Where Gecktopia's genetics come from

Gecktopia does not make its geckos up. Every gene in the builder, every morph in the library and every gecko the renderer draws comes from a genetics database built from published crested gecko research and from what breeders have actually proven in their own projects: which traits are genes, how each one is inherited, what is confirmed and what is still argued over, and which pairings are unsafe.

That database is the same one behind ReptiDex, a breeding record keeper for reptile keepers. The game reads it directly, so when the research moves, the geckos move with it.

Why that matters in a game

A breeding game is only interesting if the inheritance is real. If traits were handed out at random, a pairing would be a slot machine. Because the genetics are real, the things breeders care about work here too: a gene can hide in a carrier for a generation, two animals that look alike can throw completely different clutches, and a line takes patience to build.

It also means the game can teach something true. What you learn pairing geckos here is what a keeper would tell you at a reptile show.

Where we simplify, and where we invent

Crested gecko genetics is not a solved science. Some traits are proven, some are widely believed, and some are one breeder's hypothesis. A renderer has to draw something either way, so the game makes choices. These are the ones worth knowing about.

• Some traits are drawn from how they look, not from a proven gene. Flame and Harlequin are treated as a degree of pattern rather than as tidy copies of a gene, because that is how they behave in a clutch.
• Two genes exist here that the research does not name. Quadstripe is inherited separately from Pinstripe in Dusty's own pairings, so the game gives it its own gene. Spot density is a matter of degree rather than copies, so it gets its own polygenic value. Both are the game's, not the database's.
• Yellow is treated as sitting on top of the base colour. In reality the relationship between yellow, black and red is more tangled than that. The simplification keeps olive and orange looking right.
• Not every gene is drawn yet. The builder says so: a gene it cannot draw is listed as not drawn yet rather than quietly ignored, and the morph library only covers the ones the renderer can actually show.
• Some looks are on hold. Lilly White is drawn without the cream pattern underneath for now, because the two together read as a mess, and the fired up and fired down states are not drawn at all yet.

When the game deviates from the research, it says so here. When the research settles something, the game follows it.