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PANDEMIC (2020-2022) is an in-progress 1st-person 3D simulation game where the player acts as a virus, experiencing an abstract version of the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak. An immersive art piece designed to commentate on the xenophobia and political turmoil brought forth by the pandemic, the game grows in intensity as the player progresses through the reality imagined by Chanhee Choi, a multidisciplinary interactive artist and Ph.D. candidate in the UW Digital Arts and Experimental Media department. PANDEMIC has been under development since 2020, and is set to release this year. The inspiration for the game stemmed from Choi’s personal experience with being the victim of an anti-Asian hate crime during the outbreak.
To create this unreal experience and environment, Choi used custom scripts to enable player control, created a multitude of 3D models as objects with unique in-game behavior, and programmed interactions with the player-controlled virus (I speculate that Unreal Engine was used to create PANDEMIC). She was possibly inspired by other immersive art games with the purpose of creating social commentary and raising awareness for real world problems that need mainstream discussion and attention.
