Plague Inc. | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Ndemic Creations Miniclip (Android 2012–2022) |
Publisher(s) |
|
Composer(s) | Joshua Kapalan Marius Masalar |
Platform(s) | |
Release |
|
Genre(s) | Real-time strategy, simulation |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Plague Inc. is a real-time strategy simulation game developed and published by Ndemic Creations. The game was inspired by the 2011 film Contagion and the 2008 browser game Pandemic 2. [1] The player creates and evolves a pathogen to annihilate the human population with a deadly pandemic. The game uses an epidemic model with a complex and realistic set of variables to simulate the spread and severity of the plague. It was released on 26 May 2012 for iOS, 4 October 2012 for Android and 13 May 2015 for Windows Phone.
An updated version, which released on home consoles and personal computer (PC), first released in 2015 as Plague Inc: Evolved and includes adjustments and additions to the gameplay. In 2017, the developer released a physical board game based on Plague Inc. titled Plague Inc.: The Board Game. [2] In December 2018, the studio released Rebel Inc. , a follow-up game with a political theme. [3] In 2024, Ndemic Creations released After Inc, which is meant to be more hopeful. [4]
According to Ndemic Creations, Plague Inc. has been downloaded over 160 million times as of May 2021 [update] . [5] [6] The game was positively received by critics. The game has seen large surges of new users in several countries after significant virus outbreaks, such as the 2014–16 Ebola outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic. [7] [8]
Plague Inc. is a strategy-simulation game in which the player indirectly controls a plague, which has infected patient zero. The player can choose between game modes and pathogens and complete the objective set by the game mode by evolving the plague and adapting to various environments. The goals include but are not limited to, infecting and killing the world's population with a pathogen, enslaving the world's population with the 'Neurax Worm', converting the world's population into zombies with the 'Necroa Virus', establishing the Planet of the Apes with the 'Simian Flu', or corrupting humanity with the 'Shadow Plague'. [9] However, there is a time pressure to complete the game before humans (the opponent) develop a cure for the plague. [10]
The developer has said it is 'a bit like the film Contagion except you are on the other side'. The film Contagion was a partial inspiration for the game, according to the developer. [11] The developer has said the game was partially inspired by Pandemic 2, a browser-based Flash game released in 2008 by Dark Realm Studios. [12]
The player can use many different types of pathogens, each with its own advantages and disadvantages which influence evolution decisions. Initially, the player may only select bacteria. There are four modes of gameplay for each plague type. They are Casual, Normal, Brutal, and Mega Brutal; with Mega Brutal being accessed by clicking the yellow biohazard button under the Brutal icon. Subsequent pathogens are unlocked by winning the game with the previous one on Normal or Brutal Mode. These include virus, fungus, parasite, prion, nano-virus, and bio-weapon. There are also fictional special plague types, including the mind-controlling Neurax Worm, the zombie plague Necroa Virus, the "Simian Flu" from Rise of the Planet of the Apes , the vampire themed Shadow Plague, and the customizable Disease X from the 1.18.6 "The Cure". In addition to these disease types, there are scenarios. Plague Inc gives you the Fake News, Ultimate Boardgames, Science Denial, Mad Cow Disease, and The Black Death scenarios for free. However, all other scenarios cost $0.99 each. You can also buy a scenario pack, giving you all the scenarios for $2.99.
This section needs expansionwith: pre-release development. You can help by adding to it. (June 2013) |
Development most likely started in 2011 with the British creator, James Vaughan, working on the game in his afternoons and evenings. [1] The game was released on 26 May 2012.
