Lily’s Garden is a cute, well-made mobile game that takes its audience seriously. While I play games in a variety of formats (and just dropped more than I meant to on RPGs at Cape Fear Games), most of my gaming these days is by phone. I am writing about it today because yesterday, I found myself recommending it to a classroom of undergraduates, at least one of whom had expressed some real disgust towards mobile games. “You haven’t played any good ones, then” I said. To me, Lily’s Garden is totally a good one.

Teachable moments

I’m at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington for a good chunk of this term as a visiting scholar, and as part of that I visit classes, consult on projects, and just generally trying to make myself useful. Yesterday, I spoke with a computer graphics class. I spoke about how people react to in-game violence; how cultural, historical, and textual context influences interpretation of graphical representations; and why fidelity is a moving target. I left some time for Q&A at the end, and we chatted about the games they play and why. When I asked how many play video games, several women students didn’t raise their hands. I asked if they played any games on their phones, and they all said yes. So, really, they all play video games.

There’s a long, depressing history to why casual games/mobile games/puzzle games played primarily by women get dismissed. Some of it’s just sexism (which is really old and boring). And, some of it is that a lot of people don’t even try these games before dismissing them, which is a real shame. I love Anastasia Salter’s book on Jane Jensen for the Influential Game Designers series I edit in part because she examines at length how seriously Jensen takes the audience for her games and how much artistry she puts into the narratives for games. All of this is to say that when Stella Sacco talked about how much she was pouring into the writing for Lily’s Garden, I was real pumped to play it.

Lily’s Garden gameplay

In Lily’s Garden, the titular Lily unexpectedly inherits the property of her deceased great aunt. The massive house is centered in a sprawling garden that has gone a bit wild. Only after arriving at the house does Lily, fresh off a recent heartbreak, find out that she has to restore the entire garden to keep it. And, so she rolls up her sleeves and gets to work.

As the player, you complete puzzles to earn stars that let you tackle various tasks. You can focus on puzzles (and the puzzles are the kind of soothing pattern matching I get absolutely lost in) or you can more regularly toggle them with the Lily’s various projects. The story unfolds as you complete projects, revealing more projects and providing insights into Lily’s past. Old photographs appear at regular intervals, showing the house and garden in its glory days and providing insights into Lily’s background.

Quite the character

Thematically, a lot of the narrative revolves around secrets — as you might guess from the invitation to “Uncover the secrets!” However, the secrets here are not just those hidden at the estate. An affair precipitated Lily’s breakup with her ex. Her cousin seems to be scheming at something. And, her neighbor is acting pretty darn weird. The game also meditates not too subtly on growth. The garden springs into brilliance as Lily works to restore it. But, Lily is growing right alongside it. This isn’t necessarily a novel theme, but Lily’s age makes the story feel fresh. She isn’t coming of age, she’s coming into her own.

I spend a lot of in-between times playing games on my phone. Games fill time in waiting rooms, give me a breather between tasks, let me reset my brain during my lunch break. Not all the games I play are good. I sometimes enjoy things I wouldn’t recommend. But, Lily’s Garden isn’t one of those. Instead, it demonstrates how much room there is for creativity, exploration, and storytelling even in game genres that are too often dismissed.