<aside> 🌱 ‘Nature’s Way’ is an experience that recaptures the essence of true game exploration. You play as an elderly woman who lives in a cottage in a forest. Without accessibility to an in-game map, you must gather herbs and ingredients while traversing around an unknown environment to craft potions and help people. With the inclusion of a day and night cycle, as well as an in-game notebook, the player is able to learn about plant life and take notes while doing so. As you explore, you will encounter a variety of obstacles that prevent you from collecting the ingredients you need. To overcome these barriers, you must equip the right equipment to safeguard yourself. An example of a barrier would be a plant that is growing on the edge of a cliff. To acquire the herbs you must use a ladder, however, this comes at a price as it takes up one of your very limited inventory slots. You are able to buy equipment like this from the local merchant using the gold earned from completing quests. As you advance throughout the game, you must use your notebook to take notes on which plants require which piece of equipment to salvage. Additionally, you are also able to write about what time the plant blooms and when the best time is t to collect them. To create this game, extensive research has had to be done into plant life. By using different forms of research such as books and articles, I was able to learn about the symbolic meaning as well as the healing benefits of different herbs. This made it easier to incorporate within the game, as the benefits and drawbacks are already stated, making the potion brewing effects simpler to add. These books will be linked on the references page and will be talked more about under the ‘Research Materials’ page. Additionally, to see visual research, visit the ‘Mood Boards and Colour Palette’ page.
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