Hey!
Cofactor is a chronic wasting disease-themed role-playing video game designed to educate players about the science, health concerns, ecology, regulations, cultural impact, and ethical considerations surrounding this disease. The player navigates a story that changes according to decisions made, location, local regulations, and advances in science. It's primarily text-based. The player adopts a role and faces challenges and dilemmas, unlocking other roles as they progress.
Our goal is to develop this game as a free outreach resource. We would like to engage kids age 13-18, supporting learning about a far-ranging ecological problem that touches multiple disciplines. CWD is a fascinating challenge and it epitomizes the collaborative nature of the scientific enterprise, so it will have a lot to communicate about science as a practice. Students interested in Minnesota environmental issues, wildlife management, agriculture, food systems, biology, or hunting might find the game particularly appealing.
At this early stage of development, we are looking for a handful of teachers who would demonstrate the game for a class (or a group of students defined some other way) and provide us with basic feedback. This would involve reading a single-page guide, accessing the game via our server, and completing a brief short-response questionnaire. The demonstration could take place anytime in Winter-Spring 2026, and we estimate it will require about 40 minutes. The survey summarizing the experience should not take very long to complete.
We're interested in hearing your thoughts on the game's user interface, the questions it prompts from students, and any other aspects you think are relevant. Your feedback will help us improve the game's educational value and ensure it's relevant to secondary school curricula. We're open to any feedback, whether it's positive, negative, or neutral, and we'll use it to refine the game and make it a valuable resource for teachers like you.
This project is being developed at the Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach at the University of Minnesota. Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).