Pet Shrimp Interaction

For this entry, we built a small “pet tank” game where learners take care of a shrimp (with a bonus snail). Learners drop food into the tank to feed the shrimp, level it up, and help it grow. As the shrimp (or snail) levels up, new animal facts are unlocked.

The pet tank introduces simple auto-clicker mechanics like upgrades and ascension—resetting progression while unlocking more facts, a higher max level, and even a new shrimp color. Learning is intentionally paced as a reward for playing, rather than something delivered all at once.

This idea came from our team name (Team Shrimp) and a shared interest in blending learning and light-weight gaming. I’ve been interested in the idea of learning as the reward, and auto-clicker mechanics felt like a great fit as they are simple, motivating, and surprisingly effective without requiring heavy development.

The process started with brainstorming in ChatGPT, followed by a quick build spec. From there, I built the interaction in Antigravity using Gemini with HTML/CSS/JS, leaning into emojis for the shrimp and other elements. We used GitHub to manage versions, Google Meet for live brainstorming and screen sharing, and FigJam to capture ideas as they evolved.

What I learned:

• Small motivational touches go a long way. Adding the snail to collect missed pellets improved flow and gave me a natural way to introduce bonus snail facts.
• Ascension and color changes were a low-effort, high-impact way to extend both gameplay and learning without rebuilding the interaction.
• With the right topic, this kind of interaction could work well as a mid-module break in a longer learning experience—keeping engagement up without feeling heavy.

Huge thanks to Ann Sze and Carlie V. for brainstorming, play-testing, and helping shape the idea.

Couse Link: 

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/a070c719-bf9c-4b96-8d7f-de1bab3e9bb3/review 

 

The code for this block is included in the course, as the contents were too long for this post!