The concept for this game was created back in September of 2021 before the Children’s Aquarium was reopened. I was chatting with two of my new co-workers and during a break we had, we came up with the game together. Once we had felt confident enough with the idea, we brought it up with HR. She was so impressed that she asked me to go ahead and create a prototype and present the idea to the CEO of the company. This terrified me at first because he was coming into town in two weeks at the time. I had a deadline!

I typed up a “plan of action” as well as attached some concept art before presenting the idea to the CEO and my new boss. Originally I didn’t have the QR system working so I went with an alternative password idea to still give off the same concept I was aiming to achieve. Not only did he love the idea, but he said if I could get it done before Christmas he would pay extra. For someone who has never sold a game idea, this meant the world to me! I got to work on the project right away.

To make sure I met the deadline, I brought in a friend to help me with some of the coding, so I could be more on the front-end side of things. I also reached out to my good friend JPhelpz to make the music again and he delivered a classic lo-fi, tropical-beat song. It wasn’t long until the game was published on GooglePlay and AppStore shortly after.

This app is still under development as I collect feedback from players. The game has doubled in size as well as features a language option for Spanish. The next expansion will include mini-games that feature special animals and expand into the Freshwater section of the Aquarium.