Hermits to Shell-ter is an educational and interactive game where players control a crab navigating the Chesapeake Bay, collecting objects, avoiding hazards, and learning about real threats to Maryland’s crab populations.
Inspiration
The game was inspired by a desire to educate players about the environmental challenges facing crabs in Maryland, including invasive species, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. We wanted to create a fun and interactive way to raise awareness, combining game design with conservation education.
What it does
In Hermits to Shell-ter, players control Hermit the Crab, moving it around the screen to collect objects that reward points and show a fact about crab threats. Players must avoid hazards such as predators or environmental obstacles, which reduce the crab’s health. The crab sprite is fully animated and flips direction based on movement. Health is tracked with a visual health bar, and the game ends if health reaches zero. Background music adds to immersion, and the educational overlay ensures that players learn about real-world crab conservation issues as they play.
How we built it
We built Hermits to Shell-ter using Python with Pygame, which handled graphics, animation, input, and sound. Animated crab sprites and hazard graphics were hand-drawn in Pixel Art, and then imported and scaled dynamically to fit the game window. We implemented smooth frame cycling for the crab animation and horizontal flipping to show direction changes. A health bar and collision system track interactions with hazards, while an educational overlay displays facts about crab threats when objects are collected.
Challenges we ran into
Our main challenge was learning how to use Pygame, because none of us have used it before. We ran into many learning obstacles, but we persevered. By experimenting, researching, and collaborating, we successfully built our game in Pygame.
We faced several challenges during development. Getting the crab to animate smoothly and flip correctly required careful frame timing and sprite management. Playing background music in a reliable format was tricky due to Pygame’s audio limitations. Collision detection needed to be accurate while maintaining smooth performance. Structuring the game loop to handle input, animation, collision, and drawing efficiently was also a challenge.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of taking a complex idea, combining gameplay with environmental education, and turning it into a playable game. Through this project, we learned how to approach game development from start to finish, including planning, problem-solving, and iterating on our ideas. We improved our programming skills, gained experience with Pygame, and developed the ability to turn abstract concepts, like crab conservation, into an interactive experience that is both fun and informative for players.
What we learned
Throughout this project, we learned how to structure a Pygame project with proper initialization, a main game loop, and modular code. We gained experience managing animations, sprite flipping, frame timing, collision detection, and integrating a health system. Most importantly, we learned how to transform environmental education into interactive gameplay and how to debug issues with image and audio file formats in Pygame.
What's next for Hermits to Shell-ter
In future versions, we plan to add more educational content about the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, introduce different levels or challenges including seasonal or weather effects, and add sound effects for collisions, collecting objects, and other game events. We also want to enhance visual appeal with animated hazards or particle effects and expand with an interactive start screen to include menus for instructions and settings.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.