Cabin Fever with John Sims
John Sims, A Date with Fear: A Self Portrait in March 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.
Videogames can be a great way to pass time while quarantined at home. For artist, writer, and activist John Sims, the quarantine has provided the time and space to not just play games, but to create one that speaks to the collective anxiety we’ve all experienced while hiding from this invisible enemy. In Korona Killa, Sims takes elements from classic games like Galaga and Space Invaders and gives them a pandemic-themed twist: aliens are now viruses, and bonus UFOs have become bats that reference the virus’s zoonotic origins.
Screenshot of Korona Killa by John Sims, taken by the author.
The player’s “killa cell” has to shoot down as many viruses as possible to keep the viral load from becoming lethal. However, running out of energy is also lethal, and shooting drains it. The player’s bullets can accidentally destroy helpful cells that can be absorbed for an energy recharge. Destroying everything on the screen can be as lethal as not destroying anything as all, simulating the “cytokine storms” that have claimed the lives of many coronavirus patients. Korona Killa provides a fantasy of being able to actively fight back against a viral menace that, in reality, each of us can only fight passively — by staying inside.
Korona Killa can be played on John Sims’s website.
