Caduceus Quest

Resilient Games Studio – PC Game (2025)

A button with the Steam logo (a piston from a steam engine). The text says "Available now on Steam."

My Roles

Lead Writer, Game Design

What is Caduceus Quest?

Caduceus Quest is an educational adventure role-playing game that lets its players explore science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers as RPG-style character classes, moving between the roles of doctor, epidemiologist, statistician, civil engineer, and more. Caduceus Quest was developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Chicago to study the effectiveness of the game as a tool to raise interest STEAM careers for members of marginalized communities.

Multiple mini-games are embedded throughout the experience, allowing the player to practice science skills including science communication and keyword definitions. The primary mini-game is a turn-based card game in which your opponents’ characteristics suggest optimal strategies. A secondary mini-game is a search-based challenge in which moving your cursor unlocks scientific terms.

Read more about the research and development of Caduceus Quest through its NIH report here or through in this essay.

Simone, a Black teenage girl with curly dark hair done up in a bun is walking across a path in a park. She is in a white and blue long-sleeve shirt, pink pants, and white tennis shoes. Other parts of the scene include trees, a tire swing, picnic tables, and a small area with a sand pit, a slide, a swing set, and a spring rocker shaped like a bumblebee. Here is a list of people in the park: 1) a brown-skinned woman wearing a blue hajib and jeans, 2) a brown skinned woman sitting in a bush wearing a yellow dress and red shoes, 3) a brown-skinned boy in a blue t-shirt and green shorts playing with toy cars in the sand pit, and 4) a barely visible brown-skinned man with a green shirt and red shorts sitting with his legs crossed at a picnic table. In the corner of the image is a notification that reads "Current Objective: Go to Grandma's house."
Simone, a Black teenage girl in a white and blue long-sleeve shirt, pink pants, and white tennis shoes, stands in the center of a lab in a hospital. The scene includes a swivel chair, microscopes, jars, boxes, and other lab equipment, a diagram of a skeleton on the wall. The floor is tiled and another room with a CAT scan machine in it is visible. In front of Simone is Dr. Green, a black man with facial hair and a yellow collared shirt, green pants, and black shoes. A text box at the bottom of the screen shows that Dr. Green is saying "It's a lot like what a physician does when diagnosing a patient: we collect as much data as possible and formulate a hypothesis for the root cause." In the corner of the image is a notification that reads "Current Objective: Talk to Dr. Gallo."
A digital drawing of a menu from the game Caduceus Quest. Behind the menu are just the edges of a scene at a lab in a hospital. The menu is dark gray, and has tabs at the top labeled "Player" and "Map." The right half of the menu has a checkmark icon labeled "Tasks." Bellow that are three tasks: 1) Follow Dr. Gallo, 2) Talk to Dr. Green, and 3) Go to the Environmental Engineer's Office. The first two tasks are greyed out, and the last is highlighted white. To the left is a hexagon cutout with Simone's smiling face in it. She is brown skinned with curly hair tied up in a high bun, and a white and blue long-sleeved shirt. A text box beside her says ""Check out my list of completed or in-progress tasks over in the task bar, or click on one of the categories below to see an overview of my in game performance." Below Simone are three blue hexagons, each containing information. They read as follows: 1) 76% Progress Completion 2) 1 Minigame Performance and 3) 27 Number of Interactions.
Simone, a Black teenage girl in a white and blue long-sleeve shirt, pink pants, and white tennis shoes, stands at the edge of a body of water. Her hair is curly and done up in a bun. In the water are rocks, with a turtle shell on one of them. Standing in the water is Dr. Ruth, a dark-skinned woman in brown overalls and an orange collared shirt. She is wearing an orange bandanna in her curly hair. Trees and the edge of a building are barely visible under a text box that shows that Simone is saying "Dr. Ruth?" In the corner of the image is a notification that reads "Current Objective: Go to the Environmental Engineer's Office."

The Narrative

Simone’s hometown is in the grip of a mysterious new illness which is spreading — and even seems to be impacting her grandmother. Simone takes on additional responsibilities in the quest to identify the mysterious illness and contain it. As Simone begins to grasp the scope and nature of the threat, she meets new expert companions that represent a wide variety of STEM and health professionals from diverse backgrounds. Over the course of playing, each of the STEM and health professionals Simone encounters provides the player with specific and accurate information about the aptitudes, education, and professional competencies that various STEM and health careers require. The game takes place in a variety of locations, including the hospital, town hall, and local park.