Sylviculture

A rocky landscape…or fertile ground, ready to bloom into a vibrant forest? In Sylviculture, players work to develop an engine that transforms barren geography into lush verdure.

This game’s theme revolves around the cultivation of flora toward the growth of a fully functional ecosystem, eventually marked by the victory of the first player to complete their forest’s canopy. Each player controls their own burgeoning forest, which they cultivate on their personal board. This board has three levels—visually demonstrating the maturing forest—with the bottom row for pioneer species like lichens, middle for shrubs and shade-intolerant trees such as pine, and the top row of shade-tolerant trees such as oak, fir, and hickory.

Many real elements of forest life cycles will be included in this game, including primary succession (and secondary succession), resources integral to plant growth (sun, water, and nutrients), and the decay of undergrowth invigorating the life surrounding it.

So too might there be some bad actors at work…players will need to remain vigilant for parasites that can be played against them, wreaking havoc against their ecosystem!

Each player has a forest over which they have full control. Across deluge and drought, they must carefully balance their resources to propagate an ecosystem that gradually grows to sustain itself. While some plants will likely perish en route to their final forest, the game’s goal entails reaching a climax community—signaling that the life the player cultivated has indeed come to thrive, and will remain a bastion of biodiversity for centuries to come.

The game will teach about various plants in a forest environment and how they interact. It is not classroom-specific, and should give a general understanding of the forest biome. 

Sylviculture invites players to learn about ecological succession, and with it the roles of often-overlooked pioneer and intermediate species working towards a climax community. Along the way, the myriad of fun informational tidbits and plant interactions will hopefully promote a richer understanding of all the flora involved—how they interact, mutualize, and otherwise form a flourishing forest ecosystem.

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(Full Game Download Coming Soon)