Summary
Viral Impact is a 2.5D action roguelike that playfully promotes social inclusion and digital resilience. Set in levels inspired by social media, players combat online threats and help characters using a dialogue system that emphasizes tone and empathy. Designed for care clients with intellectual disabilities, the game was co-developed with experts and users to ensure psychological depth and accessibility. While educational at its core, Viral Impact feels like an immersive, cozy adventure — a safe space to explore and practice online behavior.
Trailer
Tutorial Levels
The first few levels are meant to guide the player through most of the game’s mechanics. These cover movement, combat, and finally dialogue.
WhatsApp Level
The first area is inspired by WhatsApp. I designed and redesigned these levels, moving from 2D sketches to early iterations and finally to the completed version. They resemble small traditional roguelike levels, but with added personality, drawing inspiration from real-life swamps.
Instagram Level
While not as developed as the first level, these ones were inspired by the app Instagram and its dimmer color palette. They were also designed to represent generic rogue-like levels, but this time they were meant to evoke the feeling of a mushroom forest.
Dialogue System
Finally, to tie everything together, I have designed a dialogue system that is a little more entertaining than just choosing an option. The player has the sentence split into two parts. Each part has multiple options, leaving the player to choose which ones fit together best. This was a great way to explore subtlety within text messages. The player is incentivized to perform well because this is how they receive an upgrade to help them in combat.
Gallery
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