Combine the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically grow your garden while sabotaging your neighbor’s
Check on Kickstarter
Vicious Gardens is a card game that combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a competition to become the Official Master Gardener (O.M.G.)!
Cultivate Quirky & Beautiful Plants
Grow and harvest eccentric plants such as Fuzzlesquash, Spotted Bildge, or Floofberry in your garden. Over 80 uniquely named and illustrated plants are guaranteed to captivate and entertain—even if your neighbor ends up stealing them.
Harvest for Victory Cards
Obtain special abilities by harvesting your plants to attain Victory Cards. Adding Victory Cards such as Carnivorous Plants and Gnudist Gnomes are your surest way to victory. Once a gardener has accumulated three Victory Cards in their garden, the End of the Season (a.k.a. end of the game) begins!
Employ an Eccentric Cast of Specialists
Vicious Gardens has a unique cast of specialists ready to sabotage your opponents and help your garden flourish: Wormsworth, Beebeard, the Curmudgeon, and many more. Use these Specialists to obtain garden upgrades and Victory Cards. But beware, your competition can hire their own Specialists.
Easy to Learn with Thoughtful Design and Depth of Strategy
Turns follow a straightforward process that is quick to learn, while cards are thoughtfully designed with clear typography, icons, and visual cues. Engaging point-swings add drama and excitement right up to the very end. Games are quick, so you won’t have to wait long to plot your revenge.
Delightfully Vicious
Manage your garden’s plots while inhibiting your neighbor’s through devious subterfuge. Every playthrough provides different upgrades and abilities that keeps each experience fresh. There is no room for mercy in Vicious Gardens.
Ross Bruggink is an award-winning illustrator and designer who recently designed the State Seal of Minnesota. An avid gardener, husband, and bona fide dad, here is his description of the design process:
Vicious Gardens began with the goal of combining my two loves: design and gardening. Nearly three years later, we are proud to share Vicious Gardens, a beautifully stylish and rigorously play-tested tabletop game with a wickedly delightful premise.
The style of Vicious Gardens is distinct and fresh, introducing a new aesthetic to the tabletop category. Its bold, graphic style feels relevant and accessible for casual gamers while offering something new to those with extensive game catalogs.
I paid special attention to typography, icons, and the use of color. The graphic artwork is expressive and varied, yet it provides repetition and simplicity that reduces visual fatigue. This style shines through the 80 unique plants (we have more to illustrate!), cast of wonky characters, functional and witty game board, and the beautifully intriguing Kickstarter exclusive slip sleeve.
I had three main goals when designing Vicious Gardens:
Beautiful Design
Vicious Gardens is contemporary and distinct. The artwork is a joy to immerse yourself in.
Approachability
With its easy-to-learn mechanics, fast-paced turns, and reasonable playtimes, Vicious Gardens appeals to both casual and seasoned gamers alike.
Strategic Satisfaction
Vicious Gardens delivers on player choice and the gratification of achieving strategic objectives. Turns rarely feel scripted, avoiding predictability, and the game’s intensity escalates towards the finale, marked by exhilarating point swings
I cannot wait for you to play Vicious Gardens with friends and family. I love nothing more than hearing people admire the illustrations, laugh at the quirky plants and specialists, or chuckle in playful delight while sabotaging their friends. 😈 It’s been a long journey, with untold hours poured into the art and playtesting. I am extremely proud and excited to share Vicious Gardens with you!
Step 1: Plant
Plant into different Plots based on category: Fruit, Flowers, Produce, and Herbs. These are worth one point each, but you will also need to harvest these to use Specialists or obtain Victory Cards. Gardening is all about balance!
Step 2: Use Specialists
Strategically play your Specialists to improve your garden or sabotage others. The best gardeners get their hands dirty 😉
Step 3: Harvest for Victory Cards
Harvest the requisite plants and obtain your Victory Cards before other gardeners can! These are worth eight points each and provide unique bonuses for you to take advantage of.
End the Season!
The gardener that obtains their third Victory Card ends the season! Take the End of Season token and prepare to gloat while other gardeners take their final turn.
Team Play!
Partner-up or triple-up to work together in your quest of botanic domination. This game mode is easy to apply and, in our opinion, almost more delightfully vicious. Simply plant in your partner’s garden and team up in ruining other’s. Misery loves company after all.