In July 2014, Ndemic Creations partnered with 20th Century Fox on an update themed as a tie-in to the film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes . Players cultivate the film's "Simian Flu" virus, which kills humans while making apes more intelligent. Players spread the virus to eradicate humans while helping apes survive and advance. [13]
In 2017, the developer released a physical board game based on Plague Inc. titled Plague Inc.: The Board Game. [a] [14] [15] $355,000 was raised for the board game on Kickstarter. [16] According to developer James Vaughan, "[he] really wanted the challenge of making a physical game to go alongside the video game - especially as board games are getting increasingly popular now". [14]
On 6 December 2018, Ndemic Creations released Rebel Inc., a follow-up game with a political theme based around the "complexities and consequences of foreign intervention and counter insurgency." [17] In it, players must stabilize a post-war country while stopping insurgents from taking power. [18] Though the game was originally only available on iOS, a port for Android devices was released on 11 February the following year. [19]
On 28 February 2019, the studio announced that they would add an in-game scenario about vaccine hesitancy to the game, after a Change.org petition to do so gained over 10,000 signatures. [20] On 24 March 2020, the studio announced that they would add a "cure mode" about stopping the plague outbreak due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. [21]
The remake Plague Inc: Evolved for Steam and consoles has similar gameplay to the original Plague Inc but includes several features not present in the mobile version, such as multiplayer. [22]
On 11 November 2020, Ndemic Creations added a new game mode to the game, named "Plague Inc. The Cure" in which players play against the disease, attempting to cure it. [23] Originally released on the mobile version only, the game mode was later brought to Evolved on PC via a downloadable content update on 28 January 2021. [24] Ndemic released the DLC for free saying that ''Plague Inc: The Cure will be free for all Plague Inc. players until COVID-19 is under control.'' [25] with the game as of the 28th of October 2022 no longer being free costing a base price of 3,29€ or $4.99 [26]
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | 80/100 [27] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
IGN | 7/10 [28] |
TouchArcade | [29] |
Plague Inc received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic, with an aggregated score of 80/100. [27] Wired.com cited Plague Inc. as a notable independent developer success story as it "bucked the system by staying near the top of the charts in numerous countries for the entirety of its existence, pulling in millions in revenue while competing with the big players". [30] It was #1 paid app for both iPhone and iPad in the U.S. for two weeks after launch. [31] IGN said that "Killing billions has never been so fun". [28] TouchArcade said that "Plague Inc. will snag your attention in all the right ways and keep it there". [29] In December 2012, Plague Inc. was one of five games nominated for Best Strategy Game in IGN's Game of the Year 2012, both for mobile and for all platforms. It also won the 'Players Choice' award for best Mobile Strategy Game of 2012. [32] Overall, Plague Inc. was the 15th most downloaded paid iPhone game of 2012 in the U.S. (and 18th on iPad). It was also the 76th highest-grossing game of 2012. [33] In March 2013, the game went on to win multiple categories of the Pocket Gamer Awards, including Overall Game of the Year. [34] It was the 5th most downloaded paid iPhone game in the US in 2013. [35]
According to Ndemic Creations, Plague Inc. has been downloaded over 160 million times, as of May 2021. [5] [6] It has remained at the top of the charts worldwide for five years. Overall, it was the 15th most downloaded paid iPhone game of 2012 in the United States [33] and the 5th most downloaded paid iPhone game of 2013 in the U.S. [35] In 2014, it was the #3 best selling iPhone game in the U.S. and the #1 best selling iPhone app in China. [36] In 2015, it was the 7th best selling iPhone game in the U.S. [36] In 2016, it was the 4th best selling iPhone game there. [37]
As of April 2019, Plague Inc.The Board Game has sold over 35 thousand copies. [38] [39]
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, Plague, Inc. became the top-selling app in the Chinese market, and saw increased sales and number of concurrent players on other platforms. The interest was believed to be from Chinese video gamers trying to find a way to deal with fears raised by the outbreak. Ndemic reminded players that while Plague Inc. was developed based on scientific understanding of the spread of infectious diseases, the game was not on par with any scientific model, and added links to the World Health Organization's website on their own website in response to people inquiring about the coronavirus. [40] [41] [42] By February 2020, as the pandemic spread globally, Plague, Inc. had resurged to be the top paid app on the iOS app store, beating out Minecraft . [43] In response to newfound interest in the game, Ndemic added a mode, developed in conjunction with WHO, about fighting off a pandemic from spreading, based on some of the scientific techniques and lessons learned from the coronavirus spread. [44]
