Bact’Attack was the first game on which I worked almost exclusively as a Game Designer. Cactus Mobile partnered with me in 2017 to create an innovative game for pharmaceutical lab giant Sanofi.
Here is the main Bact’Attack website (in French) with links to the iOS and Android Apps.
The goal of the game was primarily to educate and to make players understand how important it is to not overuse antibiotics. It is a complicated health issue that can be counter intuitive. To make it simple the more antibiotics we collectively use the more resistant bacterias become. Up to a point where they are resistant to every form of antibiotics we have, and in some situations become deadly. This is what we call Antimicrobial Resistance, or Superbugs. To cite the OECD:
“Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – the ability of microorganisms to resist antimicrobials – is the leading infectious health issue across EU/EEA countries and one of the major causes of concern in public health.”
In 2019 the World Health Organisation said:
“If no action is taken - warns the UN Ad hoc Interagency Coordinating Group on Antimicrobial Resistance who released a critical report – drug-resistant diseases could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 and damage to the economy as catastrophic as the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. By 2030, antimicrobial resistance could force up to 24 million people into extreme poverty.”
It is no light issue. Choices in game design in this context are never easy. The most important aspects were:
Attractive mainstream art style to deliver a message to as many as possible
Core gameplay inviting to use antibiotics slowly and strategically, only when really required
Metagame allowing the inclusion of short and educational content
Differentiate bacterias and viruses because only bacterias are killed by antibiotics
I decided to create a light medical context using a petri-dish environment, and to personify the life we had to protect by putting a character in its center.
We decided with Cactus Mobile to go for an exotic controller. By swiping with your fingers you can turn the entire petri dish which rotates the whole game environment and its content.
The strategic layer was added using colours and a clear difference in how we deal with viruses and bacterias:
Viruses are dealt with by the immune system and must be moved (by turning the environment) for a short time near the immune system cannon to be killed
Bacterias come in three different colours and each must be killed by the appropriate coloured antibiotics on the bottom part of the petri dish.
If the wrong antibiotic is used then the bacteria gains a protective skin and becomes stronger. It will require one more use of the correct antibiotic to be killed. Having even one or two bacterias with extra resistance makes the game very hard very quickly and usually snowballs to a game over
Bacterias and viruses drop small pieces of DNA that can be gathered on the right part of the petri dish to act like a bonuses soft currency, allowing you to improve your lab
The metagame also separates upgrades for viruses and bacterias, allowing the creation of storytelling elements to explain the differences betweens the immune system and antibiotics.
The final game is an infinite wave-based arena where successive streams of viruses and bacterias try to attack the life of our patient.
For more information on the health related issues you can read these reports:
OECD Report (2019) - Antimicrobial Resistance Tackling the Burden in the European Union
WHO Report (2019) - NO TIME TO WAIT: SECURING THE FUTURE FROM DRUG-RESISTANT INFECTIONS
Art Direction - Charles Boury | Game Design - Alexis Bacot | Development - Cactus Mobile
2017