A Fun, Challenging Action Game with a Serious Message
6-min read

On this page you’ll find:

• Numerous examples of systems and rules designed for a procedurally generated experience

• 2D level design examples

• Insights into my commitment to testing and quality assurance

Continue reading to learn more about how COVID Courier went from concept to completion and my role in its development.

Concept & Objective
COVID Courier was born out of the need for a fun, educational way to engage players with important public health guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following our success in creating a COVID-19 safety training app for workforce development, we saw an opportunity to expand our reach with a game aimed at the general public.

The goal of COVID Courier was to provide players with a lighthearted way to review COVID-19 safety measures like social distancing and mask-wearing. At the time, these simple yet essential practices had become somewhat muddled, and our aim was to reinforce these concepts in an engaging and memorable way.

We decided to build a simple, quick-to-play game that could be easily accessed on both desktop and mobile. The chosen format was a runner game where players control a character automatically moving through environments, dodging obstacles, and avoiding crowds of people to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. The simple mechanics made the game highly accessible, requiring little instruction while still delivering on our educational goals.

Design Challenges & Solutions
The project presented a number of interesting design challenges, including how to balance fun gameplay with an educational message. We needed to create mechanics that would be intuitive but also emphasize the importance of social distancing and mask-wearing.

For instance, one of the early discussions was about how to represent infection spread in the game. We initially explored a dynamic infection rate system that increased as the player interacted with more NPCs and entered riskier areas. However, after considering gameplay balance and clarity, we simplified the system to focus on static risk factors based on mask-wearing and proximity to others, both indoors and outdoors.

Level Design & Procedural Generation
A key aspect of the game's replayability was its procedurally generated levels. This was essential for keeping the gameplay fresh and ensuring players couldn’t easily memorize the layout.

I worked extensively on designing how these levels would be generated and how obstacles would be placed. I created a digital prototype that didn’t require programming, allowing the team to visualize the game. This approach facilitated quick iteration and provided the team with a tangible concept to discuss and refine before moving into full development. The environment was designed around "chunks" — 16x9 screens of gameplay that were randomly generated and then connected together. This allowed for a modular system where we could ensure that every run felt different while avoiding unsolvable or unfair scenarios.

We also wanted to make sure that players could navigate through obstacles (e.g., rocks, logs, walls) and buildings, each of which had specific interactions. For example, in cabin layouts, I made sure that players could always collect masks along the most optimal route to reduce infection risk. This gave the player a reason to explore and strategize their movements while reinforcing the gameplay’s educational goals.

I set up game assets in Photoshop to quickly generate cabin layouts which allowed for easier implementation through an array-reading system with fewer errors. This approach also made it simpler to present the layouts to the team for discussion and feedback.

Rules & Mechanics
The core mechanics revolved around the player's ability to avoid NPCs, obstacles, and risky locations to prevent infection. I created a set of rules governing how obstacles and NPCs would spawn, how the player would interact with them, and how to keep the game balanced.

Through iterative design, I developed the mechanics of lane-switching, jumping, and dodging that became central to the gameplay. The infection risk system was simplified into four primary risk factors: mask-wearing, proximity to other people, location (indoors vs outdoors), and the number of direct contacts.

I generated detailed level layouts that contained different scenarios. Each layout explained visually and through text how the procedural rules generated that particular scenario. These images were essential in communicating the intended rules to the team.

Playtesting & Quality Assurance
Playtesting for COVID Courier posed some unique challenges, especially since we were working remotely during the pandemic. Typically, I prefer to observe players in person, but in this case, we distributed builds and collected feedback via surveys. Despite the lack of direct observation, the playtests still yielded valuable insights into gameplay balance, difficulty, and player understanding of the rules and setting.

A key moment came during in-person playtests with my younger sibling, who has vision impairments. I quickly realized that some obstacles, such as rocks, were not easily distinguishable from the background, which could cause accessibility issues. I experimented with saturation levels and contrast to work with the artist to make the objects more readable. Upon another playtest with my sister (she’s the best playtester) we found the issue was resolved, making the game more playable for everyone.

Debugging & Refining the Experience
As we neared completion, I noticed an issue with the game's "infection rate" — the scores were not aligning with the intended mechanics. I took the time to test the game thoroughly, discovering that the game's infection rate was being calculated incorrectly due to a bug in how the game was resetting between playthroughs.

By identifying and addressing these issues, I worked with the team to implement a testing environment that allowed us to quickly validate the game's infection mechanics. This process led to several improvements, ensuring that the game’s core rules worked as intended and that players’ scores accurately reflected their gameplay. This also taught me the value of thinking about debugging tools ahead of time and proactively designing them with programmers.

Retrospective
Looking back at COVID Courier, I’m proud of how we were able to quickly prototype, design, and launch the game. The challenge of combining a serious educational message with fun gameplay mechanics was a rewarding experience. However, there are several things I would consider for future iterations:

• The infection rules and their impact on gameplay could have been made more transparent to the player. A better tutorial or in-game feedback during the run would help. I would also focus on simplifying the visual language to maintain consistency across the game. For example, I might replace elements like the bottomless pit with a fallen tree, so that any time a player sees a log or tree, they think, “Jump!” This would reduce the amount of information that players need to learn and hold in mind. 

• The game’s current mode is based on luck to some extent, and while this reinforces the message that we can’t completely eliminate risk, adding an alternate mode where success is more skill-based could provide a more engaging experience for players who want a challenge.

• I advocated for the inclusion of a game-speed slider, which can be found in the released game’s settings menu. However, based on my experience with vision impairments during playtests, I would explore additional accessibility options, such as visual aids and customizable visual settings for players with low vision and color vision deficiency.

Key Takeaways

• The importance of clear communication of gameplay rules to players, especially when balancing educational and entertainment goals

• The value of clear visual representation of rules and rapid prototyping to explore procedural level design and gameplay mechanics.

• The necessity of thorough playtesting and accessibility considerations to ensure all players can engage with the game meaningfully.

• The benefit of designing debugging and testing tools early to streamline QA and maintain accurate game systems.

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