Not a developer and just starting out in permaculture. And I don't mean this to be prescriptive of what you should do, you should make the game you dream of. But if y'all'll indulge me here's the game I'm dreaming of:
- sim/puzzle game
- the mechanics of a city-builder (Dorf Romantik, Terra Nil, Cities Skylines, Banished)
- focuses on optimizing plant guilds and growing conditions
- has clean, heavily stylized art (Gris, Manifold Garden)
- featuring real plants and atleast approximate mechanics
- a great relaxing soundtrack
What I'm imagining is you start with a plot of land (maybe a 1-acre lawn or a 10-acre monocrop farm), with pre-existing soil conditions (maybe seed/proceedurally generated). The working area is divided subtly into 30ft (10m) hexes and the player can see an average of major nutrients available, sunlight, temperature, wind, and pollinator activity at any given moment. The player can build raised beds or direct sow, add mulch, compost, fertilizer, nutrient amendments, etc. Playing through successive seasons developing the land over years is the main mechanic, and could either be done as a time is always marching style or a pause and accelerate psuedo turn-based. Which means plant growth, harvest and die back would also have to modeled.
Even as I write this out it seems like too much, but it would be amazing. If your life ever does line up where a making a permaculture game/sim is top priority. Start a kickstarter, I'd probably back it for $20-40.
