Project Introduction

Botanical Warden is a botany-inspired tactical roguelike deckbuilder in which plants are used as weapons and tools.

You play as Corvac who sets out to conquer his island and offer a better future to his people. In his path are all kinds of creatures who want to stop him and preserve the island's equilibrium.

Each run consists of following a procedurally generated path on the island. It consists of battles and various resting screens in which you can domesticate, evolve or cross plants to improve your deck. These screens can also contain characters with whom you can interact to bargain, discuss or open new passages.

In battles, your cards, representing plant seeds, can be sown on the game grid in order to attack, block or apply effects on enemies, other plants, the grid or the player. The combat system uses two "hands" containing different types of cards: one is used to sow plants while the other allows the character to act directly (e.g. walk, use a tool). The sowing hand is drawn at random from your deck while the action hand is predetermined and recurring. In Botanical Warden, the systems of artificial selection (plant evolution) and hybridization (plant crossing), inspired by botany, allow the player to have more freedom and control in their deck building. Within a fight, the use of both hands creates the emergence of complex strategies.

About Developer

Barnaque is a game development studio from Montreal composed of two people : David Martin and Émeric Morin. Barnaque's latest released game is Infini, a psychedelic puzzle adventure available on PC and consoles.

The idea of Barnaque first came to life back in 2010 when the duo was playing the alpha version of Minecraft on a personal server. The two friends, amazed by what such a small team was able to accomplish and inspired by the new possibilities that this moment in history provided, decided to challenge themselves with game development. For a number of years, Barnaque created around 15 narratively interconnected free games while perfecting their craft and gaining a bunch of experience. After a few years, the decision was taken to start making games full time and live off of their games.
David, who has a multidisciplinary artist background, oversees all the visual and sound design while doing a part of the programming.
Émeric is in charge of most of the programming. He has a background in computer science and software engineering.
The two share equally the rest of the tasks such as game design, level design and writing.