It's just snake

I had a conversation about a snake game clone. It was clean work, so I asked author the question I ask about everything: cool idea, do you think it could be used for learning something?

“Not at all. It’s just snake.”

Strip the theme away and snake has three properties. You grow by collecting. The thing you collect becomes the thing that can kill you. And the order you collected in is written down the length of your body, where you can see it.

That is Reactive. You steer the Chemosaurus around a board, collect atoms onto your tail, and what you assemble depends on what you pick up in what order. Then you use what you made: water puts out a fire, calcium chloride melts ice, vinegar dissolves limescale. The board is full of hazards and each one wants a specific answer.

In the Free Lab you can discover the compounds first, learn their properties, before you need to sort them quickly in the game.

What else could be taught with this pattern?