Interaction - Bachelor

Plant Raiser

Plant Raiser is an interactive game where you can go out and explore the world collecting plants by scanning them via the in-game camera and growing them within a digital garden.

Joshua Tilke

Purpose

Plant Raiser’s purpose is to educate teens and young adults on the natural environment and taking care of various plants in a fun and gamified way. Whether you have experience, own a few plants or a complete newbie, you’ll learn something new about raising them without financial loss.

Image of a Pothos scanned using game camera

How To Find Your Plant

While walking outside or lounging around in your own home and see a plant you are interested in growing or want to learn more about, you can collect them using the camera. To access the camera press the camera button on the bottom of the game UI. From there aim your camera at the plant you want to scan and press the photo button to scan the plant. Your scanned plant will be identified and you will have the option to collect a seed of it.

How To Grow Your Plant

Once your plant has been collected and you’ve returned to the garden, you can select an empty slot in the nursery and add a plant from the inventory. Once planted, your goal is to grow the plant into an adult. To successfully do this keep the plant hydrated, spray the flies away and if the weather is harsh for the specific plant, move them to the greenhouse.

How Does The Scanning Work?

Plant identification was achieved by training a convolutional neural network (CNN) using PyTorch and TensorFlow. The dataset consisted of a mix of self-captured plant images and publicly available datasets sourced online. This combination improved the model’s ability to generalise across different lighting conditions, angles and species variations. This model was then integrated to Unity 3D, where it was linked to the in-game camera and player interactions to enable real-time plant recognition.

Process and Gamebplay Video

Joshua Tilke

Joshua is an enthusiastic designer committed to developing interactive game experiences that blend education, play, and community connection.