A new cozy game, created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, invites people to trade doom-scrolling for mini-games driven by ocean exploration.
Using underwater footage, FathomVerse trains players to spot and classify marine animals through a variety of minigames.
“The images you see in FathomVerse are real photos collected by ocean researchers,” the creators note on the game’s website.
“Scientists, coastal communities, government agencies, and enthusiasts all over the world are deploying all kinds of imaging systems to monitor and explore the depths of the ocean. Every dive in FathomVerse is filled with imagery that researchers have shared with us.”
After honing their skills, the game then invites users to identify real ocean animals — and test their skills against AI-generated estimations.
As they log more animals, players can “unlock missions” and curate a personal gallery of over 50 groups of ocean animals.
In April, the team behind the FathomVerse project debuted the latest installment of the game on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s YouTube channel.
In the hour-long livestream, the creators investigated footage to identify octopus, squid, sea stars, and crustaceans in real time.
“As we’ve mentioned, the ocean is … huge.” FathomNet content manager Emily Clark noted in the livestream, eliciting laughs from her colleagues.
“There’s just a lot of animals, a lot of habitats, a lot of lighting, a lot of camera differences,” she continued.
“There are so many elements at play, which is why even something really powerful, a process like machine learning, still takes so much training and so much input.”
“And that’s really where the volume of eyes on them — human eyes,” Clark emphasized, “is what makes it a powerful tool.”
Lilli Carlsen, the engagement coordinator for FathomNet, said that gamified citizen science like FathomVerse helps MBARI’s machine learning models improve with every click.
“The thing that gets me really excited with this technology, is if we get an AI model, a machine learning model, to the point where it's able to recognize something that's new,” Carlsen said.
“So we can be sure that we've never encountered this new animal, and that means it's a brand new species that is undiscovered and undescribed.”
At one point, livestream host and MBARI senior content creator Lilianna Watson pointed out that FathomVerse fans — dubbed “Fathomnauts” — were helping the MBARI team identify animals by “playing along in the comments.”
“I can just tell that everybody is so passionate, and it's just really fun to see,” Watson said. “You guys are lucky to have such an engaged community, and it's really, really awesome that so many people care about marine science.”
Kakani Katija, a principal engineer at MBARI, echoed that appreciation as their livestream came to a close.
“I’ve been doing ocean exploration and ocean technology development for a little while now,” Katija said. “And this is one of the most rewarding, exciting projects I’ve ever been on.
“I’m just so grateful to all the Fathomnauts out there that perhaps agree with us and want to continue this journey.”
“And yeah,” Katija added with a grin. “Onwards and downwards.”
“Onwards and downwards, everybody!” Watson cheered, echoing the game’s tagline.
FathomVerse is currently available to download for free on Google Play and the App Store.
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Header image via FathomVerse / Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
