Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Gardeners is a simultaneous cooperative game played silently and in real time. In less than 15 minutes, players must succeed in arranging as many gardens as possible, always composed of the same 36 tiles, but responding to different rules from one round to another.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Communication Limits
Rules restrict what players may say, show, or reveal while cooperating.
Pattern Recognition
Identify recurring visual, spatial, or logical arrangements.
Cooperative Game
Players coordinate their actions toward a shared objective and win or lose together.
Deduction
Combine clues and exclusions to identify hidden information.
Real-Time
Players act under continuous time pressure rather than taking normal turns.
Read the full game description
Gardeners is a simultaneous cooperative game played silently and in real time. In less than 15 minutes, players must succeed in arranging as many gardens as possible, always composed of the same 36 tiles, but responding to different rules from one round to another. Everyone must deduce the rules in force by observing where the tiles are placed and from where some are removed. A game of Gardeners is made up of an indefinite number of rounds. Each is broken down into 5 phases, as follows: Draw a Constraint card, Start the sandtimer, Arrange the garden, Check the garden, Prepare for the next round. During the game, players cannot communicate in any way about what to do or not to do to make the garden. Will you satisfy the King's whimsical desires? —description from the publisher