Isolation has been a considerable concern during the coronavirus pandemic, as lockdown measures have been deployed at various points and to various extents throughout the last six months.  Researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne are developing a video game to help explore the various issues involved in this state of confinement.

The researchers developed a video game to explore the various ethical decisions people have had to make throughout the pandemic as they attempt to maintain social distancing and relative confinement from others, and indeed how people have struggled with these decisions.

“Video games can convey information as well as emotions. The idea behind this game is to have a testimony to this period in history that has impacted us all. For a newspaper like Le Temps and for a researcher like myself, it is important to document and keep an account of these experiences,” the team say.

Exploring isolation

The developers produced a series of interactive, choose-your-own-adventure stories, called “Quatre apparts et un confinement” (Four Condos and a Containment)”, in which the lives of four fictitious neighbors in the same building are dramatized.

The game, which is currently available in French, allows players to navigate the digital apartments and visit each character.  This allows the player to participate in their lives, including the decisions they make, the worries they have, and their desires.  Some of the experiences may be familiar, but others may be novel.

“This video game allows us to tell the story of confinement from different angles, while allowing the player to participate. This represents an important opportunity to relive confinement, but from the perspective of another person—for example, a single mother, an elderly woman, or a student,” the researchers explain.

The team believe that the game not only has an instructive element to it, but also allows them to explore a range of ways to innovate in terms of storytelling across a range of interactive formats.

“With most media organizations now facing the question of audience renewal, interactive formats are a way to remain relevant to changing audiences while also attracting new ones, especially among younger generations,” the developers explain.

Thanks to its open-source code, the creators also emphasize that other media and institutions are invited to publish or adapt the unique gaming experience, for example into other languages.