DESIGN GOALS AND ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE

Design Goals

Players

The players must feel relaxed. They should be able to forget any of their stresses or anxieties for the time that they are playing.
The player must have a gate for escapism. The creatures and the environment designs should create a fantastical setting.
The player must be able to express themselves. They will be able to decorate their home base, and can even find varying forms of creatures which might function differently.

Creature Designs

The designs must be simple to read and understand.
The designs must either make the player feel excited, relaxed, or curious. No scary designs.
The creatures must have interesting reactions to their environments and each other.

Environment

The environments should be unique and easy to differentiate between each other.
Each environment should have its own unique climate and flora and fauna.
Creatures should be seen interacting with each other and the environment.
The environments should be explorable.

Essential Experience

The player will have a cosy and relaxing experience where they are able to go exploring different environments looking for creatures, and bringing them back to their base to care for them.

Glass Gardens puts the player in the position of an interdimensional traveller who travels to different environments, collects creatures, nurtures them, and witness wacky and fantastical interactions between them. Players shouldn't get stressed when playing the game, and so Glass Gardens features no real challenging or stressful situations for the player. The player can consider how they want to set up their terrariums. They may want to create synergy between different creatures, and watch them get along with each other, or create entirely different situations for them.

Gameplay Loop

Activity/Risk:

Explore environments and collect new plants and fauna, with the risk of wasting any misused resources (through crafting or otherwise).

Reward:

Get interactions between flora and fauna.

Opportunity:

Create new and better terrarium environments using the flora and fauna you find and change.