“Save the Orinoco Crocodile” is a GUI-based educational game about wildlife conservation that I'm developing for MacOS, currently in beta.
In making this game, I've drawn on three areas of expertise: data science, delightful design, and understanding user behaviour.
The game uses Python’s data science libraries to simulate population dynamics of the endangered Orinoco crocodile, which the player must save from extinction.
For the UI, I drew inspiration from my favourite childhood Flash games, including the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs tie-in game
"Big Al"
The gameplay itself is rooted in real science and conservation strategies that I took upon myself to lift out of academia and to translate into fun mechanics that anybody, no matter their scientific inclinations, could understand, use and learn from.
I hope that kids playing the game are inspired to be similarly curious about and kind to the natural world.
