He Made a Covid-Zapping Video Game. Then He Fought Covid for Real

Before Penttinen was admitted to the hospital, the Xbox team had rejected his submission to certify Guntech 2 for release on the platform. In order to pass, he had to fix one small problem: The game didn’t display progress bars on the loading screens, which could lead players to think the game had crashed or stalled while the levels were loading. But in his fevered state, Penttinen feared the worst. He has vivid memories, he says, of things that didn’t happen.

“Somehow, I made up these enemies in my mind that turned into this reason why it was rejected,” Penttinen says. In his fever dreams, friends turned on him, telling Microsoft not to publish his game. “People who were sending me messages wishing me well. But I couldn’t really read or respond. I just saw a name on the screen, and then it became part of this nightmare.”

Stuck in the hospital, Penttinen wasn’t able to address the issue that was holding up his game’s release. He worried that not being able to fix the one tiny problem would keep his work from ever being published.

“Even if I died, my family at least would get some income. But if I’m completely out, what a waste. You spend a year creating this game, but it’s never even going to come out.”

After eight days, Penttinen was able to go home. Sun picked him up and they returned to their house. For the next two weeks, Penttinen was confined to his room. A friend brought over an oxygen tank after Penttinen’s insurance wouldn’t cover the cost of one. Wen Sun brought him food and took care of the kids. They spent Christmas day like that, in the same household but still apart.

While he recovered, Penttinen knew he still had to submit the game for the Xbox approval process. As he worked on it, he went back through and played the game again. This time, blasting the virus to smithereens didn’t feel as cathartic as it used to.

“Maybe because what I experienced was so real, I didn’t really get that feeling of like, ‘Oh I’m gonna show you,’” Penttinen says. “I was kind of hoping it would feel like that, but I felt a little too serious to really get into that kind of revenge mood.”

Penttinen resubmitted the game and it was approved, and on January 13 Guntech 2 went on sale for $20 for Xbox Series S/X and Xbox One. The developer says he plans to work on versions for other gaming platforms next.

These days, Penttinen says he still can’t do much more than go for a short walk without feeling exhausted and out of breath. But now that his game has been released, he feels a little relief that “people around the world will be able to take on the virus en masse.”