In the same way that actor Edmund Gwenn is said to have quipped on his deathbed, “Dying is easy; comedy is hard,” it’s much harder to find optimism in our sci-fi and speculative fiction than it is to give in to haunting dreams of doom and dystopia. At least one board game launching atGen Con Indythis year, though, paints a picture of what the world could be like with just a little push toward sustainable, eco-friendly communities. Solar Gardens blends compelling, fast-paced gameplay with a message of hope for a future that could be within our grasp, if only as a society we would reach out and take it.
Pick Or Push
A tile-laying game in the vein of classics like Carcassonne, Solar Gardens tasks players with converting the top of a skyscraper into a green near-future paradise. Optimally placing solar and wind farms, along with habitats for animals, flower gardens to provide for pollinators, plus public art and walkways, all contribute to your final score. At the end of the game, the highest-scoring four-by-four grid wins.
There’s more to Solar Gardens than just picking a tile and placing it, though. Each round, the starting player looks at a tile and either takes it, or passes it to the player to their left. This continues until someone takes the tile, or if it makes it all the way around the table, it’s discarded from the game for good. you may only take one tile per round, so there’s a real chance that you might settle for one that’s just okay, and miss out on a perfect choice that comes up on the very next draw. This system creates tension and investment, especially with more players at the table, and it’s specifically designed to do just that.
It keeps people interacting and engaged with what’s happening on the board and with each other.
-Alex Cutler, Solar Gardens Designer
“At the core of it is a system that I call, ‘pick or push,’” explains the game’s designer, Alex Cutler. “It leads to really nice moments of table talk, because one of the things that I really want to do with this game is have the tiles not created equal.”
“I have this big spreadsheet of… the expected value of every tile,” Cutler continues. “Some of them have two animals, and a field, and a two point statue, and some of them have a road and nothing else.”
“Because they’re so disparate, you get these really nice gambling moments - ‘oh, this is pretty good, but I think I could do better’ - and you pass it on, and you don’t draw what you need or you send the thing right to the person who wants it, or conversely, you keep something because, ‘oh, it’s good enough, I don’t think I could do better,’ and the very next tile you flip up is the perfect tile.” There are 90 tiles in the box overall, and whether you’re playing a quick two-player showdown or a five-player free-for-all, the moments Cutler is talking about happen practically every round.
From Sand To Solar
Solar Gardens has come a long way since its initial concept. When Cutler first pitched the game six years ago, “it was originally about building a sand castle on a beach.” It had included a gravity element, where the castle would collapse as time went on. In time, with development from Cutler’s agent Eric Slauson, the idea was refined to be about building a Japanese-style imperial garden, which Slauson ultimately put in front of Darrington Press, ofDaggerheartandCritical Rolefame.
“They really liked the mechanics, but the theme wasn’t for them,” Cutler remembers. After some negotiation, they settled on the current ecological theme, and as Slauson points out, Darrington has really made the game fit their immersive, story-focused brand.
“They [Darrington] are all about worldbuilding,” he says. “I do think that the little touches that they’ve done, like the lore in the rulebook, and having on the background of the player board the rest of the city, it’s really putting you in this world.”
The team at Darrington Press have also given Solar Gardens some lovely physical design that blends aesthetics with practicality. From foldable player boards with recesses for tiles to simple, elegant player aids, it’s sure to be one of the nicest-looking titles launching at Gen Con this week.
Solar Gardens will be at Booth 2841 with the rest of Darrington Press’s lineup at Gen Con Indy 2025.
A Greener World
Solar Gardens feels like part of a growing movement in “eco-gaming,” from other board games like Earth to video games likeTerra Nil. They all remind us of our responsibility to the planet, and that even as we teeter on the brink of climate crisis, we could claw our way back. As Cutler explains, “I feel like we’re sort of coming into the age where people want to be optimistic with their games.” Darrington Press is using a portion of Solar Gardens’ sales to help bring about that green future, as well; a portion of the game’s sales are donated to theNational Forest Foundation’s Sapling Program, and the game itself is made with biodegradable, plastic-free components.
Slauson hopes that the game helps people consider “the little things that you can do that have an ecological impact.” He goes on to give examples; “Planting flowers that butterflies like in your own yard is such a small thing, but it helps the world. You may not be putting solar panels all over your house and building a wind turbine, but the little things you can do, matter.”
Those little things include playing games with friends, and Solar Gardens feels as much like a social gathering as it does a board game. “Every moment is engaging,” says Saluson. “A lot of strategy board games, people are not looking at each other, they’re looking down and arranging their own board. They might look up to exchange bricks for sheep or whatever, but in [Solar Gardens] everybody is talking, everybody is goading each other on to keep pushing… it keeps people interacting and engaged with what’s happening on the board and with each other.”
Maybe one day, we’ll be able to gather to play Solar Gardens in the very rooftop parks the game envisions. For now, though, games like this are important not only for the dream they share, but the camaraderie they create in the present.
