CurePuzz

CurePuzz was made during the Lille Scientific Game Jam and is inspired by Rouqaya Achour's thesis : Stimuli-responsive hydrogels based on self-immolating polymers sensitive to near-infrared light for controlled drug release.

In simple terms : Rouqaya's work is about trapping medicine inside an hydrogel and releasing it by triggering the hydrogel with near infrared lights. 

To make this game we started from the assembly aspect of her work and the fact of having to use the right chemical components to obtain the release of the drug on infrared trigger. We chose to keep an interesting constraint of her research, the hydrophilic and hydrophobic chemical elements that constitute the polymer chains. from this we established four puzzle pieces : 

Hydrophobic Links : makes the basic element of the game and allow players to link connectors and triggers. It has to be connected with a Hydrophilic link

Hydrophilic Links: Makes the basic element of the game and allow players to link connectors and triggers It has to be connected with a hydrophobic link.

Connectors : Connectors are rotable elements with 3 attachment points of various colors, players can rotate them to connect their chain to the suitable attachment point.

Triggers : Triggers are non movable elements and have to be connected for the level to end. they can carry up to three attachment points of various colors.

Each puzzle element is representated in a shape and in a color, Hydrophobic in pink, Hydrophilic in blue, connectors in black, and triggers in green. those colors are inspired by the doctoral student diagramms.

Game design wise Triggers and Connectors are used mainly to guide the player. It's like corners and edges in a real puzzle, it helps players situate where to place what.