Go Narrow: Antibiotics Game

Learn which antibiotic covers which bug, why, and when to hold back. Go Narrow is a puzzle game that teaches antibiotic coverage one drug at a time, with spaced repetition that makes it stick. WHY I MADE IT I'm a physician. Antibiotic coverage overwhelmed me in medical school and again in residency. Only after years in clinical microbiology and infectious-disease clinics did I see the logic underneath it. Go Narrow teaches that logic, so coverage stops being a chart you cram and becomes something you understand. LEARN THE WHY, NOT JUST THE CHART Each drug patches a gap the one before it left: flucloxacillin survives staph's penicillinase, clavulanate brings Klebsiella back, cefepime survives AmpC. Every wrong tap tells you why in one sentence: an enzyme destroys the drug, its target has changed, or the drug can't get in. You build a model you can reason from, not a list to memorize. STEWARDSHIP BUILT INTO THE SCORE Covered isn't the only question. Some bugs are covered, but a narrower drug would do: "works, but save it." Use a broad drug on them and you lose a leaf, often with C. difficile or a resistant strain appearing on the plate. Stars for covering the bug, leaves for going narrow. Every drug shows its WHO AWaRe group: Access, Watch or Reserve. FEELS LIKE THE MICRO LAB AND THE WARD - Tiles look like colonies: golden staph, pink E. coli, blue-green Pseudomonas, each with a Gram-stain window. - Cultures come from blood, urine, sputum, a wound swab or an abscess drain. Mid-level, the micro lab calls about a second organism: does your drug cover it? - Resistant strains look just like the normal ones until the lab names them: MRSA, VRE, ESBL, KPC, OXA-48, NDM, CRAB. - Once the culture is back, pick the drug to de-escalate to. - Resistant colonies spread (selection pressure on your plate), and a Scalpel or Drain gives you source control. A REAL PUZZLE, NOT A QUIZ IN DISGUISE Touching bugs pop together, so planning bigger groups pays off. No hidden luck: you see the next drops coming, and the same taps always give the same result. Three mistakes and the treatment has failed. Contrast levels pair two similar drugs; ward rounds switch the drug every few moves. SPACED REPETITION ON YOUR OWN MISTAKES Every drug–bug pair you get wrong comes back as a quick review plate the next day, then after 3, 7, 21, 60 and 120 days. Six right answers and it's mastered. A few pairs you got right come back too, and "where does it hit?" questions keep drug targets fresh. A CLEAR PATH THROUGH IT ALL - 57 levels in 5 chapters that build on each other: penicillins, cephalosporins, Gram-positive specialists, drugs beyond the cell wall, and resistant Gram-negatives. - 12 study topics by drug class or by bug. A quick check skips what you already know; levels, a drill and a final check show what you've learned. - Your Spectrum book: every drug you clear fills in its row of a drug-by-bug coverage chart. Tap any square to see why. UP TO DATE AND CAREFULLY SOURCED 32 antibiotics and 30 bacteria, including Reserve drugs matched to the enzyme they're built for: ceftazidime-avibactam, meropenem-vaborbactam, cefiderocol, aztreonam-avibactam and sulbactam-durlobactam. Coverage follows EUCAST expected resistant phenotypes and expert rules, the WHO AWaRe antibiotic book and 2026 IDSA guidance on resistant Gram-negatives. Only clear-cut pairs appear on a plate; the ones that depend on the strain or the guideline are explained in the chart instead. All sources are listed in the app, and every error report is read. FOR STUDENTS AND CLINICIANS Medicine, nursing or pharmacy: pick your track and climb from student to stewardship lead. PRIVATE AND OFFLINE No account, no ads, no tracking. Works offline, and your progress never leaves your device. For learning only. Coverage is simplified for the game; real prescribing depends on local resistance, the site of infection and the patient. Always follow your local guidelines.