TreeBit

TreeBit is a smartphone game designed to teach young adults about the framework central to all biology; the phylogenetic Tree of Life that shows how all species on Earth are related to one another. Evolution is central to TreeBit and, thus, to the game’s design. Game art “evolves”from level to level with pixel art of increasing complexity. TreeBit has two components, 1) a Tree World framework that showcases the amazing diversity of life and shows the relationships among species and 2) game levels in which a player learns about important events in the history of life and unlocks sections of the Tree World. Each game level has different winning scenarios that unlock different portions of the Tree World, encouraging levels to be re-played for different outcomes. Here, we introduce TreeBit’s concept and learning goals, and detail our early design decisions.