Smash the Curve

(Updated Oct. 23: latest infection data for all countries + bug fixes!)

At a time of increasing pandemic fatigue, our game offers a new way to interact with real-time COVID19 data. Our goal is to keep people informed on infection trends throughout the world. Building on the classic Breakout games and using statistics from Johns Hopkins University for over 100 countries, we challenge players to “smash“ the curve and climb the global leaderboards. 

Game tips: The key to winning is to keep the ball in play while paying attention to both the virus preventative measures and the economy. 

• The measures take the form of power-ups.
  1. Masks increase the strength of each smash 
  2. Testing adds balls in play 
  3. Contact tracing lengthens the size of the controller 
• The economy is represented by GDP growth shown in upper right corner. It increases if you pick up money, but decreases until you smash the curve. 
• Caution: If you pick up the red “public unrest” item, the effectiveness of masks and contact tracing power-ups will go down. You will have to dodge more public unrest if the GDP growth goes down.
• Each country has real-life data so no two curves are the same.  India and the U.S. offer the biggest challenges if you’re up for it! 
• 
  
• Good luck and SMASH the curve