a better understanding of immunology, the ability to organize what you have learned into a novel project, and the ability to verbally discuss what you know about immunology as it pertains to the game.

Overview: Each student will develop a tabletop game using immunology as a framework. The nature and complexity of the game is up to the student, but it must be educational in the sense that after playing the game, players will have a better understanding of immunology.

At the end of this project, the students will have produced:

1. A detailed, written description of the game, including what aspects of the immune system it is meant to illustrate and how it will help players learn more about the immune system.

2. A written set rules that explain how to play the game. 3. A short presentation introducing the game and explaining its key elements.

The game (50%): although the game design is negotiable, there are a few things to keep in mind about games. A good game includes at least some elements of skill, luck, risk, reward, challenge, and feedback (to name a few). This means that the game designed during this project is expected to be more than “Trivial Pursuit” or “Chutes and Ladders”. The best way to understand how to design a good tabletop game is to play a good tabletop game, or at the very least watch one being played and/or discussed by others:

• Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop • Shut Up & Sit Down • The Dice Tower

The rules (25%): the rules should be written with enough detail to explain how to set up the game, play the game, and how the game is played.

The presentation (25%): the presentation should be a 5-10-minute PowerPoint presentation that introduces the game, the basic rules, and how it will teach immunology through gameplay.