Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Launched Jan, 2009
Colonial Gardener
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Kill weeds. Rescue flowers. This game pits Ben, one of four Kids Zone characters, against a malicious uprising of ill-intending vegetation. Ben must use his hoe to fend off the weeds, while using his watering can to nurture the flowers.
Developing the Concept
The idea began when our client expressed interest in creating a game that promoted the gardens of Colonial Williamsburg, an important point of interest and subject of historical interpretation and research for the foundation. We explored the various challenges of gardening, and landed on some fundamentals; principally, weeding and watering.
Weeding really isn’t fun, but what if it were? What if the weeds were bad guys, and you could hoe them to death? That, we thought, would take gardening to a whole new level of fun.
Production
Aten Design Group was responsible for all aspects of discovery, design, and implementation. We developed the concept, created storyboards, and illustrated the environment. In line with our core process, the design underwent several rounds of iteration, leveraging client feedback to hone the concept.
The game was built using Flash and Papervision3D. Houses are rendered as 3D objects, and the character, Ben, races across 3D planes between flowers.
Try it out — and watch out for hissing, toothy weeds bent on smothering your flowers!
