Terms of use and credits

Before the Curve
© 2026 Tom Frieden and Louisa Sun

Licence

Before the Curve is free to play at before-the-curve.netlify.app, free to share in its original published form, and free to use in teaching. Without the written permission of the copyright holders, it may not be hosted elsewhere, and it may not be altered in whole or in part.

Teaching content

The teaching content of Before the Curve is © 2026 Tom Frieden. It comprises the quotations and passages from The Formula for Better Health together with the learning content drawn from the book, including the debriefs. All rights reserved.

Scenario

The game scenario is © 2026 Louisa Sun. It covers the setting and story of the game, including the names of its places and characters. All rights reserved.

Source code and game architecture

The source code and the game architecture are © 2026 Louisa Sun. All rights reserved. The game architecture covers the engine and the interface design. Neither may be copied, extracted, modified or redistributed, in whole or in part, without Dr Sun's written permission. Any permission given is limited to hosting by a named institution and grants no other right in the code.

AI-assisted production

Images

The images and the two short films in this game are AI-assisted works: they were generated with Google AI Studio at the direction of Dr Sun, who wrote the prompts and selected and edited the outputs. Copyright in Dr Sun's contribution to them is reserved. The underlying machine-generated material is not necessarily protected by copyright and remains subject to Google's terms of service. In either case the images and films may not be extracted from the game or reused separately.

Sound

The music is from Bensound.com:

• Adventure, Benjamin Tissot, licence code R2KAVJNIVNBKVWHT
• Aeon, Theatre of Delays, licence code S0FIWBZQP7SNYQV5
• Dawn of Change, Roman Senyk, licence code U8SVWC9NBFS85OSI
• Event Horizon, Lunar Years, licence code NH5KORGCTHP7V2AN
• Long Night, Aventure, licence code DBNLJYILUZFLEWHK
• New Frontier, Lunar Years, licence code EO90ATCMO2BSB9KJ
• Once Again, Benjamin Tissot, licence code FGELUWLUBDMNXS6U
• Prism, Theatre of Delays, licence code 5ETXIMSI2OE2F0TG
• Unbreakable Resolve, Lunar Years, licence code OSOOL84IEI1KBALA

The sound effects were generated with ElevenLabs at the direction of Dr Sun and remain subject to ElevenLabs' terms of service. Neither the music nor the sound effects may be extracted or reused separately.

Development

Parts of the source code were generated, refactored, debugged or modified with assistance from Claude Code by Anthropic. The output was reviewed and tested by Dr Sun.

These acknowledgements do not imply sponsorship, partnership or endorsement by Google or Anthropic.

Data

The game saves progress and settings in the player's own browser, and nothing is sent elsewhere during play. The rating and the note at the end of the game are optional. Anything entered there, including a name or an email address, is sent to Dr Sun through the site's host, Netlify.

Authors

Dr Tom Frieden is the author of the teaching content. Dr Louisa Sun is the author of the scenario and of the game's source code and architecture. The simulation was peer-reviewed by Ms Julia Sherry.

Permission to use

Requests for permission to host or adapt the game are to be addressed to Dr Frieden or Dr Sun at louisa.sun@nus.edu.sg.

Disclaimer

Before the Curve is an educational simulation, and it is not medical or public-health advice. The city of Meridian and its outbreak are fictional, as is every character in the story. The epidemic model has been simplified for teaching and does not predict the course of a real outbreak.