Growing Grounds
You wake up to the sound of waves.
Your clothes are damp.
Your mind is foggy.
The sea has brought you to a nameless island. In the wilderness, you find a strange seed unlike any you’ve seen before. Without much thought, you plant it near your makeshift camp.
Days pass. Weeks. You survive storms, scavenge for food, and tend to the seed with care.
Slowly, it grows. A quiet companion in the solitude. And then the first flower blooms. And when it does, it stirs something deep within. With each blossom that follows, the island feels a little less foreign.
You feel you are a part of this island.
August started on a great note for me. I often mention how much I love playing games with minimal setup, and as luck would have it, I ended up playing two one-page games in the span of a week: TownSpire and Growing Grounds. Coincidentally, both games’ Kickstarter campaigns went live on August 5th! TownSpire was an excellent Medieval experience for me, and now it was Growing Grounds’ turn to keep August’s momentum going.
First Impressions
My first attempt at gardening was when I was 11, watering the plants my mother had planted on our balcony. Funnily enough, it was also my first-ever unofficial job where I was paid 25 cents per month, haha. It was a lot for me back then. Good old days…
It’s been more than 2 decades since then. That house doesn’t exist anymore, and my mother passed away 4 years ago. It’s all a memory now. A fond, distant memory.
The thought of playing a game centered around nurturing a plant brought back those memories. The theme gave the notion that Growing Grounds leans more towards a calming experience instead of an adrenaline-rushed showdown.
A bit on Growing Grounds
Growing Grounds is a roll-and-write that Hep Sosing, its creator, claims to be a quiet retreat. You’re on a forgotten island, looking after a plant that seems to hold more than just beauty. In each round, you roll dice to grow stems and leaves, bloom flowers, connect with insects, and unlock bonuses along the way.
Preparing the game
Like TownSpire, Growing Grounds took little to no effort to set up. I printed the map sheet, grabbed 3 dice, a pen and I was good to go. The game involves drawing parts of the plant as it grows, along with scoring and tracking things on the map sheet. So you can laminate the sheet if you want to, for replayability. I didn’t, though. I love drawing on art paper.
Instead of drawing with a pen, you can also opt for colored pens. It can perfectly transform the game into an art project!
Big shoutout to Hep for keeping the map sheet simple, low on ink, and easy to read.
Findings
After a week of playing the game solo, here are my findings.
Therapeutic
I chose a rainy afternoon to play Growing Grounds for the first time, on my balcony. It’s right next to a lake surrounded by trees, so I was as close to nature as I possibly could in a city. I played the game thrice for a stretch of two hours on my own. No breaks; just listening to the birds, humming songs (Old Tom Bombadil) and growing my plants…
Once the sun had set and I packed up for the day, there was only one word that lingered in my mind: therapeutic. It was a calming and refreshing experience to say the least, and I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic, recalling my first job as a gardener. It was a wonderful trip to the past, and I’ve got to thank Hep for creating such an experience for me. Those two hours were also the longest I’ve been away from screens in a while.
Plan your journey well
I’ll confess that I was so busy enjoying the journey of growing plants that I completely overlooked the scoring on my first three attempts. Result? I failed! The scoring for Growing Grounds can be a tad bit ruthless, as you fail if you score below 22, and be a Botanical Maestro if you score 30 or above. My first 3 efforts gave me 13, 19, and 21!
In the hopes of being a Maestro, I tried to approach the game differently, and it paid dividends. For example, on my first attempt, I tried growing way too many branches from the base of the plant. As a result, it didn’t grow much vertically and spread more horizontally instead. Once I aimed for a taller plant with a leaner base, I started getting better at it.
That’s the beauty of this game. There are many ways to score points; you just need to figure out how.
Compact!
After playing a game as compact as TownSpire, Growing Grounds held up just as well!
+ A one-pager that lasts exactly 24 rounds
+ Have a few fixed elements to strategize around: stem, leaves, flowers, insects, daytime tracker and energy
+ There’s a neat rhythm to the game design. Leaves on a stem determine the flowers, the flowers grant you bonuses. The daytime tracker generates energy, and you’ll spend that energy to grow flowers.
My recommendations
Solo
While I’ve yet to try the multiplayer mode, I feel solo is best suited for the game. At best, a couple of lovers or friends can play on the same map sheet. I don’t see Growing Grounds as a competitive game; rather, it’s a de-stresser that will help you unwind when you are alone. Or at least that’s what it evoked in me!
Coloring pens
Don’t deprive yourself of art therapy, so ditch your basic pen and grab some colored ones! The end look of the plants are captivating, irrespective of your score.
With nature
It might not be possible for everyone, but to get the most out of Growing Grounds, you should be as close to nature as possible. Plan a day out. Visit the local park. The game feels better when you’re surrounded by nature, and I can vouch for that!
Replayable?
As I write this blog, I’ve played Growing Grounds on the base map sheet six times, and I’ve yet to feel it’s repetitive. To cement the discussion of replayability even further, the campaign also includes new maps with varying levels of difficulty, along with a journal expansion. Yay!
Are you ready?
Not every game will evoke the same feelings. But I’ve only played a few hand-picked ones that triggered the kind of nostalgia, calmness, and sense of healing that Growing Grounds did. And I hope it does the same for you, because it felt really good. I believe we all deserve a bit of healing.
The Kickstarter campaign is already underway. So, you know what to do!
Recommended Items
Game Overview
Publisher: Thinky Filler Games
Designer: Hep Sosing
Number of players: 1 to 5
Difficulty level: Easy to Medium (depending on Map Sheets)
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 1 to 2 rounds
Game duration: 30-40 minutes
Available on: Kickstarter
Theme: Flip-and-Write | Growing a plant
Number of pages and color: 1 (color) per player
Assembling difficulty level: Super easy. No Assembly required
Lamination: Recommended for replayability
Additional elements required: 3 D6 dice for solo mode and colored pens
Time to learn: Within 20 minutes
Travel-friendly: 9/10
Shelving friendly: 10/10
Rating from PnP Time: 9/10
Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.
