Good news for all florists and cuisine connoisseurs! A new board game has just been announced that will satisfy both your gardening and foraging needs, and as an added bonus – allow you to make delicious dishes with all the ingredients you have gathered.
“Wild Gardens” is the newest title from Rose Gauntlet Entertainment – a game studio that specializes in creating engaging, but relaxing games that are welcoming and inclusive to the many diverse communities around the world. While it is relatively new, having been started in 2020 by Isaac Vega and Lindsey Rode, its debut game “Keystone: North America” was very successful, and they aim to repeat this success with “Wild Gardens” They were excited to share the launch of the game’s Backerkit campaign via Twitter:
We are very excited to announce our next project Wild Gardens! To find out more check out our BackerKit Launch page! https://t.co/wImIwlul5C pic.twitter.com/EKU80iCeRx
— Rose Gauntlet 🌹 🔜 SHUX (@RoseGauntlet) September 22, 2022
An Engaging Foraging Game With a Fun Learning Experience
In “Wild Gardens” players will get to take advantage of the many bounties nature has to offer. There are 8 different ingredient types in the game, which the players will have to forage while visiting 15 stunning locations.
So far, the types of ingredients aren’t named, but judging by the art representation, there appear to be fungi, nuts, berries, flowers, leaves, various tree barks, bulbs, and typha (cattails). Note that those are just the types of ingredients, which means that the actual plant species that you will meet along your journey will be a lot more. As mentioned, there are 15 different locations in the game, and each one has the potential of holding an untold number of plants you can forage.
After you’ve gathered enough ingredients, you may then combine them in different types of recipes – ranging from salads and sodas all the way to complex dishes, like casseroles or crab cakes. All the recipes have different ingredient requirements and they seem to increase in amounts and varieties the more complicated the recipe is.
I also can’t help but note the learning potential the game holds in terms of cooking ingredients and recipes. For instance, I had no idea cattails could be used in cooking, but now, thanks to “Wild Gardens” I have obtained that knowledge, and as a hobby cook – I can’t wait to experiment!
While on your gathering and cooking journey, you will be meeting some of the 56 interesting guests, represented as cards. Judging by their card arts, they will serve as trading posts. For instance, Mary and Maisel can exchange one fungus for two berries. However, you will notice they have what seem to be food requirements, represented by the two recipe types on the bottom of the card. So, essentially, you may be required to feed the guests certain types of recipes before you can take advantage of the trade they offer. You may notice that they have stars on the top right corner of their cards. This could represent either rarity or value, but we will have to wait and see when more gameplay details pop up.
“Wild Gardens” is expected to be ready for launch in early 2023. More news is bound to come up, as a lot of gameplay details are still under wraps, but expect us to cover them once they pop out of the oven.