Quarantineer

Quarantineer is a dystopian simulation in which you take control of a country during a human-to-human virus outbreak first discovered at a seafood market. The Supreme Leader hands the country over to you and leaves for Berlin, while the government faces the outbreak, domestic protests and foreign hostility. Your decisions shape the country’s fate and lead to different stories and endings.

Managing the outbreak

You manage hospital infrastructure, isolate infected patients and research a vaccine. Lockdowns can curb the virus’s spread to connected cities, but can also increase unhappiness and cause humanitarian crises. You can instead keep parts of the economy operating, including pharmaceutical and medical industries, while accepting some risk of exposure.

Running the country

You manage resources, logistics and the economy as you balance public health, income and the needs of different regions. Cities are suited to business, trade and tourism; villages and remote areas provide agriculture and tourism; other areas fall between the two. Economic activity can increase viral transmission, while logistics lets you move resources between towns and cities so they can focus on their own strengths.

Citizens move between places in search of food, work, safety from the virus, happiness and shelter. Their choices reflect local conditions: for example, someone may leave a village for better job prospects in a city, while a city resident may seek the relative safety of a village. Population growth and unhappiness can increase protests, so you decide how much to spend on military officers and how to respond. Suppressing protests by force can cost lives, and each citizen killed reduces the population of that town or city.

Public opinion and events

You control the media to influence citizens’ happiness and publish favorable statistics. Some news can also boost economic development; tourism, for example, can receive a percentage increase for a week. Special stories can be found through the Black Market, while other events arise from protests and interactions with characters. Your decisions determine the country’s final destination and fate.