4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Mainichi
Japan machinery maker develops sewage treatment gaming app with microbes as characters
OSAKA -- Japanese heavy electric machinery supplier Meidensha Corp. has developed a gaming app to make learning about sewage treatment enjoyable through characters personifying microbes, aiming to release it within fiscal 2025.
Titled "Gesui Okoku" (sewage kingdom), the trial edition of the app was unveiled by the Tokyo-based company during the "Sewage Works Exhibition '25 Osaka," held in Osaka's Suminoe Ward through Aug. 1 under the sponsorship of the Japan Sewage Works Association.
The game is set in a world where the shutdown of sewage treatment plants has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. On a stage modeled after a reactor tank, a key facility where sludge containing microbes is mixed into sewage, players control characters representing real-life microbes such as vorticella, Epistylis and ameba. By utilizing each of their abilities, players battle waves of contaminant organisms to purify the sewage. The microbe characters are voiced by popular voice actors including Ayane Sakura and Aoi Yuki.
In addition to raising the microbe characters, players also manage elements essential to actual sewage treatment process, such as managing the aeration volume for boosting oxygen concentration in water, and the levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) in water, to facilitate microbe decomposition of organic matter. These features are designed to make the learning experience both educational and enjoyable.
The game was jointly developed by a volunteer project team at Meidensha and Clover Lab Inc., an Osaka-based smartphone game developer, with the aim of promoting awareness about the importance of sewage treatment. They are hoping to hit 100,000 downloads.
Akitoshi Nakagawa, head of Meidensha's ozone technology development division and the project team leader, commented, "Sewage tends to have a negative image, being associated with words like 'dirty' and 'stinky,' but it is a vital part of our social infrastructure. We hope the game will spark people's interest in the sewage industry and also be used as an educational tool."
