Garden Design Heroes: A Prototype Learning Game

So I made my first digital game using Twine. I LOVED it and can't wait to make more. Not sure why I loved it so much, but I plan to marinate on that for awhile. 


Game Title 

Garden Design Heroes is the title of this learning game. I chose this title because the goal of the game is to learn how to design and care for a pollinator garden. Additionally, based on the intended audience, students in grades 3-5, I wanted the players to have the opportunity to see themselves as design heroes. 


Learning Goal

Designed for a project-based learning environment, the learning goal of this game is to teach students in grades 3-5 the basic knowledge of designing a pollinator garden ecosystem in a school setting. Knowledge stems from life science learning standards that include what pollinators need, what challenges to be prepared for, and what is required to care for a pollinator garden ecosystem. Upon completing the game, students should be able to make strategic decisions in designing a pollinator garden and explain the reasoning behind their choices. 


Learning Objectives 

  1. Given the real—world challenge of designing a pollinator garden, students apply garden ecosystem knowledge to create a pollinator garden, demonstrating decisions that result in a thriving garden. (Higher Order) 
  2. Given gardening challenges, students analyze solutions to the challenges, demonstrating decisions that result in a thriving garden. (Higher Order) 


Intended Audience 

The intended audience for Garden Design Heroes is upper elementary learners, typically in grades 3-5. Learners of this age are curious and often adventurous in their learning. They usually begin thinking more about abstract and complex ideas and can consider more than one possibility. Learners of this age can predict the consequences of an action and plan accordingly, deepening and refining their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Additionally, they are capable of understanding and considering other’s perspectives.


Twine Prototype URL: https://shmaynor.itch.io/garden-design-heroes


Plot Summary

The game story begins with the player standing before the community's desolate pollinator garden. Once full of color and pollinators, the community garden has fallen under the control of the Barren Beast, an evil force responsible for keeping the garden bare. The player, an adventurous garden design hero, receives an urgent mission from Community Caretakers, a secret society committed to saving this community from environmental meltdown. The mission is clear: it's up to the player to restore the pollinator garden and bring life back to the community.

As the garden design hero, the player embarks on the journey and immediately meets their mentor, Lady, a beautiful Monarch butterfly who offers insights and information about gardening throughout the game. The central conflict revolves around restoring the garden in a way that supports pollinators, such as birds, bees, and butterflies. However, always nearby is the antagonist, Barren Beast, a character who embodies garden challenges players will face. The player's choices are of utmost importance, as they directly impact the outcome of how thriving the garden will be. As the garden design hero crosses the threshold, they learn what helps a pollinator garden and makes decisions based on that knowledge such as creating a shelter, creating a water source, or choosing native vs. non-native plants for the garden. As the garden design hero continues on the design journey, they face more decisions such as using mulch and creating an ongoing care calendar. Throughout the journey, the Barren Beast presents challenges where the player needs to analyze for the best solution: invasive weeds, poor plant health, and the climactic drought. As the player encounters the drought, they will need to make decisions that are a result of earlier choices. The resolution reveals either a thriving garden with a plethora of pollinators or a struggling garden with varying levels of pollinators, a direct result of the player's decisions.


Map of the Story Structure: 

Exposition: 

The story begins with the player standing before an abandoned garden. The player is asked by the Community Caretakers to revive the garden and defeat the Barren Beast from keeping the garden from thriving. The player commits to the journey and meets his mentor, a Monarch butterfly, who teaches and helps him along the way. 


Conflict:

The central conflict revolves around restoring the garden in a way that supports essential pollinators, such as birds, bees, and butterflies. The secondary conflict is combatting the Barren Beast, a character who embodies garden challenges players face such as invasive weeds, drought, and ongoing care. 


Rising Action: Habitat Features

As the player commits to the journey, they learn from their mentor what components go into a thriving pollinator habitat: food, water, and shelter. They face several trade/off decisions: 

  • Create a Pollinator Water Source or not
  • Create a Pollinator Shelter (Bee Hotel) or not
  • Decide to plant Native Plants vs. Mix of Native/Non-Native Plants 


Rising Action Challenge: Invasive Weeds 

Barren Beast swoops in and introduces himself. He creates the challenge of invasive weeds that must be pulled before planting. The player must make risk/reward challenge of pulling weeds manually or using a natural herbicide.


Rising Action: Planting a Pollinator Garden 

The player learns tips and tricks on how to plant to draw pollinators to the garden such as: 

    • Group plants together to make it easier for pollinators to find and use them.
    • Apply a layer of mulch around the plants to retain moisture and keep weeds away. If the layer is too thick, it can harbor pests and mold, if not applied correctly. Skipping mulch will avoid pests but will require more watering. 
    • Water plants thoroughly after planting to help them establish.

Decision Risk/Reward: Player must decide to use mulch to conserve moisture or skipping mulch to avoid potential pests and mold.


Rising Action Challenge: Poor Plant Growth 

Barren Beast creates poor plant growth. Player chooses to add more mulch and water or not. 


