The Ark: project management as a game you can lose

Projects are animals aboard an ark. Pens cost capacity, animals need feeding and watering, and when the ark is full something has to go to the island.

Status: in use
Stack: Python, FastAPI, Railway, PostgreSQL, Google OAuth

The problem

Project lists have no cost. Adding a project is free, so people add projects until the list stops meaning anything. I wanted a tool where taking something on visibly used up something.

The constraint

It had to be a real multi-user web app with per-user sign-in and per-user data, and it had to be fun enough that the constraint felt like a game rule rather than a scolding. Not a task manager. A call-your-shots planning game.

What I built

A FastAPI app on Railway with Postgres and Google sign-in, where every zookeeper gets a private zoo. Every project is an animal. Bringing one aboard happens at the dock, through a check-in interview: species, name, why, a three-point estimate, a confidence dial, a watering cadence. Pens cost capacity, and the ark has a hard capacity block. Animals need feeding (focused work, on a timer with a dead-man switch) and watering (attention). When the ark is full, something goes to the island or is set free, with its history kept as a tombstone.

A month ledger compares fed units against estimated units, which is the honest record of how good my estimates were.

What it cost or taught

The game frame does one thing a task list never did: it makes the cost of saying yes visible before you say it.