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Seedlight

A gentle deckbuilder

1–4 players40–60 minCompetitiveLight

Everything you plant lights up eventually. Some of it takes years.

PlayPlayable

Ready to play now.

A demonstration of Seedlight, played by the computer against itself.

Seedlight — playing itself

Ways to play

  • Alone, against the computer

    Your own pace, no arranging anything. Take a move back whenever you like.

    5 opponents, weakest first
    • EagerBuys the dearest thing on the bench it can afford, and never touches the watering can.
    • TendingThe same, but when a full cold frame is costing it a buy it waters the plant nearest the door.
    • DeliberatePlays the glasshouse out to the end twelve times from each thing it could do, and takes whichever finished best.
    • ThoroughThirty-six finishes behind every choice, including the ones it decides against.
    • UnhurriedThirty-six again, played out by a gardener who knows how much of the glasshouse is left and will not buy a plant that cannot come out in time.
    Play alone

  • Together, in the same room

    1–4 players. One device goes round the table, or everybody plays off the same screen.

    Play in the same room

  • Online, at a table

    A room code, joinable from anywhere. Pause tonight and pick it up next week from your device.

    Play online

About

A glasshouse of specimens nobody has classified, and ten identical cuttings each to start with. What you take off the bench does not join your deck — it goes into your cold frame and sits there for as many years as it takes, and anything still sitting there when the glasshouse is counted is worth nothing at all.

How it feels

  • Calm
  • Compounding
  • No player elimination, ever

What the design is for

  • Nothing is taken from you

    No attacks, no discards, no take-that. A specimen is four numbers and two lines of flavour, and there is nowhere on one for an attack to live.

  • Your hand plays itself

    The light in your hand is your light for the turn, and there is nothing to choose about it. What is left is the three decisions that are decisions: take something, water something, stop.

  • The cold frame is the whole game

    Everything slow sits in it while it germinates, and it does not have room for everything you want. Watering takes a year off one plant for a flat price and buys you nothing you can score — which is the only place a price for patience could honestly go.

  • The compost is the clock

    At the end of every round the specimen that has been on the bench longest is thrown away. The glasshouse empties whether anybody buys anything or not, and that — rather than a turn count — is what ends it.

  • A glasshouse is made of glass

    Cold frames are public. You can see what is germinating on everybody else’s bench and how long it has to go, which is what makes the last few rounds a race. Nothing here is chosen in secret either, so two people at one device just play — the phone never goes face down between turns.

  • Good alone

    One gardener plays against a bar set as a share of all the glow there is, and loses the bench twice as fast. It is the only rule in the game that changes with the size of the table.

  • Taught by playing

    Take something that is ready, take something that is not, buy a year with the watering, and find out why the Wisteria you can easily afford is greyed out.

Best at
2
Kind
Cards
Table
Competitive
Studio
Board.game

The opponents

  1. Eager

    Buys the dearest thing on the bench it can afford, and never touches the watering can.

  2. Tending

    The same, but when a full cold frame is costing it a buy it waters the plant nearest the door.

  3. Deliberate

    Plays the glasshouse out to the end twelve times from each thing it could do, and takes whichever finished best.

  4. Thorough

    Thirty-six finishes behind every choice, including the ones it decides against.

  5. Unhurried

    Thirty-six again, played out by a gardener who knows how much of the glasshouse is left and will not buy a plant that cannot come out in time.

Achievements

0 of 6 earned

  • Something to Show For It

    Win a table of Seedlight.

  • Nobody Else to Blame

    Clear the bar with the glasshouse to yourself.

  • Three Years of Stick

    Win with a Wisteria that made it out of the cold frame.

  • Wants Leaving Alone

    Win without watering anything, all evening.

  • Nothing Left Waiting

    Win with an empty cold frame — everything you bought came out in time.

  • More Than All of Them

    Win a table holding more glow than everybody else put together.

Key art

Key art — Board.game art system

Seedlight — key still
Seedlight — key cover
Seedlight — key backdrop

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