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Solarium offers plant-centric edutainment!

Plant knowledge

I downloaded free game Solarium [official site] pretty much entirely on the strength of the following negative Steam review: "I didn't play it very long, but it's literally all about plants. I guess I should've read more reviews about it prior to downloading, but unless you're really interested in learning about plants, I wouldn't suggest playing."

Literally all about plants! Learning about plants!

What I found was a kind of Encarta '95 Mind Maze-ish style of game as a kind of odd fusion of slightly stilted graphics and educational information.

As far as I can tell you access different biomes and use the information you find there (or have from your own general knowledge) to answer questions. Correct answers give you points you can use in constructing your own plants.

Watch on YouTube

It's a weird, interesting project which seems so strongly like a mid-nineties edu-tainment prospect that I love it, even though it's kinda clunky and kinda ugly. I also like that the information you get which helps with the questions is imperfectly mapped so you need to make some of the connections or deductions yourself.

The game itself was released back in 2015 but has only just appeared on Steam hence John pointing it out to me now. If you're interested in seeing what I mean (and potentially learning a few things about plants) it's a free download via their website as well as on Steam and Itch.

Apparently they also have an Android app called Tales of the Tardigrade!

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Philippa Warr: Pip wrote for Rock Paper Shotgun between 2014-2017, covering everything from MOBAs, hero brawlers and indie curios. She also had a keen interest in the artistry of video game creation, and was very partial to keeping us informed of the latest developments in British TV show Casualty.
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