Shadegarden

Dev time : Oct 28, 2024 - Dec 17, 2024: 1 month 20 days

Role: Creator

Shadegarden is a chill 2-4 player educational garden simulation tabletop game. Originally a design exercise in my Educational Game Design class, its purpose was to solve an issue local to our communities- in my case, the overabundance of useless, economically damaging grass lawns. However, it quickly grew more and more as I grew more and more interested in fabricating it. I ended up making it my final project for that class, and couldn’t be happier with the outcome. The game is both cooperative and competitive and teaches the players diegetically through gameplay rather than through words or instructions.

SPOTLIGHT: The SCIENCE

One of the things I wanted to prioritize in the creation of Shadegarden was its roots (Pun intended) in real life science. I researched many local native plants to my area (USDA 7A/7B) and designed the gameplay to draw the player to planting those plants above the others. This can then be expanded to other growing zones and environs, and even to locales outside of the US- encouraging people all around the globe to plant native plants and ditch the grass lawns!

If you want to take a look, I’ve uploaded the instruction sheet and card printouts to the folder below: