Have You Played... Mutazione?
Deep roots
Despite my grand plans to get more, right now I still only have one houseplant. But I do love it. I move it around to give it different amounts of light and carefully check the soil. Growing plants seems to have both a creative and a protective element to it. You can get a sense of that from Mutazione.
It is a game about the relationships in a quiet community - a soap opera with mutants, basically. But here I'm going to talk mostly about the gardening.
You find and grow several different moods of garden, which affect the moods of the little town too. A garden's mood depends on the type of plants you put there. And different plants also make different sounds, so you can just sit in there and listen to the little song that's grown around you.
It's a creative endeavour, because you have limited space, and some plants can only grow in certain soil types or on certain surfaces. And you can't crowd too many plants together or their growth will be stunted and you wont get the full size or shape of the tree or shrub. It's a lovely little project, and Mutazione now has an unlimited garden mode, which is exactly what I wanted of it. It might be exactly what you want too!
(Disclosure: Hannah Nicklin, who has written for us, is studio and narrative lead at Die Gute Fabrik.)