About Polymorphic Games

Polymorphic Games is an interdisciplinary video game development studio based at the University of Idaho. We develop video games, interactive simulations, and visualizations that feature STEM concepts as core mechanics. Our main focus is Evolutionary Games that feature agents that adapt to the player's actions using mathematical models of biological evolution. We also collaborate with many researchers to help them represent their model systems as engaging games, interactive simulations, or dynamic visualizations.

Evolutionary Games

Instead of pre-programming agent behaviors to escalate difficulty, many of our games use populations of agents that evolve specifically to beat players' strategies. Each agent has its own traits that it can pass onto its offspring. After you beat one wave of creatures, the creatures that were the hardest to beat reproduce and you’ll fight their offspring in the next wave. Evolving traits include features like size, speed, damage, resistances, and behavior. We use principles of evolutionary biology to create a model that includes all the components of real evolution — variation, inheritance, selection, and time — just operating at a much faster pace. This creates dynamic enemies that adapt to how YOU play the game.

Check out our evolutionary games for free on Steam:

Interactive Simulations and Visualizations

We also create engaging simulations and visualizations in our studio. For example, Outbreak Simulator simulates the spread of disease across the continental United States based on real geographic data and a complex movement model. Outbreak Simulator also promotes data literacy by allowing the user to interact with graphs representing the epidemiological compartment model. Read more about Outbreak Simulator here.

Our Development Model

We hire extremely talented teams of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Idaho to develop our games. A university setting is the one place where you can find programmers, artists, writers, musicians, marketers, and scientists — everyone you need to make video games with mechanics based on real science. This college community gives us a team that can think outside the box, and it provides a great student experience. Our employees get to build skills in communication, leadership, and collaboration that they take with them when they graduate, all while honing skills in their discipline.

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