Humans vs. Mosquitoes

HvM takes on the west coast at Come Out and Play San Francisco 2012!

lien — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:44:33 +0000

Humans vs. Mosquitoes took the Gene Friend Recreation Center by storm at the second annual Come Out and Play San Francisco Festival December 1-2, 2012. The rainy conditions during the festival weekend required the game to move inside, but the COAP SF organizers did a great job of setting us up with a large open space in the rec center gym. We ran 3 sessions of the game with 10+ players each session including locals from San Francisco and gamers from around the country. We also unveiled the official card game version at the Come Out and Play San Francisco game exhibition at SOMA Arts.

The game was led by HvM designers Lien Tran and Eulani Labay with the assistance of Amy Findeiss and Kelly Tierney. Take a look at some awesome action shots thanks to Ida Benedetto.

HvM Card Game Released

Clay Ewing — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:08:22 +0000

Building on the rules from the facilitated table top version played at COP-17, we published a card game version. Clay and Lien put the game together with illustration help from Julia Smart. The game was exhibited at SOMA Arts as part of Come Out and Play San Francisco. It’s available at The GameCrafter for $20.

Photos from DC Games Festival (Sept 1, 2012)

lien — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:55:45 +0000

Team members Lien and Clay ran Humans vs. Mosquitoes at this year’s DC Games Festival held in West Potomac Park (just south of Lincoln Memorial and west of MLK Memorial). It was a pretty nice backdrop with the Washington Monument peaking out from behind the trees, and we even got a wave from Air Force One (it felt like it was within arm’s reach). I guess Obama – or at least his crew – approves of HvM! It was a pretty hot and sunny day (felt like almost 100 degrees) so we are very appreciative of all the players who came out and ran like determined humans and mosquitoes. You’ll see Adam from Obscure Games got so into the game that he literally passed out in the grass when the game was over!

In this version of the game, the mosquito breeding grounds are actually blue and red disposable tablecloths pinned down with plastic yellow tent stakes. We also added some equipment for ease of play to represent human “health” and mosquito “eggs”. Like all previous version of the game, the humans are trying to remove eggs (represented with tennis balls which are easy to see) from the breeding grounds without getting bitten. Each human must wear a flag football belt with just 1 flag, which represents that he has some health left. If a mosquito grabs a human’s flag then that human must sit the rest of the round out (each round is 30 seconds). Each human must have at least 1 remaining unit of health to play in the next round (a Human team referee monitors human health levels). The mosquitoes are trying to deplete the humans’ health by “biting” them or are trying to strengthen their team by laying eggs in the breeding grounds. In each round a mosquito can either bite or lay but not both. If a mosquito wants to lay an egg, he or she must hold an egg and then stand on the breeding ground where he or she wants to lay the egg until the end of the round. After that the egg is laid and it’s fair game for the humans to try and remove it!

Everyone had a lot of fun playing HvM and we had a great time running it! Thanks DC Games for having us!

Humans vs. Mosquitoes at DC Games Festival 2012 from Lien Tran on Vimeo.

HvM Comes to Washington DC September 1st

Clay Ewing — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 21:57:11 +0000

Are you going to be in the DC area on September 1st? Drop by Potomac Park West and join us at DC Games, where we’ll be playing the field version of Humans vs. Mosquitoes.

HvM at WWF

Clay Ewing — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:29:58 +0000

Humans vs. Mosquitoes at WWF-US

Humans vs. Mosquitoes made an appearance at the WWF … yes at the World Wildlife Fund in Washington D.C. as part of a day dedicated to “Adaptation Games” and aiming to educate people about climate change and its impacts. Erin Coughlan, a representative from the Red Cross Red Crescent Center led the HvM session at WWF. To read more about “Adaptation Games” at WWF-US see the write up here.

Lauren Graham on Games and Combating Malaria

Clay Ewing — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 22:03:36 +0000

Team member Lauren Graham brought Humans vs. Mosquitoes to Kenya this summer through a climate risk management START grant. Her research was featured in AlertNet. You can read the full article here.

“Mosquito! Mosquito!

Catch it! Catch it!

Confuse it!

Shake it! Shake it again!

Kill it!”

Hello, Vietnam!

Clay Ewing — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 21:47:36 +0000

Pablo Suarez and Janot Mendler de Suarez decided to try the tabletop version of our game at Hanoi University of Science and Technology in Vietnam. The game was used to create a discussion about climate change. Perhaps next time we’ll get all 250 people in that auditorium to run around and play the field version!

HvM at Governor’s Island for Come Out and Play

Clay Ewing — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 21:38:59 +0000

Humans vs. Mosquitoes was played at the 2012 Come Out and Play Festival on Governor’s Island. There was even a special version for children that incorporated the theme of time travel.

HvM Spotlighted in Yale Public Health Magazine

Clay Ewing — Sat, 19 May 2012 09:30:15 +0000

The Spring 2012 Edition has arrived, and our game has been written up. You can view the digital version here.

HvM Makes the Semi Finals in The New Challenge

Clay Ewing — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:32:56 +0000

After some intense judging and voting, Humans vs. Mosquitoes was one of 16 selected projects to proceed into the semi finals. Check out all of the semi finalists here.