The rising cases of COVID-19 have put the entire world in a depressive state. We took this opportunity to spread awareness that COVID-19 is a serious issue and how we can all do our part to battle it. This game teaches the importance of PPE, and staying away from viruses to protect your health in a challenging yet fun way! As we approach another COVID-19 wave, yes we still are in one (sad), we hope to simulate the difficulty of handling the different waves. Everytime we experience a COVID-19 wave, the situation seems to drastically become more dangerous. The third wave is coming fast and Covoid will help understand how much effort is needed to keep our loved ones alive.
The game involves a scientist who is picking up vaccinations to help cure the local civilians from the dangerous virus, whilst also avoiding the virus particles who are going to infect the scientist. Using the A* algorithm the COVID-19 particles try to find the quickest way to the player to keep the user on their toes at all times. After certain time intervals, the COVID-19 particles will multiply creating a more dynamic environment. Covoid is a game that helps people acknowledge the risks involved with contracting COVID-19 and tries to demonstrate that the community must come together and help each other. The levels are meant to simulate the difficulty of handling each COVID-19 wave. First level - Easy, Second Level - Medium, and Third level - Hard.
Unity - Game engine for 2D platformer C# - Scripting for certain functions Piskel - For assets Blender - Animations A* algorithm - finds shortest path to player (used for COVID-19 particles)
Working in different time zones Sharing materials and splitting of work for a modular working style Compiling and User Interface Creating smooth transitions between levels Adding challenging and smart enemy AI.
We are proud of creating our first ever game in Unity and C#. As well we went above and beyond to incorporate the A* algorithm into our project and multiply the particles after certain time intervals. Also we are proud that we were able to add animation of each sprite instance into an organized animatory slide.
During the designing and development of Covoid we learned how to use piskel to create animated sprites, create an enemy with AI their integration, custom player movement scripts, using A* algorithm to make pathfinding scripts for enemies and most importantly getting familiar and use Unity for the first time.
Next steps for Covoid is to add functionality where the user will have lifes and a timed run where the objective must be completed or the user loses the game. As well we hope to make our game available to everyone so we can educate the youth about how as a community we can keep everyone safe.