plague-inc game sourced
Plague Inc.
A strategy game in which the player evolves a pathogen's transmission, symptoms, and abilities to infect and kill the world's population before humanity's cure research finishes.
parts
9 mechanics, as Plague Inc. does themcore · 3
Contagion
Infection spreads within countries and between them along travel links, at rates set by the pathogen's transmission traits and each country's conditions, until countries are fully infected and then depopulated.
Crisis countdown
Once the disease is noticed, countries fund cure research shown as a global progress bar; finishing it ends the run, so the player races to kill before it fills.
Tech tree
DNA points buy nodes in three trees (transmission, symptoms, abilities); symptoms raise severity and lethality, and abilities resist climate and drugs.
supporting · 6
Alerts feed
Habitat suitability
Hot, cold, and other national conditions slow a pathogen that lacks the matching resistance evolutions.
Modding API
The Evolved scenario creator builds custom plagues, worlds, and events, with over 10,000 shared on Steam Workshop.
Pause and speed control
Scenario objectives
Evolved ships 23 scenarios and 10 disease types, each with altered rules.
Stats dashboards
core loop
infect patient zero -> infections spread within and between countries -> earn DNA points -> buy transmission, symptom, and ability evolutions -> severity raises awareness and cure funding -> race to kill everyone before the cure completes
design notes
James Vaughan's game inverts the epidemic model: the player owns the pathogen's parameters, and humanity's response (awareness, closures, cure research) is the opponent. The tension is between infectivity and severity, because visible symptoms and deaths accelerate the cure, so successful plans spread quietly and then turn lethal. Countries differ by climate and conditions the pathogen must adapt to, and the CDC invited Vaughan to discuss its infection model in 2013, though Ndemic has said it is not on par with scientific models. Evolved adds 10 disease types, 23 scenarios, versus and co-op modes, and a scenario creator with Workshop sharing.
appears in
the paper, 2 sections · 4 chapters · 1 episodebacklinks
computed from other recordsclaims
1 with sourcesThe CDC invited creator James Vaughan to speak in March 2013 about the game's infection model.