VALIDATE Awarded Oxford Enriching Engagement Grant - BCG Adventures

Funding

We are pleased to announce that the VALIDATE Team and the McShane TB Group were successful in obtaining a grant in support of an exciting BCG100 project. Enriching Engagement is a pilot grants programme open to Wellcome grant holders and awardees at the University of Oxford, to develop and deliver Public Engagement with Research projects. This pilot funding scheme provides a new way of encouraging, supporting and awarding Wellcome Public Engagement Enrichment grants.

 

The funds will support a fun and unique public engagement activity - BCG Adventures - a series of simple, browser-based, retro computer games that aim to raise interest and awareness of vaccine development. The VALIDATE Team will need help from our members to help with this exciting project to check out the BCG100 Members' Page and the VALIDATE hub for more information on how you can get involved.

BCG Adventures Computer Game

bcg adventures game controller

‘BCG Adventures’ will be a series of simple, browser-based, retro 2D and 3d computer games that aim to raise interest and awareness of vaccine development.

We plan to develop 4 games:

  • Albert and Camille’s Little Lille Adventure: An exploration and adventure game, viewed from above, where you navigate characters around a map of occupied Lille in World War I. Players chose to be either Albert Calmette or Camille Guérin and explore war-time Lille in order to obtain the necessary equipment and resources for their important vaccine research. As the player collects each item, they will learn about the methods used to create BCG, and how vaccines work.

  • Welcome to Your Immune System: An asteroids type game in which the player controls different elements of the immune system in order to fight against a TB Infection. As they advance the player learns how the immune system can get overwhelmed and how a boost from the BCG vaccine can help the immune system fight against this deadly disease. They will also learn about the limitations of BCG and how it might be improved.

  • The World vs TB: A map-based strategy game where the player has to decide how to deploy responses to fight TB around the world. The player will learn how factors like poverty, education, vaccine hesitancy, and politics play a role in the deployment of vaccination programmes.

  • Vaccine Delivery Adventure: A side-scrolling, Mario style action game where a healthcare worker has to overcome the challenges of delivering vaccines in Lower and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

Each game will be preceded by a short anonymous questionnaire asking the player about their knowledge and attitudes about vaccines. A similar questionnaire will be included in the final quiz as a way of recording changes in attitudes. We will also produce and print an 8-page, a5 size companion booklet to be sent to teachers on request. The guide will provide advice on how to use the games in a classroom environment.

Get Involved 

If any VALIDATE members would like to get involved in this exciting project, get in touch with VALIDATE -  validate@ndm.ox.ac.uk