Tuesday’s submission comes from Robert Shenton who has created an interesting game called Influenza which is a quirky strategy game. Influenza is focused around spreading the flu virus around an office block, the strategy comes in being able to spread it successfully to the goal employee. You start out being able to select one of three methods of spreading the infection: vomit, sneeze or cough and of course each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

You begin with one employee who is ill and through one of the three infection methods you will aim to spread the virus with the end goal of each level being to pass the virus to the golden coloured employee, which is often times much harder than you would expect and the random movements of the employees can results in this game be rather frustrating one at times.

As the virus spreads you get additional points which can be spent on upgrading the methods of infection. The main drawback to this upgrade system at present in the game is it is very limited in its current form, it was however created for Ludum Dare 24 so the lack of depth in some areas is to be expected but it does not detract from the overall gameplay to much. Each level features new obstacles for you to overcome from the pesky managers who will send anyone they see with symptoms home to the hazmat team that will sweep a whole floor and eradicate the virus on that floor completely.

The initial concepts are very impressive and the graphics styling is not too shabby either however it would be nice to have a fast forward button to speed up the moments you wait for your carriers to reach different levels, as it stands it can be quite frustrating to see your carriers only head down the stairs rather than up. As expect with games created in such tight time constraints it will have areas that are weaker then others, the sound overall is a little lacking but this is common in such games like this so it is more or less expected and the gameplay however will keep you busy for the better part of an hour as you battle to spread the flu all over the office block.

Average time to complete : Less the one hour

Influenza can be played here and can be voted for on the LD24 site over here. Influenza was created by Robert Shenton.

If you are a developer with A fun indie game that can be played over a coffee break, we want to hear from you! Private message us on twitter @IndieGameMag or shoot us an email at editors@indiegamemag.com with the subject “Indie Intermission” and you could be our indie intermission pick of the day!

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