Gut Feeling

The Levels

Level 1: Food Choices

Gameplay: Players encounter a maze filled with food items. Healthy choices clear pathways, while unhealthy choices create obstacles. Also features a "Meal Planning" mini-game where you build a balanced plate according to dietary guidelines.

Scientific Knowledge: Learn how a balanced diet is crucial, how processed foods can weaken immunity, and how gut health (affected by food) influences Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

Level 2: Exercise Impact

Gameplay: If you consume unhealthy food, you must perform exercises (like rapid clicking for jogging) to counteract the negative effects and stay in the game.

Scientific Knowledge: Understand how physical activity helps maintain a healthy weight, improves metabolism, and reduces the risks of a sedentary lifestyle.

Level 3: Gut Microbiota Balance

Gameplay: Manage the balance of good gut bacteria (Firmicutes and Bacteroides). Unhealthy food choices throw this balance off! A "Spin the Wheel" mini-game adds unpredictability to your food options.

Scientific Knowledge: Discover the key role gut microbiota plays in digestion and immunity, and how an imbalance can lead to health disorders.

Level 4: Leaky Gut & Limited Choices

Gameplay: Face a world with limited healthy food, simulating real-world constraints. Eating too much junk food causes a "Leaky Gut," which damages your gut lining and weakens your health in the game.

Scientific Knowledge: Learn how unhealthy choices can lead to leaky gut syndrome, causing inflammation and other issues. See how a compromised gut contributes to increased antibiotic use and AMR.

Level 5: Use of Antibiotics

Gameplay: After experiencing the effects of harmful bacteria, this level allows you to use antibiotics to kill them, setting the stage to learn about responsible antibiotic use.

Scientific Knowledge: Understand the primary function of antibiotics in fighting pathogenic bacteria and why their proper use is critical.

Level 6: Overuse of Antibiotics

Gameplay:Unhealthy food spawns harmful microbes that attack the players 3 lives. Limited antibiotic shots can kill them, but overuse weakens immunity, removes good bacteria, dulls the environment, and turns the gut boundary red (gut dysbiosis). To exit, the player must score 240 - 260 points and kill 3-4 microbes with antibiotics.

Scientific Knowledge: Learn how overusing antibiotics can damage the gut by killing good bacteria and weakening immunity. This creates conditions for tougher, antibiotic-resistant infections to grow, highlighting the threat of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).