KUCHING – A team from Swinburne Sarawak Institution of Engineering and Technology (SSIET) On Campus has developed a mobile game app known as ‘Coronajelly’ in support of the current Stay at Home campaign to curb the spread of COVID-19 virus.
The project team is led by final-year electrical and electronic engineering student Peter Ling Ting Rang and supervised by Deputy Head of School of Engineering Dr Chua Hong Siang.
‘Coronajelly’ features a unique and lightweight gameplay to raise awareness on COVID-19 mitigation. To earn points, users have to tap on healthy jellies to collect them before they get infected. Like the spread of the coronavirus, healthy jellies adjacent to an infected one (direct contact) are at high risk of infection.
Final-year engineering student Peter Ling Ting Rang
Before time runs out, users must devise a strategy to gain the most points while staying alive. For example, tapping the jellies at risk of direct infection fast enough to prevent the growth of infection clusters. It is hoped that the gameplay will further demonstrate the significance of social distancing to audience of all age groups.
The game runs on four factors with reference to real-life COVID-19 scenario. The factors are probability of direct contact infection, probability of indirect contact infection, probability of self-recovery, and probability of initial infection. The game experience will be different in each of the game mode namely Coward, Classic, Extreme, and Evil.
In addition, there is a global leader board for each game mode. Users are ranked based on their experience level and high scores.
According to Ling, it took about two weeks for the project to be completed. Rigorous testing and fine tuning were performed to make sure the mobile app was ready to be launched. Meanwhile, Dr Chua hopes that the game could help people relieve their stress and anxiety caused by the movement control order (MCO).
Swinburne’s Deputy Head of School of Engineering Dr Chua Hong Siang
To encourage the public to stay at home during this COVID-19 outbreak, users can only sign in to the game server if they are physically at home. Every user’s home location will be recorded when they sign in. Users can either register an account with Coronajelly or sign in using their existing Facebook account. Additionally, the mobile app contains handy information on ways to stay safe during the pandemic.
The mobile app installation package is now available on the project’s official Facebook page named Coronajelly. It will also be made available soon on Google Play Store.
For more information about Swinburne, visit www.swinburne.edu.my, or follow its Facebook page (@swinburnesarawak), Instagram (@swinburnesarawak), Twitter (@Swinburne_Swk) and YouTube channel (Swinburne Sarawak).