The Austrian Chemical Industry Association (FCIO) presents the VIRUS BLASTER GAME

Chemistry is instrumental in the fight against the coronavirus – it supplies disinfectants, protective equipment and also therapeutic measures. In this light, the Austrian Chemical Industry Association (FCIO) is presenting VIRUS BLASTER, a new mobile and browser game. In the game, created by creative agency Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann, users can choose whether they want to slip into the role of ski jumping legend Thomas Morgenstern, university professor and 2018 scientist of the year Nuno Maulide or Marie Curie to save the virtual world from viruses. “Numerous products from the chemical industry contribute to our health. That has become evident in times of the fight against the coronavirus. With Virus Blaster, we want to show in a playful way how chemistry offers us solutions”, says FCIO CEO Sylvia Hofinger to explain the background of the campaign.

Gamification and information
Gaming has erupted into a cultural phenomenon in Austria. 5.3 million Austrians play video games. Gaming is most popular with 10-15 year old kids. 90% of them play games regularly. It is exactly this age group that VIRUS BLASTER is targeting.
“With classic communication you can no longer really reach the young target group nowadays. That's why we rely on gamification to bring out curiosity for chemistry on the one hand and to playfully point out on the other that the protective measures in place have to be observed”, says Alistair Thompson, creative director and partner at DMB.
Virus Blaster is now available for free on diechemie.at as a browser and mobile game.

The VR version of the game will be available as a free download via Steam at the end of September. This version is also being developed by the Vienna game developer studio “die jungen Römer”. The game will be launched with a multimedia campaign in cooperation with Media1. We’re hoping it will soon be “game over” for the virus.

You can find the game here: diechemie.at