Zombie Ants VR

The project Zombie Ants VR is to educate players on the zombifying spore, ophiocordyceps, and its ability to infect carpenter ants and manipulate their brain to continue their reproduction cycle. The experience is to showcase that there is more to this cycle; specifically about how the fungi behaves and gets away with it. It teaches the player the science behind it by having them make choices and cause infection through mini games. The gamification of this horrifying cycle is to educate further than reading a textbook. Instead, it provides an immersive, hands on learning experience that will draw the player in with a humorous narrative and scientific environment.

My group was chosen through a proposal process to create Zombie Ants VR, a VR educational experience for De Bekker Lab (Parasitic Behavioral Manipulation) at UCF. We started development in Unity mid-October 2020 in Multi Modal class at UCF, finished our prototype early December for a total of 6 weeks, and we're a team of nine.

Development Team:
Audrey Luce - Producer, Environment Artist
Clarisse Cockrill - Environment/2D Animation Artist
Sebastian Saavedra - Programmer
Roman Starner - Artist
Brian Flores - Writer, Programmer
Meaghan Archer - Character Artist
Nikhil Desai - Audio, Programmer
Noah Jervey - Producer, Programmer
Alana Brunson - Artist

Inside Look at the Prototype with a Developer: