Serious question: Has anyone tried this out on actual children? How did it go? Maybe children can more easily accommodate the number of arbitrary elements and rules the game requires, because as an adult, I find the alligator motif actively confusing.
Using concrete names, people, chocolates rather than abstractions usually helps a lot in teaching, because it leverages existing mental models and reduces the cognitive burden of tracking abstract tokens and behaviours. In this case, the alligators and their eggs behave so differently from anything familiar (egg hatching to whatever the parent ate?!) that I find the cognitive burden increases to the point of giving up. IMHO, for adults, a straight-up explanation with abstract symbols would actually be easier to comprehend.
Using concrete names, people, chocolates rather than abstractions usually helps a lot in teaching, because it leverages existing mental models and reduces the cognitive burden of tracking abstract tokens and behaviours. In this case, the alligators and their eggs behave so differently from anything familiar (egg hatching to whatever the parent ate?!) that I find the cognitive burden increases to the point of giving up. IMHO, for adults, a straight-up explanation with abstract symbols would actually be easier to comprehend.