On 27 February 2020, the Chinese government forced the game to be removed from the App Store in China, with the Cyberspace Administration of China citing "illegal content" in the game, though they have not provided any further explanation to Ndemic. [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] Plague, Inc. had been updated with a "Fake News" content update, which they had yet to authorize to release to China, which has been believed to be the reason behind the ban given China's stance on media that is derogatory of their state media. [50]
Dark Realm Studios initially complained on Twitter to IGN reviewer Justin Davis about the Plague Inc. release, saying that the game was "just an attempt to cash in on Pandemic 2.5" due to similarities in gameplay between the titles. The reviewer responded with an article defending Plague Inc. and saying "there's no denying that it bears a close resemblance to Pandemic, but there is also no denying that it improves on that basic disease-spreading premise" [51] Plague Inc. developer James Vaughan rejected the cash-in accusation. [52]
In 2013, Dark Realm Studios said they did not consider Plague Inc. to be a clone and they "regard the situation as a learning opportunity". [53]
In March 2013, James Vaughan, the developer of Plague Inc., was invited to talk at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about Plague Inc. [54] He spoke about how he had modeled the spread of infectious disease inside the game as well as how games like Plague Inc. can be used to inform and educate the public.
Following the talk, the CDC said that it was interested in Plague Inc. as "it uses a non-traditional route to raise public awareness on epidemiology, disease transmission, and diseases/pandemic information. The game creates a compelling world that engages the public on serious public health topics". [55] The game itself got updated with more realistic situations following the CDC meeting as Vaughan got scientific tips regarding pathogens and transmission. [55] The game became the number one selling app in China early during the epidemic phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China; the company received so many inquiries that via its Twitter account it referred its users to the CDC website for information. [56]
A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals, and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been exposed to a communicable disease, yet do not have a confirmed medical diagnosis. It is distinct from medical isolation, in which those confirmed to be infected with a communicable disease are isolated from the healthy population.
An epidemic is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infections, an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic.
The Corrupted Blood incident took place between September 13 and October 8, 2005, in World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. When participating in a certain boss battle at the end of a raid, player characters would become infected with a debuff that was transmitted between characters in close proximity. While developers intended to keep the effects of the debuff within this boss's game region, a programming oversight soon led to an in-game pandemic throughout the fictional world of Azeroth.
Sonic Jump is a 2005 vertical platform game developed by AirPlay and Sonic Team, and published by Sega for the digital distribution service Sonic Cafe, initially only available in Japan for mobile phones before being ported to iOS and Android and released in other regions in 2007. Unlike other games in the series, Sonic Jump doesn't involve running from left to right, but instead, Sonic automatically jumps up the screen, with the player needing to tilt the phone to move him from left to right. The original game's graphical style is based on the Sonic Advance series, which had ended shortly before Jump's release.
Globalization, the flow of information, goods, capital, and people across political and geographic boundaries, allows infectious diseases to rapidly spread around the world, while also allowing the alleviation of factors such as hunger and poverty, which are key determinants of global health. The spread of diseases across wide geographic scales has increased through history. Early diseases that spread from Asia to Europe were bubonic plague, influenza of various types, and similar infectious diseases.
The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be downloaded on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, and some can be transferred to the Apple Watch smartwatch or 4th-generation or newer Apple TVs as extensions of iPhone apps.
Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid is an adventure video game developed by HandCircus, published by Ngmoco, and distributed by Apple Inc. for iPhone and iPod Touch. Rolando 2 was released on July 3, 2009. It is the sequel to Rolando, which was released in 2008. The game follows creatures called "Rolandos" who can be moved around the playing areas by players via the iPhone's accelerometer and the multi-touch features. The game features artwork by Mikko Walamies and music by Mr. Scruff. The game features nonlinear gameplay where players decide how the story plays out.
