The ostriches, elephants and other animals that lived at the Philadelphia Zoo in the 1880s come to life in a whimsical iOS game called Floyd’s Worthwhile Endeavor.
West Philly developer David Hilowitz was inspired by 19th-century photographer Eadward Muybridge‘s “animal locomotion” series, where Muybridge tried to capture how animals moved. Muybridge worked at Penn and took photographs of animals that the Philadelphia Zoo loaned him. Hilowitz traced the photographs in Photoshop and animated them for the game.
Part of Eadward Muybridge’s animal locomotion series.
The game, Hilowitz said, has been downloaded about 5,000 times since its launch at the beginning of January. It’s free for now but will become $0.99 after a few more updates, he said.
Hilowitz, who also works remotely for a mobile develop shop in Providence, R.I., began working on the game when he lived in San Antonio, Tex. He moved to Philadelphia last summer because of his wife’s job.
Before you go...
Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.
3 ways to support our work:- Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
- Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
- Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!
The person charged in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting had a ton of tech connections
From rejection to innovation: How I built a tool to beat AI hiring algorithms at their own game
Where are the country’s most vibrant tech and startup communities?
