Prime Garden
Role: Sole Designer
Responsibilities: Systems, Mechanics Design
Tools: Gsuite, Figma, Tabletop Simulator
Project Length: 11 months
Platform: Tabletop Simulator
Developer: Big Red Heart Games
Client: -
About the Game:
Prime Garden is the result of 11 months of iterative development and constant testing with both other game developers as well as families who generously donated their weekend afternoons. I wanted to create a game that could help young people gain math fluency but that did not require any prior math knowledge to play. I also did not want the game to ever ask a must-answer direct math question, or feel like a quiz.
Prime Garden is a cooperative multiplayer game with a gentle, natural theme. In order to win, players must create beautiful bouquets for their customers and become the town’s favorite gardeners! In order to do that, players need to claim customer orders and then plant, bloom, and harvest groups of prime flowers to fill them. Keep in mind, the other gardeners you work with are also trying to earn the town’s favor and don’t mind borrowing the seeds you plant and bloom to help themselves.
What I did
I am the sole designer of Prime Garden. I created the game concept and developed it through iterative testing cycles over the course of a year. I tested with friends and family at first but moved on to local and online hobbyist groups as quickly as possible. I also conducted in person blind playtests with local members of my community and their children over several weekends. I created all the original assets for the game, and eventually hired an artist to create the board and box.
