They're back and they're just as mean!

Published on November 4, 2024

🦟 An opportunity to bring back nasty characters to the front

A few months ago, the Global Gamers Challenge sponsored by Flutter and the Global Citizen organization took place. It was a game creation contest using Flutter on the theme of sustainable development and environmental protection (more info here https://flutter.dev/global-gamers ).

It was the perfect chance to revive the Moskies, these characters in the form of vile mosquitoes that I created at the start of DARGIL in 2011 for my first social impact game. The base concept was PLAY - LEARN - ACT.

Part of the game allowed you to have fun by squashing mosquitoes to progress to more complex levels.

Another part consisted of a quiz about the issue of malaria and its impacts.

And finally, I had partnered with an NGO that was fighting against malaria in the field. The funds raised from the sale of the application were directed to the association. A virtuous and ambitious project but one that did not take off mainly due to a lack of communication resources.

For more than 10 years, the Moskies have been shelved. On the occasion of the contest, I relaunched the project on the same PLAY - LEARN - ACT concept.

A first web version was put online on itch.io: https://dargil.itch.io/the-mos

Today I am launching the Android and iOS mobile versions

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🔀 Similar visually but more narrative

In terms of graphics, these are the same visuals as in the original version because they were really cool (Thanks Fran6co).

On the other hand, the narrative is a little more developed around the characters. It is now a real family made up of 4 members: the son (Mo Jo), the daughter (Mo Del), the father (Mo Bill), and the mother (Mo Ma). They all have 3 characteristics: size, speed, and voracity but at different individual levels.

Master Yoda in the form of a frog still helps guide the player through the game and asks questions

The mechanics are very close to the original one.

During the first part of the game, the player must always crush the mosquitoes that appear on the screen. The complexity increases over the 15 available levels. Then at the end of a venting session and regardless of the outcome, success or failure, the player is asked a question about malaria. Four answer choices are offered. There is nothing to win. Just knowledge about the subject to acquire.

On the social impact aspect, the game is currently limited to a short list of tips and actions to take to help fight malaria. In future versions, it is possible that the application will generate revenue (paid features or advertising) or allow for the collection of micro-donations in order to actually fight this disease in the field.

🛠️ How this is made

I will end this article on a short technical note.

As with all DARGIL games, this application is mainly based on the Flutter. framework which allows deploying the Android, iOS, and Web versions with the same code base.

State management is operated with Riverpod.

This is my first experience with the Flame. game engine. I enjoyed it. It is easy to learn thanks to well-designed documentation and architecture. It integrates well into a complete Flutter project (for information, only the mosquito squashing game part uses Flame, the rest of the application is pure Flutter). I will surely come back to it for future projects.

⚠️ Final word

The Mo's isn't designed to be the game of the year, but my hope is that it will raise some awareness on this often forgotten but still critical health issue.

I'd love to hear from you. So feel free to reach out for any questions, comments, or remarks at the following address contact@dargil.com

🎮Play 🎓Learn 💪 Act