Pandemic Simulator
A serious strategy game where you manage a city during a COVID-like pandemic, balancing public health, media, research, and policy using systems engineering and a dynamic SEIR model.
Year Active: 2020
Simulation: Fighting Against Coronavirus is a serious strategy game inspired by real events during the COVID-19 pandemic. Created by a team of Interactive Media & Game Development (IMGD) graduate students from Wuhan, the game puts players in the role of a city official tasked with managing a viral outbreak. Players must balance saving lives, maintaining public morale, and sustaining the local economy while dealing with limited information, rapidly evolving situations, and the human stories behind every statistic.
The project began in early 2020, as the first wave of COVID-19 swept through Wuhan. Motivated by my personal experience and the desire to help others understand the complexities of pandemic response, we set out to capture the difficult choices faced by government officials during a crisis.
Role: Simulation & Systems Design Collaborators: Shano Liang, Jiadi Zuo
Year: 2020
Systems Engineering & System Dynamics
The core of Simulation: Fighting Against Coronavirus is built on a systems engineering approach, utilizing a modified SEIR (Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered) transmission model to capture the complex dynamics of a viral outbreak. Key epidemiological parameters, such as infection rate, incubation period, and recovery rate, are dynamically influenced by player decisions, city policies, and resource availability. Policies like mask mandates, public transportation suspension, disinfection, and quarantine measures all feed into the simulation, reflecting their real-world impact on transmission.
Game systems go beyond just disease modeling: resources such as hospital beds, medical staff, and surgical masks are tracked and directly affect both health outcomes and available actions. A layered media system models public concern, panic, satisfaction, and government credibility, allowing players to manage information flow and citizen morale through simulated news and social media (rewritten from authentic sources). Research progress and pressure on scientists affect not only future healthcare capabilities, but also the pace at which new solutions can be deployed.
These interlocking systems create meaningful feedback loops: for example, inadequate healthcare capacity or mismanaged communication can trigger public panic or reduce government credibility, while smart policies and successful research can stabilize the city. Every choice ripples through the simulation, making holistic, adaptive thinking essential and immersing players in the genuine complexity of pandemic response.
If you are curious about the system design or the underlying models, please feel free to contact me.