Recently, the winners of the 2026 MUSE Design Awards were announced. In this year's competition, the project Microbe Mania: Gamified Gut Health Education, created by undergraduate students Jin Weiyue, Chen Yunxi, Xu Shiyu, and Yuan Mingjian from the Visual Communication Design program at the School of Design, 汤头条污料, was awarded the Gold Prize.
Micro Scale, Macro Tale.
See you inside!
Through the photographs on the wall, you trace the key moments of Mia’s growth — her first sip of breast milk, a sudden cold, a sweet birthday party, and the pressures of adolescence. Each rise and fall in real life reshapes the microscopic battlefield within her body.
You will take on the role of the collective will of the microbiota — breaking down nutrients to gather resources, defending against the aggressive invasion of harmful bacteria, and preventing the overgrowth of beneficial microbes that could trigger a system-wide collapse…
Micro Scale, Macro Tale.
See you inside!
Project members
JIN Weiyue， CHEN Yunxi， XU Shiyu，YUAN Mingjian
JIN Weiyue, CHEN Yunxi, XU Shiyu, YUAN Mingjian
Supervisor
LIU Bo, LIU Zhao
Project Introduction
Microbe Mania is a narrative-driven health education tower defense game designed for adolescents. The project focuses on the gut microbiome—an invisible yet vital internal ecosystem closely connected to human health—transforming complex biological knowledge into an interactive and perceptible gameplay experience.
Through gamification, the project connects everyday life habits with internal bodily changes, allowing players to understand that gut health is not about simply increasing or decreasing a single indicator, but about maintaining the dynamic balance of an internal ecosystem. By allocating resources, building defenses, and managing microbial communities, players actively engage with the principles of gut health.
By adopting a more intuitive and engaging interactive format, the project aims to lower the barrier to understanding health knowledge and help adolescents develop an initial awareness of self-health management.
From Concept to Creation
What kind of game is this?
Where Macro Meets Micro, Where Narrative Meets Science
A Strategy Tower Defense Game with Educational Impact
A Strategic Breakthrough in an Untapped Blue Ocean Market
Target audiences:Teenagers Explorers (9-18)
Basic Strategy Games and Popular Science Enthusiasts
Parents and Educators
Highlights?
01.
01Mechanism InnovationFrom “one-way confrontation” to “dynamic balance”
The project innovates in its mechanism design by breaking away from the traditional tower defense model of “unilateral confrontation” and transforming the concept of “dynamic balance” in gut health as core gameplay. Players must not only prevent harmful bacteria from spreading and completing their path, but also avoid the over-colonization of beneficial bacteria that could disrupt ecological balance. Through gameplay, players gain an operational understanding of the complex relationships within the body’s internal systems.
02 Immersive Adaptation
Making the invisible gut world visible
The project transforms the originally abstract and invisible world of gut microbiota through narrative and visual adaptation. By developing character designs, structuring the interface, and constructing microscopic battle scenarios, adolescents can understand changes occurring within the body in a more intuitive and immersive way.
Character design
Protagonist: Mia
Mia is a curious child who loves life and enjoys trying new things. But like all children, she gets sick, can be a picky eater, and feels nervous about her first summer camp.
六种营养素
Six types of nutrients
Carbohydrates
Fats
Dietary Fiber
Protein
Minerals
Vitamins
The various foods consumed by Mia are converted into six types of nutrients (excluding water), which serve as the source of ATP energy in the game. Each nutrient is broken down and absorbed by its corresponding guardian bacteria, and the amount stored determines the growth rate and combat strength of the guardian bacterial forces.
external invaders
Staphylococcus aureus
Helicobacter pylori
Salmonella
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
These harmful bacteria, lurking in everyday environments, can enter Mia’s gut through food, contact, and other pathways. They irritate the intestinal mucosa, disrupt internal balance, and cause negative effects on her body.
[Three Types of Guardian Bacteria]
Roseburia
Bifidobacterium
Bacteroides
Lactobacillus
Lactococcus
Escherichia coli
The gut-friendly microbial forces within Mia’s body are divided into three main functional groups. One group focuses on absorbing nutrients and converting them into ATP energy, another specializes in eliminating invading harmful bacteria, and the third consists of neutral strains with flexible roles that choose their alignment based on changes in the gut environment.
prop design
handbook design
Guardian Bacteria
Nutrients
Invaders
03. Cognitive Loop
Complete the cycle of “experience – understanding – memory” through gameplay
The project embeds knowledge content into tutorials, feedback, and the codex system, allowing learning to move beyond one-way delivery. Instead, it naturally occurs through gameplay, decision-making, and outcome feedback, forming a cognitive loop of “experience – understanding – memory.”
Detailed Breakdown of Map Locations
Bacteria generate and consume ATP as an energy supply; in the game, ATP is used as a currency to purchase tower defense structures.
Enemies and wave-based progression system.
A strategic dashboard that visualizes gut balance in real time.
Weak points of the intestinal wall / designated health and damage checkpoints.
The game adopts a lane-based path system, where enemies move sequentially along fixed routes.
The in-game map is structured as a grid system, enabling clear spatial division and rule-based placement; beneficial bacteria serve as tower defense units placed on non-path grid tiles.
Game outcome and scoring system
Core Mode: A tower defense game based on a path-defense system combined with a special win/lose evaluation mechanism.
Victory Condition: The player wins when the health of the “intestinal wall weak points” remains above zero, meaning the number of harmful bacteria entering the system is below a predefined threshold.
Failure Condition: The player loses when the health of the “intestinal wall weak points” drops to zero, meaning the number of invading enemies reaches or exceeds the set limit.
Scoring Condition: Even if the level is completed successfully, an excessive number of harmful bacteria that successfully traverse the path will negatively affect the final level rating.
Educational Insights Summary
MUSE Design Awards
The MUSE Design Awards was established in 2015 in the United States by the International Awards Associates (IAA). It is recognized as one of the most influential international awards in the global design field.
The award is based on a rigorous evaluation system and high judging standards used to evaluate entries from across the world in fields such as architecture, interior design, product design, landscape, lighting, packaging, and fashion. By honoring designers who demonstrate outstanding achievements in design innovation, the award aims to enhance global creativity within the design industry and promote the sustainable development of the global design ecosystem.
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