Strange Horticulture: How We Accidentally Made a Detective Game About Plants

Rob and John are my brothers. We made a game that involved running a small plant shop set in the sinister town of Undermere. When we first started making it we had no idea that the finished game would end up fitting most neatly in the detective genre, but now that it’s finished, we kinda think it does.

For a long time we weren’t sure what genre the game belonged to. It has some puzzles but ‘puzzle game’ covers a very broad definition and Strange HorticultureWe never felt that it was a game. It has some sim elements too – you run your plant shop and customers enter with strange requests, often requiring the properties of a rare and unusual plant – but it’s not really a sim game either.

Someone then suggested it was a game of detectives and slowly we realised they were correct. A detective game usually involves solving a mystery. Yep, we’ve got one of those. OK, as the player you aren’t directly required to solve that mystery, but it’s definitely there. More importantly though, every time a customer comes into your shop asking for a specific plant you are effectively being asked to solve a small mystery and you’ll need to use all sorts of detective skills to do so.

It is your job to search for the plants in your horticultural book and find them among the various flora on your shelves. If you’re lucky there will be a helpful sketch of some element of the plant or a description of its leaves or flowers that will help narrow down your search, but you’ll find yourself needing to inspect the plants closer, perhaps rubbing the leaves between your fingers, or smelling the flowers, in order to be certain that you have the right one. It may only take a tiny clue to distinguish the right plant, from the one which will cause you to feel a Sense of Rising Dread. Paying close attention to details and using your Holmes-esque magnifying glasses is essential.

There’s also detective work to be done when it comes to the in-game map and using it to hunt down new plants. You will occasionally receive notes and letters that will direct you to a specific location. But more often, you’ll need to study and decipher the map in order to find it. At the end of each day you’ll receive a clue that is more difficult to decipher and will need more puzzle solving skills.

All the while there’s a slowly bubbling mystery cooking away behind the scenes involving covens of witches, dangerous cults, and occult entities, not to mention an intriguing cast of characters. And while, as mentioned, you aren’t tasked with solving that mystery directly (you’re a mere horticulturist after all), you may find that you can influence some of the key events by making choices about which plant to use.

In hindsight, perhaps we should have realised sooner that we were making a detective game – after all, one of our early influences was the board game Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective! I’m a big fan of board games in general and really liked the way Sherlock HolmesA physical map is used as a guide to help the player know where to move next. When we decided to add a map as well it helped to tie everything together and gave us a way to include some interesting puzzles – in particular we wanted the game to have a ‘tactile’ feel to it (did I mention I like board games?) and that allowed us to do some cool puzzles that we couldn’t have done with a more traditional UI.

You may or not agree with the assessment we made. Strange Horticulture is a detective game or not (it is though, probably sort of anyway), we hope you enjoy the relaxing little world we’ve created. We hope you enjoy Hellebore’s world and don’t join any bizarre cults. Or do, what’s the worst that could happen?

Strange Horticulture

Iceberg Interactive

☆☆☆☆☆
1

★★★★★

$14.99

$11.99

Strange Horticulture was created as an occult puzzle in which the player takes on the role of owner of local plant shop. Discover and identify new plant species, play with your cat, visit a coven or join a religious cult. Use your collection of powerful plants to influence the story and unravel Undermere’s dark mysteries.

Undermere – a small town in the middle of a hag-infested forest and rugged mountain ranges. Strange Horticulture, the plant store in your town is owned by Horticulturist. When a colorful cast of customers comes by your store, you’re quickly thrown into a centuries-old occult puzzle.

Discover new plants in the areas beyond your store, but take care! Dark woods and dark lakes can be hostile to an herbalist. You might discover powers beyond your wildest dreams – or lose your mind completely. Context clues can help you decide where to go and what to avoid.

Your trusty encyclopedia will help you to learn more about these strange plants. By identifying each plant, you will be able to use their effects to influence the story — from hypnotic hallucinogens to powerful poisons.