Rising Action: Garden Maintenance and Ongoing Care

A thriving pollinator garden requires ongoing care with consistent monitoring and maintenance (watering, weeding) to make sure plants stay healthy and that the garden continues to provide for pollinators over time. Mentor offers important about ongoing care for the garden: 

    • Watering: It is important to consistently water the garden, especially after planting to help the flowers develop deep roots. 
    • Weeding: It is important to identify and remove weeds that could compete with the garden plants for nutrients and water. Clover and dandelion are weeds that help pollinators. Ragweed and crabgrass are weeds that are not helpful to pollinators. 
    • Observing Pollinators: It is important to observe if pollinators are coming to the garden. Adjust or improve care based on observations such as more watering or adding more plants. 

Decision Trade/Off: Player must decide to make a schedule to keep the garden healthy and growing or go with the flow and water and weed as they have time.


Climax: Barren Beast's Drought 

The Barren Beast sends his best challenge yet, a drought. It doesn't rain for days causing plants to wilt and pollinators to go find food elsewhere. You see the results of your choices. Alternate paths for this climax with choices: 

    • If you stuck with native plants, used mulch, and had ongoing care, the drought caused some damage but much of the garden is salvageable. There is lots of potential to keep it thriving. Choose to water back to thriving or ignore.
    • If you stuck with native plants but avoided mulch and ongoing care, the drought caused quite a bit of damage and you will have to make some changes to the garden to help it thrive.  Choose to add mulch and ongoing care or ignore.
    • If you went with a mixed garden, used mulch, and had ongoing care, the garden only loses some of the plants that were not native. Choose to water and add more native plants or ignore.
    • If you went with a mixed garden, but did not use mulch or ongoing care, much of your garden is lost and you will need to start over. Choose to start over or abandon the garden. 

Falling Action: Next Steps for Thriving

Following the climax and the culmination of decisions made earlier in the game, the player makes a final decisions to help the drought. 

    • Native with mulch/ongoing care: Because of your perseverance and solid choice of ongoing care, your garden doesn't suffer as much loss as feared. Also, the pollinators are loving because of the native plants lived through the drought. 
    • Native without ongoing care: Because of your perseverance and choice of native plants, your garden is not a total loss. There are still some pollinators around because the native plants lived through the drought. However, the lack of structured ongoing care caused several of the native plants to suffer. It is going to take some time and care to revive them back to life and be inviting to the pollinators. 
    • Mixed with mulch/ongoing care: Because of your perseverance and solid choice of calendar, your garden doesn't suffer as much loss as feared and there are still a few pollinators flying around. You lost some of your plants because they weren't native, so you will have to replace them to increase the pollinator population. 
    • Mixed without ongoing care: Because you chose some native plants in your garden, the garden is not a complete loss. With no organized ongoing care, the non-native plants died and the native plants struggled. It is going to take some time and commitment to bring your garden back to life.


Resolution: Thriving or Struggling

The game has two based on decisions: a flourishing pollinator garden showing how the player's decisions produce success or a struggling garden based on skipping steps or not caring for the garden. In either case, there is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of pollinator garden design and the value of perseverance and problem-solving. 








Game Design to Enable Problem Solving


Garden Design Heroes is enables problem solving in various ways throughout the game. The goal of the game is to design a thriving garden, which is both solving a series of problems to create a new product.  In this game, as the player learns about garden knowledge, they problem solve both garden design such as choosing flowers and garden challenges such as invasive weeds. One way this game fosters higher level skills is the strategy of the player assuming a role and then role playing a real world challenge. From the exposition, the player steps into the role of the hero , the one who will make decisions and solve problems to save the garden. Though there are some fictitious components of the game, specifically the Barren Beast and a talking butterfly, the garden design and the problems to be solved are real world.

Another way this game enables problem solving is immediate immersion as the player enters the game.  Upon entrance, the player reads “As you stand before the barren garden, you try to spot a butterfly, a bird, even a bee, as you know when pollinators are present in the garden, the community thrives. Sadly, you see nothing except the desolate garden. “ Immediately following, two minor characters introduce the catalyst to start the journey: “Redesign this bleak garden into a healthy and thriving garden that attracts pollinators, as pollinators help our community thrive. Defeat the Barren Beast by using your creative problem-solving skills and perseverance to solve any garden problems that arise. We believe you are someone who can restore not just the garden but the spirit of the community itself.” The goal for this strategy is directed towards the intended audience. Learners in grades 3-5 are typically curious and adventurous. Using a garden design hero persona is intentional to encourage learners to feel confident as they approach problems and decisions. 



References

Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and 

education. Pfeiffer.


KidsGardening.org. (n.d.). Pollinator gardens. Kids Gardening. Retrieved from https://kidsgardening.org


U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2023, June 23). The value of birds and bees. Farmers.gov. Retrieved from https://www.farmers.gov/

blog/value-birds-and-bees


U.S. Forest Service. (n.d.). Pollinator gardening. USDA Forest Service. Retrieved from https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/

wildflowers/pollinators/gardening


Generative AI (ChatGPT) was used periodically in the design of this project for content ideas and summarizing articles. 


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