Photosynthesis is a beautiful representation of the life cycle of plants as well as the practical reality that sunlight is critical for plants to survive, and larger plants often crowd out the other plants as they grow. The theme is easy to relate to for anyone who enjoys a walk in the woods outdoors and the cool shade of trees on a hot summer’s day.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Short Explanation of How to Play
I had the opportunity to play this game when my nephew brought it to a family gathering a few months ago. I’m really glad he did. This game is a puzzle of sorts. The sun is positioned on one of the corners or sides of the board (there are 8 positions where the sun can display), and players start to plant their seeds and grow their trees round and round from there. The puzzle in the game comes in the form of figuring out how to maximize the positioning of your trees for the maximum points for you, and blocking your opponent from getting points. Mimicking the reality of trees and sunlight, when a tree is sitting between the sun and a tree that is the same size or smaller, it blocks that tree from getting points. As the trees grow bigger, the more sunlight is blocked from the smaller trees. Additionally, since the sun moves every round, the angle of the sunlight is different, and that means players need to think about the future implications of their decisions, as the board is ever changing.
Why it Works/Doesn't Work For Our Family
What Worked: The puzzles created by the various combinations of trees are very interesting, as you need to account for the growth of trees over time and what opponents might do as well as your own choices. The aesthetics of the trees are really nice, and the presentation of the game is beautiful.
What Was Challenging: We didn’t find many challenges when playing the game.
Why it Works/Doesn't Work With Friends
I haven’t played this game with any of my gaming friends yet, but I will update the post if I ever get a chance to do so.
Teacher's Corner
This game is a perfect springboard into discussion of the life cycle of trees and plants, as well as the cycle of photosynthesis. If I taught a science class, or if I want to teach these concepts to my children in the future, I would use this game as an object lesson to introduce those ideas or as a fun application of these concepts after teaching them.
Overall opinion, rating, and recommendation
6 year old son - He initially said he wanted to play the game, but did not end up following through and wanted to do other things when we played it.
9 year old daughter - My daughter enjoyed playing the game and made many savvy moves to help herself and hinder her opponent.
Mine - I will rate this game Heavy Family. This game is a lot of fun. We enjoyed the ever changing dynamics with the moving sun and seeing our trees grow bigger, and bigger as the game went along. The caution that I have heard for some that is a valid critique is that the nature of the game (growing your trees and blocking sunlight from other people) means that the way to win this game is to hinder the progress of other people. If the temperament of the group you play with is that people are easily hurt or offended, then this may not be the best choice because player interaction can be very harsh. If the aggressive style of play is accepted within a group, this is a fun, strategic experience with aesthetic appeal and a great table presence.
Games with similarities with this one at each rating level:
Casual Family: Draftosaurus / Trekking the National Parks
Casual Adult: 7 Wonders
Heavy Adult: Scythe
Comments