I builtan interactive chicken welfare experience—try it and let me know what you think
Ever wondered what “cage-free” actually means versus “free-range”? I just launched A Chicken’s World—a 5-minute interactive game where you experience four different farming systems from an egg-laying hen’s perspective, then guess which one you just lived through and how common that system is.
Reading “67 square inches per hen” is one thing, but actually trying to move around in that space is another. My hope is that the interactive format makes welfare conditions visceral in a way that statistics don’t capture.
The experience includes:
Walking through battery cage, cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised systems
PS thanks Claude for the code, plus THL, RP, Farmkind for doing the actual important work; I’m just making a fun tool. This was a misc personal project, nothing to do with my employer.
I thought this was great! Seems like a very accessible way to spread this info. Two minor notes—when you perch you get a little stuck where you can’t move or unperch, I only got free by clicking socialize. And in the caged scenario, I shared the space with 2 other chickens, not 5-10 like the info says. Making the surroundings of the cage depicting other chickens would be more intense too, rather than the existing pattern.
If you were you or others were going to extend it, I’d imagine gamifying it might be interesting. Eg you gain points by performing the natural behaviors, and points allow you to unlock the more elaborate natural behaviors. And then having some mechanic where you have to choose the deleterious behaviors (attacking other chickens, pulling own feathers). Maybe some stress bar that increases as a function of the space you have. Performing natural behaviors brings the stress down, and this is manageable in the kinder scenarios. But in cages, the stress is increasing rapidly and the natural behaviors aren’t available, so you’re forced to do the deleterious ones.) The main benefit of doing this gamification would be to increase the chance people get interested, or that some streamer gives it a go.
Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to play through this and provide such thoughtful feedback! I really appreciate it, and apologies for the delay in implementing these changes.
Here’s what I’ve updated based on your suggestions:
Bug Fixes:
URL (@BrianTan ): Thanks for flagging! I think this should be fixed globally now.
Perching bug (@Ben Stewart ): You can now press P again to exit perching—no more getting stuck!
Battery cage crowding (Ben): Adjusted the spacing to show the realistic density—you should now see 6-8 hens in the cage matching the “5-10 hens” description
UX Improvements:
Upfront explanation (Sanjay): Added a “Think you know the difference?” challenge box on the welcome screen so players understand they’ll be quizzed afterward
Homepage clarity: Changed from “cage-free or pasture-raised” to “cage-free or free-range” since those are more ambiguous and better convey the challenge
Visual cage surroundings (Ben): Enhanced the battery cage scenario—all surrounding cages now show detailed, properly-sized chickens with more subtle movement to better convey the industrial scale and crowding without as much weird flashing. (I didn’t fully fix it, but I think it’s a lot better)
Accuracy: Pasture-raised labeling (@david_reinstein): Added “Certified Humane” specification throughout and included a disclaimer that “pasture-raised” isn’t USDA-regulated for eggs, so uncertified products may vary significantly
I do agree with several of you (Sanjay, Ben) that full gamification would make it a lot better. This just seems like a change too far for my meagre vibe-coding capabilities and limited time availability for a spare time/fun project. If someone wanted to take it this on and run with it further and make it actually good, I’d be excited about that though! I’d be happy to hand over code etc.
The updated version is live at the same link. Thanks again for helping make this better! I also just posted on LinkedIn if anyone wants to share etc from there.
I feel like this is a first step on the road to something that might be quite powerful at communicating chicken/hen welfare.
The thing that was missing for me was that when I was “playing” at being a chicken in the different environments, I didn’t see the point. I did various things, but found them boring.
The easiest way to better gamify this is to explain upfront that the user will be asked to guess what sort of environment the chicken is in, so the user can better orient themselves to what they are trying to achieve.
A better way to gamify is to add a welfare score. It would probably need some careful thought, because you want the scoring system to capture the idea that the chicken wants to do various different things (ie sitting on the perch, coming off, going back on again ad nauseam shouldn’t get you a good score). It should also capture the idea that being pecked or harmed by other chickens hurts you, which teaches you not to get too close. And perhaps the scoring system might incentivise you to hurt other chickens (eg pecking them might make you feel less bad—again, need this to align with how the animals actually feel and our best motivations of what motivates them to peck other chickens).
The idea should be that no matter how well you play the game, your welfare will be terrible in the factory farmed condition, and less bad in the others.
Another more minor point: the instructions said I could use arrow keys or WASD. I couldn’t get arrow keys to work, which was a shame because I prefer them to WASD
I like the stylized illustrations but I think a bit more realism (or at least detail) could be helpful. Some of the activities and pain suffered by the chickens was hard to see.
The transition to the factory farm/caged chickens environment was dramatic and the impact I think you were seeking.
One fact-based question which I don’t have the answer to—does this really depict the conditions for chickens where the eggs are labeled as “pasture raised?” I hope so, but I vaguely heard that that was not a rigorously enforced label.
The main URL didn’t work for me, but the backup did. This was fun and useful; it helped me better understand what these different farming systems are like!
I built an interactive chicken welfare experience—try it and let me know what you think
Ever wondered what “cage-free” actually means versus “free-range”? I just launched A Chicken’s World—a 5-minute interactive game where you experience four different farming systems from an egg-laying hen’s perspective, then guess which one you just lived through and how common that system is.
