Medialogy students develop games about Covid-19

With the aim of raising awareness, mainly among children and adolescents, about the needs for physical isolation, the use of masks and hand hygiene to prevent Covid-19, Unicamp students created “Covideogames” – games based on everyday situations they face. in the pandemic. The project, coordinated by professor and researcher Alfredo Suppia, is being developed by four students from the undergraduate course in Social Communication – Medialogy: Erick Manaroulas, Guilherme Vian, Klebert Palucci and Tomás Xavier. The launch of the first games will take place between October 16th and 25th, during 11a. Unimedia, an annual event organized by the course’s students. After launch, the games will be made available for free on a website, which can be accessed via computers or cell phones. 

The dynamics of the games and the information they provide are based on sources such as the WHO (World Health Organization), the with the BBC and the El País. With a “retro” aesthetic and characteristics of the “arcade” genre or style – such as the presence of scoring and stages with different environments – “Covideogames” present simple commands and provide challenges similar to those faced in everyday life with the Covid-19 pandemic. In the beta version of the first games, for example, the character controlled by the players must put a mask on other characters, disperse crowds and send those infected to the hospital, always washing their hands between each action.

“Covideogames” are linked to the Study Group on Cinematographic and Audiovisual Genres, Genecine. They are part of the activities of one of the five lines of research in this group, called “Gamecine – cinematic arts and videogames”, composed of the four students who are creating the “Covideogames” and coordinated by professor Alfredo Suppia. In this line of research, a “gamification” project was already being developed, aimed at adapting Brazilian films into the format of electronic games. With the outbreak of the pandemic, during a virtual meeting, professor Alfredo Suppia proposed to the Gamecine group the creation of games about preventing Covid-19, and thus the idea of ​​“Covideogames” was born.

To produce the games, a learning system based on problem solving is put into practice. In this system, most of the time, it is the students themselves who discover answers or solutions: “Sometimes I act a little like Abelardo Barbosa, our late Chacrinha, who said that 'he was not here to explain, but rather to confuse'. I'm not as competent as Chacrinha as a 'philosopher', even less as a communicator. But I try, as much as possible, to keep students instigated and challenged”, comments Suppia.

One of the students in the group, Erick Manaroulas, considers that the game production process has been challenging, but motivating. "Many difficulties arise, both in the creative and technological aspects, considering that we are collectively learning programming issues, game design and teamwork methodologies”, he comments. The group has been systematically improving the gameplay of “Covideogames”. An alpha, test version of the first game has already been created, and a questionnaire was administered on players' interaction with the system in this version. Based on the feedback, solutions are proposed for the issues raised by users. 

According to Alfredo Suppia, the group is interested in monitoring the reception of the games among children and young people. He intends to establish partnerships with public elementary or high schools that want to use the games as teaching material in class. From this experience, the satisfaction of student users will be measured and how much they were able to learn about Covid-19 prevention through games. Teachers or schools that match the indicated profile and are interested in establishing this partnership can contact the group by email.

* Laís Souza Toledo Pereira She has a degree in Literature and is studying postgraduate studies at the Laboratory for Advanced Studies in Journalism (Labjor) at Unicamp