When Plants Play: Rethinking Plant Materiality in Digital Games

Paper Title

When Plants Play: Rethinking Plant Materiality in Digital Games

Publication Info

• Topic area: Interaction design with living materials in digital games.
• Keywords: Plant agency, digital games, bioelectrical signals, pet-simulation, materiality, living materials, human–plant interaction, more-than-human design, circadian rhythms, interpretive engagement.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Plants are typically positioned as passive elements in digital games, serving as sensors or decorative objects, rather than active participants capable of driving gameplay.
• Significance: Exploring plant-driven gameplay can expand interaction design paradigms, foster reflection on nonhuman agency, and introduce new forms of interpretive engagement in digital games.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has explored living materials in HCI and their integration into digital games, but plants are rarely treated as primary players. Existing work often limits plants to responsive roles or symbolic representations, leaving unexplored how their intrinsic biological properties might shape gameplay.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Plant.play(), a plant–digital game system where a living plant acts as the sole player in a pet-simulation game, using bioelectrical signals, environmental data, and circadian rhythms to drive in-game actions.
• Novelty:
  1. Developed a system where a plant acts as the primary player in a digital game.
  2. Provided empirical insights into how people perceive and interpret plant-driven gameplay.
  3. Offered design considerations for future plant–digital systems that embrace material agency and more-than-human perspectives.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted a formative workshop with five game experts to establish design directions.
  • Designed gameplay mechanisms aligning with the plant’s biological rhythms and environmental responses.
  • Deployed the system in a four-day exhibition, observing visitor interactions and conducting interviews to capture interpretive engagement.

Results

• Concrete findings: Visitors initially sought control but gradually interpreted the plant’s slow, unpredictable, and impartial behaviors as meaningful gameplay. Emotional connections formed with both the plant and its virtual pet, prompting reflections on care and relationships with nonhuman beings.
• Advantage over baselines: Plant.play() uniquely positions a living plant as the sole driver of gameplay, moving beyond traditional responsive or decorative roles for plants in digital systems.
• Experiments / evaluation: Observational fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with twelve participants during a four-day exhibition revealed diverse interpretations and emotional engagement with the plant-driven system.
• Limitations and future work: Limited sample size and exhibition duration restrict generalizability. Future work could explore longer-term deployments, alternative game genres, and other plant species or living systems to expand interpretive possibilities.

Summary

Plant.play() introduces a novel approach to digital games by positioning a living plant as the sole player, using its bioelectrical signals, environmental responses, and circadian rhythms to drive gameplay. Observations and interviews during a four-day exhibition revealed that visitors shifted from seeking control to interpreting the plant’s actions as meaningful play, forming emotional connections and reflecting on their relationships with nonhuman beings. The study highlights design strategies for leveraging plant materiality and livingness as resources for interaction, offering insights into more-than-human perspectives in digital games and interaction design. Future work could explore broader applications, longer-term studies, and diverse living systems.