The story
A student made a beautiful game about parasitic worms. You flew through the gut and zapped worms with a glowing ray. On the end screen it said, in big letters, that this ray would make you worm-free in real life.
A teacher saw it, and the game was offline the same afternoon. The game itself was fine. That one sentence was the problem: it presented fiction as fact, and it made a health promise no game should make.
What you learn in this lesson
Every statement in your game gets a label: known, fiction or todo.
| Label | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| known | Established knowledge, with a source | "Bacteria make acid from sugars and starches." (NIDCR) |
| fiction | Made up for the game, and shown as fiction | "The bacteria in the game are giant and glow." |
| todo | Not known yet, or not checked yet | "How fast does saliva really bring plaque pH back at night?" |
Fiction is not a problem. Fiction is what makes it a game: giant microbes, a shrinking ship, a glowing tool. The rule is that the player can always tell which is which.
Three rules that keep your game safe to publish
- Never promise a health effect. A game explains how the body works. It never says that the game, a tool, a sound or a product will make someone better. The publish check flags words that promise medical effects.
- Every "known" fact has a source, and you write it in your own words. Facts can't be copyrighted, but texts can.
- Add the line: Educational content, not medical advice. If you are worried about your health, see a doctor.
About sources: US government pages (like CDC and NIH) are public domain. WHO and most national institutes allow quoting but not copying: cite them and write your own sentences.
Do this
- Make a table with three columns: statement, label, source.
- Put your three facts from lesson 1 in it as known.
- Add at least two fiction lines: what will you make up for the game?
- Ask Claude to check your table: "Here is the fact table for my educational game. Point out any statement that is labelled known but sounds like a promise or has no source, and any fiction that a player could mistake for fact."
Result of this lesson
A fact table with at least 3 known facts (with sources) and 2 fiction lines.