Plague Inc: Evolved is a real-time strategy simulation video game, developed and published by UK-based independent games studio Ndemic Creations. The game is a remake of the developer's previous game, Plague Inc., adapted for PC and consoles. In the game, the player creates and evolves a pathogen in an effort to destroy the world with a deadly plague. The game uses an epidemic model with a complex and realistic set of variables to simulate the spread and severity of the plague, and has attracted the attention of the CDC.
Super Mario Run is a 2016 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for iOS and later Android. It is Nintendo's first mobile game that is part of one of the company's long-running and major franchises.
Ludo King is a free-to-play mobile game application developed by Gametion Technologies Pvt Ltd, a game studio based in Navi Mumbai, India. Gametion is owned by Vikash Jaiswal. The game is developed on the Unity game engine and is available on Android, iOS, Kindle, Windows Phone and Microsoft Windows platforms. The game is a modernization of the board game Ludo, which is based on the ancient Indian game of Pachisi.
False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messaging, and mass media. False information has been propagated by celebrities, politicians, and other prominent public figures. Many countries have passed laws against "fake news", and thousands of people have been arrested for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The spread of COVID-19 misinformation by governments has also been significant.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have reached Egypt on 14 February 2020.
The public health measures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic effectively contained and reduced the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on a global scale between the years 2020–2023, and had several other positive effects on the natural environment of planet Earth and human societies as well, including improved air quality and oxygen levels due to reduced air and water pollution, lower crime rates across the world, and less frequent violent crimes perpetrated by violent non-state actors, such as ISIS and other Islamic terrorist organizations.
The video game industry has been substantially impacted by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in various ways, most often due to concerns over travel to and from China or elsewhere, and delays in the manufacturing processes within China.
COVID-19 surveillance involves monitoring the spread of the coronavirus disease in order to establish the patterns of disease progression. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends active surveillance, with focus of case finding, testing and contact tracing in all transmission scenarios. COVID-19 surveillance is expected to monitor epidemiological trends, rapidly detect new cases, and based on this information, provide epidemiological information to conduct risk assessment and guide disease preparedness.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people can sometimes be labelled, stereotyped, discriminated against, treated separately, or experience loss of status because of real or perceived links with the disease. As a result of such treatment, those who have or are perceived to have the disease, as well as their caregivers, family, friends, and communities, may be subjected to social stigma.
This article documents the chronology and epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The first human cases of COVID-19 known to have been identified were in Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. It marked the beginning of the 2019–2020 COVID-19 outbreak in mainland China.
Mirror's Edge is a side-scrolling platform game developed by IronMonkey Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for iPad and iPhone in 2010, and for Windows Phone in 2012. The game is a prequel to the original Mirror's Edge, setting the scene about Runners and the city's shady corporations. It received very positive reviews from critics.
The popularisation of mobile games began as early as 1997 with the introduction of Snake preloaded on Nokia feature phones, demonstrating the practicality of games on these devices. Several mobile device manufacturers included preloaded games in the wake of Snake's success. In 1999, the introduction of the i-mode service in Japan allowed a wide variety of more advanced mobile games to be downloaded onto smartphones, though the service was largely limited to Japan. By the early 2000s, the technical specifications of Western handsets had also matured to the point where downloadable applications could be supported, but mainstream adoption continued to be hampered by market fragmentation between different devices, operating environments, and distributors.
Rebel Inc. is a strategy video game developed and released by Ndemic Creations for iOS in December 2018. It was later ported to Android in February 2019. A Microsoft Windows and macOS version was released on Steam as Rebel Inc: Escalation in October 2019. The goal of the game is to stabilize a region of a country while preventing insurgents from seizing control.