Science museum games thingdom

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Collaborating with the Science Museum, we devised Thingdom, a solution which would enable teens to learn through curiosity-led gameplay and succeed in conveying difficult scientific content about genetics in a humorous and engaging way. Thingdom is a place where visitors can create new life and learn about the random nature of genetic inheritance that determines how traits are passed down from generation to generation. This starts a new cycle of gameplay where the player learns what characteristics the offspring has inherited.

Thingdom is a game where all creatures interact asynchronously, meaning that teens can develop and mate their things without the worry of real-time activity. The game design is beautifully crafted, featuring wonderfully imaginative characters that are fun and empathetic. Designed to tie in with the teen-friendly 'Who am I? Here, though, you don't just select and care for your little 'Thing' by feeding it, playing with it and stroking it , you are also given mating tasks, which require you to, ahem, 'get busy' with a partner that meets the required genetic shopping list.

Each Thing has a set of genes which govern its shape, size, colour and skin patterns, and the idea is, players will learn about the random nature of inheritance. Plus, if you mate a green Thing with a red one, the colour of your offspring will depend on which hues are carried as dominant or recessive genes — so you need to work out the most favourable combinations. It's all beautifully presented, with simple, stylised visuals and plenty of fact boxes to get across the science part.