Disease! The Game:
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Consume (Middle English: Consumen, Latin: Cosumere): To destroy totally; ravage.  As in: A person consumed by disease.

Disease! uses this definition of consume for the theme of the contest.  In the game, you play a virus (or rather, many virii) infecting a person.  The goal is to infect enough host cells to make you contagious without killing the host, and remain contagious long enough to infect another person.  Along the way, you must deal with the body's immune system, as well as any drugs they are taking to cure you.

The Basics
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You start off with one lowly virus.  You control him simply by clicking on him and dragging him around the screen.  He can infect red blood cells just by touching them.  Infecting the red blood cell will destroy it and create more virii.  These new virii can also be controlled by you by clicking on them and dragging them around.  You must also avoid white blood cells and anti-viral drugs.  Touching these things may destroy a virus!

(Yes, yes, I know this isn't how the immune system deals with a viral infection in real life, but...  This game is set in the future, where they have magical drugs and bionic, virus destroying white blood cells!  Yeah!  That's the ticket!  Please enjoy the sci-fi epic that is Disease! The Game.)

White blood cells move from left to right in the blood stream, just like red blood cells.  Anti-viral drugs fall from top to bottom.  They look like those cute plastics models of molecules you had in high school chemistry class.

The first virus to start is invincible for a limited time (while he is flashing).  During this time, you can still infect red blood cells and destroy white blood cells and drugs!

Infecting Another Person
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To infect another person, you must be virulent enough to be contagious without killing your host before he has a chance to spread you around to his friends and coworkers.  To do this, you must keep at least 10 virii alive for 30 seconds.  If, after the countdown has started, you drop under 10 virii, the countdown resets!

Be careful.  If your host's red blood cell count drops below ten, he dies and you lose!  The timer and the red blood cell count (as well as the number of virii you have) are listed in the upper-left hand corner of the screen.

And remember, each person is harder than the last, with a few more white blood cells and drugs, and few less red blood cells.

Mutation
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The wonderful thing about being a virus is that you are always mutating, becoming even more terrifying and deadly!

Each time you infect a new person, you have the opportunity to mutate.  During mutation, you are taken to a menu with four viral attributes you can choose from to beef up.  You also have a number of "experience" points to spend, which reflect how much you've mutated.  Each attribute costs one experience point to increase by one point.  The attributes are...

	Mutation Rate: The higher this is, the more experience points you will earn when you infect a new person.

	Reproduction Rate: The higher this is, the more virus will be formed each time you infect a new cell.

	Immune System Resistance Rate: The higher this is, the more likely you'll survive an encounter with a white blood cell.

	Drug Resistance Rate: The higher this is, the more likely you'll survive an encounter with an antiviral drug.

Dying
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You will lose if you kill your host before you infect another.  (Don't worry!  It's assumed the virus kills the host after you infect someone else!)

You will also lose if all your virii are destroyed by white blood cells or anti-viral drugs, as this means your host has "gotten over" you.  Don't worry, I'm sure he'll still never forget the times you shared!

Hints
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Chose how you mutate carefully.  A high mutation rate will pay off in spades in the long run, but the game will quickly become extremely difficult without at least some resistance to the immune system or drugs.

Play to your strengths and weaknesses.  If you don't have some resistance to the immune system, keep your virii on the right side of the screen.  If you don't have some resistance to drugs, keep them on the bottom.  Likewise, if you are pretty immune to white blood cells, focus mainly on avoiding drugs, and do the reverse if you are pretty immune to drugs.

The number of red blood cells a person has decreases per level, but the number they need to stay alive does not!  If you want to continue your epidemic late in the game, you will need to increase your reproduction rate!

Disease is copyright 2006 by Cameron Wilkin.