Immune Defense by Molecular Jig Games: a white blood cell game

Immune Defense is a real-time strategy game about the human immune system, and it was the first title from Molecular Jig Games, an independent studio in Seattle, Washington. The studio's aim is to raise general knowledge of molecular behavior. Its design approach is to let players feel part of a molecular world with its own rules, where they can change things by controlling a meaningful part of the environment.

Players command white blood cells. They can deploy seven types against bacteria, parasites, viruses and cancer, and the opponents include HIV, tuberculosis, Listeria and a malaria-like organism. The cells and molecules are steered with what the game calls Microbot technology. The goal is to teach the basics of cell biology: what proteins and receptors do, how cells respond to signals around them, how random events lead to predictable behavior, how powerful the immune system is at killing and how pathogens evade it.

Dr. Melanie Stegman created the game. She has described herself as a video game developer who used to be a biochemist, and she left the lab after ten years of work on cancer and tuberculosis to teach the public about molecules through games. Development and prototyping were funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

The Maine International Center for Digital Learning (MICDL) worked with Stegman to field test the game in schools in spring and summer 2014. The tests looked at how engaging students found it and what they remembered afterward. The plan was for the game and related learning activities to teach students about cell biology, biochemistry and immunology, and a release was expected within about three months of August 2014.

Molecular Jig Games is still online at molecularjig.com, and the older address immunedefensegame.org forwards there. The site offers Immune Defense as a download, "available for PC, Mac and Linux computers", on a pay-what-you-want basis, and it offers a free 2015 version for PC only. A 2023 version is announced for tablets, Chromebooks, Macs and PCs, with more details promised.

The site's menu covers a blog, research pages for teachers and the studio's own research, an about page and an In Development section. Because the studio's official page offers the game in a downloadable form today, the games directory lists Immune Defense as playable.