Reading “67 square inches per hen” is one thing, but actually trying to move around in that space is another. My hope is that the interactive format makes welfare conditions visceral in a way that statistics don’t capture.
The experience includes:
Walking through battery cage, cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised systems
Cost-effectiveness data based on Rethink Priorities’ research on corporate campaigns
A willingness-to-pay element leading to an optional donation to THL via Farmkind
I’d welcome feedback:
Any factual errors I should correct? (The comparative advantage of early adopters here! Most of the fact-finding and red-teaming was done by LLMs.)
What would make it more useful to you personally? (You’ll probably give me more useful feedback this way than if you try to model other users.)
What would make it work better as an outreach tool? (I built this with non-EA audiences in mind.)
Try it: https://achickens.world/. (Backup link here if that doesn’t work.)
PS thanks Claude for the code, plus THL, RP, Farmkind for doing the actual important work; I’m just making a fun tool. This was a misc personal project, nothing to do with my employer.
I thought this was great! Seems like a very accessible way to spread this info.
Two minor notes—when you perch you get a little stuck where you can’t move or unperch, I only got free by clicking socialize. And in the caged scenario, I shared the space with 2 other chickens, not 5-10 like the info says. Making the surroundings of the cage depicting other chickens would be more intense too, rather than the existing pattern.
If you were you or others were going to extend it, I’d imagine gamifying it might be interesting. Eg you gain points by performing the natural behaviors, and points allow you to unlock the more elaborate natural behaviors. And then having some mechanic where you have to choose the deleterious behaviors (attacking other chickens, pulling own feathers). Maybe some stress bar that increases as a function of the space you have. Performing natural behaviors brings the stress down, and this is manageable in the kinder scenarios. But in cages, the stress is increasing rapidly and the natural behaviors aren’t available, so you’re forced to do the deleterious ones.)
The main benefit of doing this gamification would be to increase the chance people get interested, or that some streamer gives it a go.
Nice work!
Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to play through this and provide such thoughtful feedback! I really appreciate it, and apologies for the delay in implementing these changes.
Here’s what I’ve updated based on your suggestions:
Bug Fixes:
URL (@BrianTan ): Thanks for flagging! I think this should be fixed globally now.
Perching bug (@Ben Stewart ): You can now press P again to exit perching—no more getting stuck!
Arrow keys (@Sanjay): Fixed—they now work
Battery cage crowding (Ben): Adjusted the spacing to show the realistic density—you should now see 6-8 hens in the cage matching the “5-10 hens” description
UX Improvements:
Upfront explanation (Sanjay): Added a “Think you know the difference?” challenge box on the welcome screen so players understand they’ll be quizzed afterward
Homepage clarity: Changed from “cage-free or pasture-raised” to “cage-free or free-range” since those are more ambiguous and better convey the challenge
Visual cage surroundings (Ben): Enhanced the battery cage scenario—all surrounding cages now show detailed, properly-sized chickens with more subtle movement to better convey the industrial scale and crowding without as much weird flashing. (I didn’t fully fix it, but I think it’s a lot better)
Accuracy: Pasture-raised labeling (@david_reinstein): Added “Certified Humane” specification throughout and included a disclaimer that “pasture-raised” isn’t USDA-regulated for eggs, so uncertified products may vary significantly
I do agree with several of you (Sanjay, Ben) that full gamification would make it a lot better. This just seems like a change too far for my meagre vibe-coding capabilities and limited time availability for a spare time/fun project. If someone wanted to take it this on and run with it further and make it actually good, I’d be excited about that though! I’d be happy to hand over code etc.
The updated version is live at the same link. Thanks again for helping make this better! I also just posted on LinkedIn if anyone wants to share etc from there.
I feel like this is a first step on the road to something that might be quite powerful at communicating chicken/hen welfare.
The thing that was missing for me was that when I was “playing” at being a chicken in the different environments, I didn’t see the point. I did various things, but found them boring.
The easiest way to better gamify this is to explain upfront that the user will be asked to guess what sort of environment the chicken is in, so the user can better orient themselves to what they are trying to achieve.
A better way to gamify is to add a welfare score. It would probably need some careful thought, because you want the scoring system to capture the idea that the chicken wants to do various different things (ie sitting on the perch, coming off, going back on again ad nauseam shouldn’t get you a good score). It should also capture the idea that being pecked or harmed by other chickens hurts you, which teaches you not to get too close. And perhaps the scoring system might incentivise you to hurt other chickens (eg pecking them might make you feel less bad—again, need this to align with how the animals actually feel and our best motivations of what motivates them to peck other chickens).
The idea should be that no matter how well you play the game, your welfare will be terrible in the factory farmed condition, and less bad in the others.
Another more minor point: the instructions said I could use arrow keys or WASD. I couldn’t get arrow keys to work, which was a shame because I prefer them to WASD
Enjoyed it, a good start.
I like the stylized illustrations but I think a bit more realism (or at least detail) could be helpful. Some of the activities and pain suffered by the chickens was hard to see.
The transition to the factory farm/caged chickens environment was dramatic and the impact I think you were seeking.
One fact-based question which I don’t have the answer to—does this really depict the conditions for chickens where the eggs are labeled as “pasture raised?” I hope so, but I vaguely heard that that was not a rigorously enforced label.
The main URL didn’t work for me, but the backup did. This was fun and useful; it helped me better understand what these different farming systems are like!