Galactic Gloop Zoo is a 60-level puzzle/strategy game that addresses a common misconception about the directionality of heat transfer—that, for example, a drink cools because ice transfers its “coldness” to the drink, rather than because the drink loses its heat to the ice. The player assumes the role of a zookeeper in an intergalactic zoo filled with strange animals from many planets. Newly discovered creatures are about to go on display, but the eggs haven’t hatched yet. The player must warm or cool them, as needed, in order to hatch them in time.
But players can’t access the eggs directly, and must use helper gloops to relay heat to the eggs. These blob-like creatures can transfer heat to each other through conduction, convection, and radiation, depending on their type, the environment, and their proximity to each other. Players use the gloops to create a Rube Goldberg-like sequence of heat-transfer events that results in the eggs warming or cooling enough to hatch and reveal the exotic animals inside.
