Viruses

Learning goal

Internet safety, with one specific habit at the centre of it: thinking critically about the software you use and download. The task is stated in-world, "Your job is to find and remove suspicious items that don't belong - they represent corrupted or malicious files.", and the feedback keeps pointing back at the tell: "That app changed your settings without even asking! That's a big red flag."

My role

• My share here was what it was on the others: the logic, the mechanics, the scene transitions and the balancing. The text and the 2D/3D art were done by other people.
• Built the file-triage loop: every inspected object opens a card with a filename and one line of description, resolved by a binary Leave/Delete, ten cases to a segment. Benign utilities sit in the same pool as the threats, so deleting everything is a losing strategy.
• Set the firewall gate on the same two-button shape but moved the judgement onto the app's own marketing copy, with lookalike naming (Vibe Prem1um, Nove BrOwser) left in as the readable tell.
• Built the turn-based duel inside the router: five actions taken from real security habits (Run antivirus scan, Update software, Delete unknown files, Back up data, Search privacy) and an asymmetric health setup, four hearts on the player against eight on the virus.
• Kept one HUD vocabulary across all three rule sets: the four-heart budget runs through every segment, the x/10 counter through the two triage segments, and the manual stays on [N] everywhere, so a new verb can arrive without the interface being taught again.

Systems I designed

• Three separate rule sets are stacked inside one lesson but share a single HUD vocabulary: the four-heart bar carries across all three segments, while the x/10 sticky-note counter runs in the two triage segments — so a new verb can be introduced without re-teaching the interface.
• The judgement loop is deliberately thin — two buttons — so the difficulty sits in the content: clearly benign utilities, obvious data harvesters and deliberately ambiguous middle cases all resolve through the same pair of choices.
• Case text is written as in-fiction product copy that hides the tell inside a benefit — "automatic call recording enabled by default. You won't miss a thing and neither will we" — rather than labelling an item good or bad.
• Ten cases per segment run against a four-heart budget. Hearts visibly deplete as a segment progresses — down to two of four by 9/10 — which reads as a designed tolerance for a few wrong calls rather than a fail on the first mistake.
• The same subject escalates across the lesson: passive inspection of files, then live admission control at a gate, then an active turn-based encounter. The topic stays constant while the player's relationship to it changes.
• The duel's five actions map onto real security habits — Run antivirus scan, Update software, Delete unknown files, Back up data, Search privacy — and the encounter is set up asymmetrically, with four hearts on the player against eight on the virus.
• NPC handoffs thread the segments together so each mechanic arrives with a diegetic reason: Victor, "manager of the production line and lab department", opens the lesson, Jane the cleaner reports the Trojan jumping into the router, and a director closes it out.
• An in-game manual is bound to [N], surfaced as a persistent corner hint and given its own slot in the duel action bar, so reference material stays reachable from inside every segment.

Core mechanics

• Free third-person exploration of a factory, break room, corridors and offices, with proximity prompts on glowing highlighted objects ("Docunote / Interact [E]").
• File triage: each inspected object opens a card with a filename and a one-line description, resolved by a binary Leave / Delete choice.
• Firewall gate: app-creatures — rendered as a wolf, a bear, a panther and a lizard in saturated non-natural colours — queue at a guarded doorway and are resolved with Let in / Deny entry, judged from a marketing-style blurb rather than an explicit threat label.
• Deliberate lookalike naming on the fake apps ("Vibe Prem1um", "Nove BrOwser") as a readable tell.
• A four-heart health bar that depletes across a segment, giving a mistake budget instead of a hard fail on the first error.
• An x/10 progress counter on a sticky-note HUD element tracking cases resolved within each triage segment (seen at 0/10 through 9/10).
• Turn-based duel inside the router: player and virus stand on opposing platforms and resolve turns from an action bar of five labelled abilities plus a manual slot and Exit.
• Asymmetric duel health — four hearts on the player against eight on the enemy, with the opponent called out by an in-world pointer reading "Traditional virus".

Tracked values

• Player health — four hearts, depleting across a segment
• Progress counter — x/10 cases resolved in the triage segments
• Enemy health in the duel — eight hearts on the virus
• Manual availability — the [N] slot in the duel action bar

Example events

• "LifeData.1 - Collects all user data and sends it to remote servers." — presented with Leave / Delete.
• "SysSweep - System maintenance utility - cleans temporary files and optimizes performance." — a benign case placed inside the same loop as the threats, so deleting everything is not a strategy.
• "Vibe Prem1um - Unlock elite chat features and seamless call access with automatic call recording enabled by default. You won't miss a thing and neither will we." — with Let in / Deny entry.
• Feedback on a bad admission: "That app changed your settings without even asking! That's a big red flag."
• Segment handoff: "Nice work! You removed all the threats! I just got an update - Jane the cleaner saw the virus escape into the router in the break room!"
• Resolution: "Hooray! We did it! The Trojan horse is gone! ... Go tell our director, he'll want to thank you personally."