Anara's brief

VirUs is a game designed to bring awareness to the challenges of reopening businesses during the pandemic. The player must navigate through a small office space, completing tasks while avoiding infection. As the player moves up in levels, the area expands and characters are added. This mirrors the progressive opening and return to “business as usual” despite remaining dangers.

Each stage of the game requires players to complete location specific tasks. For example, in an office space, the player completes tasks like getting papers and organizing shelves. The game can be won by finishing the tasks, without getting infected, before the timer runs out. Players get infected by touching an infected surface, but they cannot be infected directly from the virus. The virus bounces around the space and infects anything it touches, infected objects glow for a few seconds to signify that the virus has touched it and then fades back to normal so that the player can identify it. There are a few ways to avoid the infection, hand sanitizer and hand washing. Hand sanitizer takes no time to apply, after you have touched an infected surface, but there is a limited supply so the player cannot solely rely on it. Hand washing has an unlimited supply, but it unfortunately takes up time. The game is designed for children and teenagers to teach them that even if they are unable to see, or have not yet been directly impacted by this virus doesn't mean they are safe. The goal is to make people aware of the severity of the pandemic, and the risks of everyday tasks in an entertaining way.