Educational Taxonomy Game - CreatureFeature.gg (by @mitchell_s_kucy)

Third-party Tools and Apps for iNaturalist
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Goal of the tool: This is a free daily Wordle - style game for Taxonomy, animal ID, and range

Niche it fills in the iNaturalist ecosystem: For those looking to practice animal ID, taxonomy, range, or looking for a fun way to compete with Friends

Is there a commercial component, or do you plan into include one in the future? Are donations requested? (yes/no, explain): No

What sort of data (if any) does your app collect from its users?: Scores, unique visitor id, nothing to sell you things or sell your data - more details here: https://creaturefeature.gg/privacy

Link to your iNaturalist profile: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/mitchell_s_kucy

Description:
Hi there! I’m a software developer by trade, but formerly worked in wildlife surveys, specifically for owls.

I’m generally a wildlife enthusiast, so I put together a free, educational, non-commercial website to learn identification, scientific nomenclature, and range for various animals as a daily shareable game (Wordle style). I also added a specific daily challenge for birders.

The site is in its early days. I would love if any of you folks would take a look, and please share any feedback if you feel compelled to!

creaturefeature.gg

creaturefeature.gg/birder

The game is non-commercial, but if you like it, would appreciate a follow on X/Twitter where I post other software projects.

https://creaturefeature.gg/birder

Cheers,

Mitch

Discussion questions or areas seeking feedback:

Gameplay, accuracy, fun-level, taxonomy component

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This is your forums account. What is your account on inaturalist.org?

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https://www.inaturalist.org/people/mitchell_s_kucy
?

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Fixed, thanks

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I had hoped I was wrong.
Zero obs. Zero IDs. And it did show only active for 2 days in 2022.

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No comments either. No engagement with the platform or its userbase at all.

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Welp, sorry. I’m not trying to sell anything, just sharing. I thought this crowd might enjoy it.

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I think this game is really fun! I’ve missed thinking in taxonomic terms. I haven’t had the chance to brush up on them since college. Personally, I don’t love having to draw the range, but it would be fun to guess which continents it can be found on.

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Hi Mitchell,

I played a couple of rounds, on Great Grey Owl and King Vulture.

My feedback is similar to what Amelia shared, above.

Pros: I found the questions about each branch on the taxonomic tree to be a helpful review.

Cons: The range map is too nitpicky in my opinion. You should get more credit if you get part of the range correct. I think few people have a perfect geographic range map memorized for every species.

I’m sorry you’re getting criticized for not being an active iNatter. Many people who develop Third-party Tools are similar to you (they barely use the platform).

At the same time, it is a valid criticism in my opinion. The CEO of Duolingo, just today, made a LinkedIn post highlighting the fact that most employees are frequent users of the platform (Duolingo in that case). I think it’s called dogfooding? It does connect you with the user experience.

PS: Welcome to the iNat Forum, @amelia486!

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This is a really neat tool! Similar to what Adam and Amelia said, I enjoyed the taxonomic breakdown (great practice, review, and good skill development!) moreso than the range mapping. I think the range mapping could be a separate game, but it would probably need to be a little more forgiving! I play another Wordle-esque game called MapTap, where you guess the locations of cities, and I bet if you used a similar score-scale and projection to that the range portion of your game would be a bit more successful.

Thanks for sharing!

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I was inspired by maptap!

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Thanks for the feedback @AdamWargon @amelia486 - the range has been polarizing. Some people on Reddit have really liked it so it’s interesting to hear other perspectives.

Agreed on dogfooding - I’ve been playing the game daily but have not been using iNat.

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I think it’s clever. The game isn’t really an offshoot from iNaturalist (though I imagine you are using iNat data). It might better be described as a game that might appeal to people who also like iNaturalist.

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Changing it up a little today - more about ID and less about taxonomy. Old game is now under “expert mode”