A pandemic is coming. Be ready.

Premise
Outbreak is a simulation that puts you in the middle of a pandemic as it circles the globe. You fight the virus using powerful tools to slow its destruction. These tools are smart-toys that give you enhanced insight to best execute your strategies. The more skill you gain using your tools, the more lives you save. You are the hero the world is waiting for.

Backstory
The world is on the brink of the greatest crisis of the century. It is facing a virulent disease, more lethal than it’s predecessor in 1918. The virus moves faster than a forest fire. In 7 days it can travel 300 miles and a month later infect an entire nation. Every second, counts. Every decision matters. World leaders have warned that they are not ready for the devastation it could cause – financial loss, health care drains and the loss of 133 million lives. Worse, vaccines are limited. Worse still – if the virus mutates, current vaccines are useless. Until now, no single organization had the tools powerful enough to run massive amounts of prediction data needed to stay ahead of this virus. You lead the decision-making on important management, scientific and personal events.

Setting
The game takes place in nine locations around the world. Each chapter focuses in on a problem within a specific country or region. For example: Chapter One is set in Indonesia. Chapter Two is set in the United States. The game occurs in present day time, early 21st century. The world leaders and current events match today’s situation.

Features

• Survive for 180 days while maximizing food, health facilities and vaccines.
• Toy with simulators to see the effect of tactical and strategic decisions
• Choose a family and follow them through the crisis
• Play fun mini-games that let you experience the pandemic from a variety of dimensions
• Navigate beautiful visual maps illustrating the "wild-fire" nature of pandemics
• Become the virus and gain a gut understanding of the resiliency of the disease
• Print or email tips from the game to send to yourself or a friend
• Build and share your own games using editors

Look and Feel

Interface
The game switches between four types of interfaces: a load menu, main menu, chapter interface, and mini games. The main menu is dominated by a beautiful 3D globe used to navigate to hotspots containing challenges that correspond to specific days during the pandemic. The globe displays the current state of the pandemic through use of red and green dots indication location of outbreaks. The chapter interface is a zoomed in view of the larger map focused on a location where further sub-missions are highlighted. See walkthrough for more detail. The player also has their personal dashboard which is a tabbed interface that organizes missions, gifts (collectibles) and clips.

Theme/Style
The game creates an atmosphere of investigation and drama. Since it is intended for an older audience, it has darker themes to match the seriousness of the subject. The game, at times, will cause feelings of: fear, tension, suspense, control and challenge.

However, moments of light comedy are interspersed throughout the game to ease tension. The style of some mini-games might have brighter colors to match humorous content. See the Take a Number vaccine game as an example. We feel it’s okay to contrast these styles because the mini-games offer a separation from the main mode of play.

Using popular television shows as an analogy, we aim to create a blend of the suspense in 24, the scientific investigation of CSI with a light touch of the humor from Scrubs. These styles will attract and hold the attention of our audience.