development

Hermit crabs are omnivorous scavengers, eating microscopic mussels and clams, bits of dead animals, and macroalgae.

Plastic pollution is also a problem for hermit crabs, which often mistake a plastic bottle cap or container for a new home. A 2020 study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials found that around 570,000 hermit crabs die annually from getting caught in plastic debris on two tropical islands in the South Pacific.

When these trapped crabs die, they release a pheromone signal to other crabs that there may be a shell available, which lures even more crabs into a death trap.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/hermit-crabs#:~:text=Hermit%20crabs%20are%20omnivorous%20scavengers,t%20grow%20their%20own%20shells.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389419316577

Second-hand shells provide shelter for hermit crabs, giving their soft bodies extra protection from predators. But the crabs frequently need to find new homes as they grow bigger.

Even if an empty shell is unsuitable for a hermit crab's latest size requirements, they don’t carry on their house hunt elsewhere. Instead, they wait for other crabs to see the shell.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141103-hermit-crab

According to a recent study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, an estimated 570,000 hermit crabs die after climbing into plastic debris, confusing it for empty shells every year. It is considered to be the first study quantifying the population impacts caused by plastics on any species.

Researchers studied strawberry hermit crab populations on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean and Henderson Island in the South Pacific, both of which are littered with millions of pieces of plastic. Researchers made the discovery after finding a staggering 451 million pieces of plastic between the islands, the majority of which was buried beneath the sand.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/plastic-pollution-has-killed-half-a-million-hermit-...

Playtesting feedback

1.Healthbar and life of shell merge with the background. Are there ways to make them more visible?
2.Health seems to be the most important indicator in this game. Can you make changes to the health bar more obvious?
3.Is this a game of plastic pollution? What can I learn from this game?


Iteration

1. Add dark frames over health and shell bars and make them visible in any background.
2. Make health bar color changes based on health value, so the player knows his/her life is running off.
3.Add conclusion and shell count. Showing the player how many trash bottles he/she puts on, we point out the struggle that hermit crabs are facing.