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Project Background
Project Background
Go Garden! is a 3-player board game that aims to promote sustainable consumption through home gardening, and also teaches on careful management of finances and resources.
Made on a tight (and I mean TIGHT) schedule.
Made on a tight (and I mean TIGHT) schedule.
Go Garden! was conceptualized, designed, playtested, and iterated over a period of just 24 hours at the 2025 MSU Designathon. It was made with Pei-Chi Lin and Udbhav Saxena. The rules sheet and digital version were made after the 24 hour window.
A special surprise with each game!
A special surprise with each game!
To help players not only feel inspired to pick up more sustainable consumption habits, Go Garden! gives them the actual means to do so by providing a surprise gift of vegetable seeds with each physical copy of the game!
How to Play
How to Play
Go Garden! is meant for three players. Each player has their own starting position and has $75 to start, and they move clockwise around the board. First, try getting to the store to purchase ingredients. Bring them back home to plant in your garden or store in your fridge for safekeeping. If you purchase chicken, make sure to bring it home quickly because it expires in four turns!
You can earn more money by passing home or by landing on an Earn space. If your dice roll overshoots your home or the store, there's no stopping! You just need to keep moving and hope you land there on your next pass.
Other players can steal from your garden if they land on your home spaces, or they can steal items you're carrying with you if they land on the same space you're on. If you land on an Opportunity space, you'll draw a card that introduces a random effect to the game. Cross your fingers and hope it isn't a flood that wipes out your crops!
The first player to cook three recipes of any kind is the winner!
Read the full game rules, or check out the game on Tabletopia!
The design team brainstorming the game.
Photo courtesy of Darrian Chen.
The Brainstorming Process
The Brainstorming Process
Why a gardening game, and what would it look like?
Why a gardening game, and what would it look like?
The idea for this game came from Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
Many ideas were thrown around at the start of the brainstorming process. What if players had different sized gardens and lived different distances from the store? What if you need to make a meal each time you return home? What if you could trade with other players? What if you could sabotage their gardens?
After all of these ideas (and more!) were thrown around and discussed, we knew it was time to narrow them down and create our first prototype.
Rapid Paper Prototyping and Playtesting
Rapid Paper Prototyping and Playtesting
Creating the game in real-time.
Creating the game in real-time.
With the initial concept nailed down, we began by creating a paper prototype (see the following image) and playtesting it. The board featured a simple "plus" (+) shape, with everyone equidistant to the store and crossing paths at the Opportunity space in the middle. At the store, players could choose between buying seeds or buying fully grown produce at a higher price. This concept was later removed to fully encourage the gardening aspect.
Following this playtest, we wanted to encourage more interactions between players, and created a second prototype with a higher chance of crossing paths. In the next playtest however, players did not take advantage of the trading opportunities this presented.
The third prototype was designed to allow crossing of paths on any space and forces players to go by each other's homes in addition to their own. The trading mechanic was dropped and instead the game focused on stealing (increasing the competitive nature). This prototype was recreated as the high-fidelity final design.
The first paper prototype, with all players equidistant to the store.
The second and third prototypes, as well as the final board design, can be seen below. You may click on any of the images to open them in full screen.
The second prototype, which attempted to encourage more player interactions.
The third prototype, which went all in on player interactions through path crossing.
The high-fidelity final design.
It also became clear that there needed to be a way for players to track their crops and resources, as during playtesting there were several times when testers forgot which items they had or how far along their crops were. Our solution was an add-on sheet where players move their resource cards one space to the right each turn to track their growth or expiration.
The final sheet added a money tracker and expanded the garden to account for crops that take additional turns to grow.
Accessibility
Accessibility
Going all in on accessible colors.
Going all in on accessible colors.
Accessibility was a big consideration for this game. We decided to go all in on accessibility with the color scheme, with all text not only meeting WCAG AA standards but going above and beyond to meet AAA standards of at least a 7:1 contrast ratio. The graphic elements also meet the highest standard provided by WCAG of 3:1.
Designathon Judging and Further Work
Designathon Judging and Further Work
Informing on the next steps.
Informing on the next steps.
Go Garden! was shown to six judges at the MSU Designathon on March 23rd, 2025 (where it won the award for the best project in the Gamification & Play category!), and feedback overall was positive. The biggest suggestion was to consider making the game cooperative instead of competitive. For now, the competitive version is available on Tabletopia, and a cooperative version is in the works. We also hope to bring the analog version of the game to life and get it (and its surprise gift of seeds!) out into the world.
See the Game in Action!
See the Game in Action!
To see a demonstration of Go Garden!, watch the short video below!
My Role
My Role
My role in creating Go Garden! is as follows:
Initial Concept and Further Brainstorming
Paper Prototyping and Playtesting (collaborative)
Final Board Design
Recreation on Tabletopia
Project Timeline: March 2025
Project Timeline: March 2025
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