Celestia's Magical Garden

aka1819
Feb 20, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Feb 18

Magical Garden is a relaxing farming simulator. You play as a garden witch who harvests plants and brews potions. — Magical *Garden is a relaxing farming simulator. You play as a garden witch who harvests plants and brews potions.*

In Celestia's Magical Garden, you play as a green witch who grows plants, brews potions, and solves spell riddles to uncover magical mysteries and unlock potions.

The goal was to create a relaxing farming experience with meaningful progression. Instead of grinding crops for money, players advance by solving riddles and unlocking potion recipes.

PC or Apple Computer Required

Itch.io

Core Gameplay Loop

At the center of the experience was a clear,interconnected gameplay loop:

Every action in the garden feeds directly into potion crafting and every potion crafting, and every potion ties back into progression. My role was to ensure these systems felt cohesive rather than sisoloed.

Obstacles:

Farming simulators rely on multiple interconnected systems. The biggest challenge was ensuring gardening, inventory, inventory, crafting, and narrative progression felt like one cohesive experience instead of isolated features.

We also needed a progression system that felt more rewarding than simply farming crops to sell for currency. The design had to support discovery and problem solving rather than repetition.

How was it resolved?

As the Technical Game Designer, I structured the data flow between all core systems.

I designed the backend logic that connected:

Harvesting
Inventory Management
Crafting and potion brewing
Puzzle-based progression

This required building a system where player actions in one area dynamically influenced another. The goal was clarity and consistency across all interactions.

UI Development

My primary task was ensuring the gardening, inventory, and crafting systems worked together seamlessly.

I designed a logic structure where harvesting plants automatically converted into usable crafting ingredients.

Players could then:

Brew potions
Store materials
Sell ingredients
Unlock new recipes

This created a smooth gameplay loop where actions in the garden directly supported potion creation and progression.

Puzzle-Based Progression:

To prevent repetitive farming loops, I designed and collaborated on a potion book progression system.

Instead of purchasing recipes, players solved spell based riddles to unlock new potions. Once unlocked, the system tracked:

Available recipes
Required ingredients
Crafted potions

New content was gated behind puzzle solving rather than currency grinding . This reinforced the fantasy theme and created satisfying discovery moments.

UI/UX Polishing through Playtesting:

Initial playtest revealed confusion around:

How to farm and harvest?
Required ingredients for potions.
Where to access unlocked recipes?

Based on feedback, I redesigned the UI to:

Improve visual heirarchy
Clarify recipes requirements
Better communicate available actions
Reduce unnecessary UI clutter

After iteration, onboarding clarity significantly improved. Players were able to craft their potion faster and reported less confusion during early gameplay.

Measurable Impact

Through iterative system and UI adjustments:

Early game confusion decreased during playtest
Players completed the first potion Milestone more consistently
Progression felt driven by discovery rather than resource grinding

These refinements strengthened the overall cohesion of the gameplay experience.

What I Would Improve

If given more time, I would conduct earlier usability testing focused specifically on first time player onboarding. I would also explore streamlining inventory navigation to further reduce friction between harvesting and crafting.

Conclusion:

As a Technical Designer, I built the system foundation that allowing farming, crafting, and puzzle progression to function as one cohesive experience.

The final result was a relaxing yet structured gameplay loop driven by discovery rather than repetition. This project strengthened my ability to design interconnected systems, refine UI clarity through playtesting, and build scalable progression frameworks that support creative vision.