Adventures of the Witch's Garden (AWG) is an interactive narrative puzzle adventure built with Phaser by Flowers and Gardening Studio, a collective that uses play to retell community stories and narratives. The game is set in Anagh, a fictional world where the encroaching forces of modern technology appear as dark creatures, choking wires and dense, brutalist architecture.
The project is based on real research examining technological surveillance as violence and power, illustrated through the lives of three friends. It explores how techniques of opacity are used as resistance and refusal. The game was made possible by the Association For Progressive Communication's (APC) Feminist Tech Joy grant.
The Story Behind Adventures of the Witch's Garden
Yara sets out on a journey of renewal after experiencing spiritual depletion. Through the journey, they learn how to become a witch. The world of Anagh is a reflection of real tensions between community, nature and the surveillance systems that shape modern life. Click any character in the game to learn more about them; click anywhere on the pop-up to close it.
"Play is subversive and spontaneous." — Tyler Curtis on Writing Under Surveillance.
The Characters of Anagh
The motherboard is the central visual of the game, and it reflects something true about our relationship with technology: it is never simple. Surveillance threatens, extracts and disorients, but within the same world there are communities, moments of joy and people who help each other heal. Every character on the motherboard embodies one side or another of that tension, from Yara facing surveillance head-on, to the queen, the rabbit and the villagers who support their path to renewal, and the mechanical birds carrying out the state's watch.
Each scene unfolds both a piece of the story and a new layer of gameplay.
- Yara is a traditional priest forced to embark on a journey to regain their spirituality. They relearn the ways of cosmology, engage with mythical creatures and plants, and confront evil entities. Along the way, they discover the full extent of surveillance threats outside their city.
- The Rabbit is a supportive creature who becomes Yara's familiar and guide within both the spiritual and physical world. Its ears grow into wings, allowing it to fly.
- The Queen is one of the community members Yara meets along the way. She supports Yara in remembering who they are at the final part of the journey, teaching them how to use plants to make balms for protection and expand their imagination.
- The Birds are hyper-realistic creatures designed by the state and a private corporation to watch and collate information. They are modelled after surveillance cameras. The birds often trick creatures like the rabbit into trusting them, then harass or attack them.
- The Jabberjay is a surveillance bird that mimics voice and personality based on information it has collated. It serves to disorient people in the community and deepen their sense of loss. It taps into one's deepest fears or sometimes their happiest moments. It is designed after AI bots that mimic human art and interaction.
- The Gabberbird is one of many state and corporation-designed artefacts: rogue mechanical birds that steal and destroy food crops, plants and water resources. They are a metaphor for technology extractivism.
Flowers and Gardening Studio: Play as Community Work
Flowers and Gardening Studio is a collective that conducts creative data work through play. Their philosophy is that play defies boundaries and forges spaces for unstructured existence. Games, for them, are mediums that facilitate that kind of play.
The studio was founded by Mardiya, an award-winning multi-genre technologist, researcher and technology community movement builder. Mardiya co-creates communal technology infrastructures and archiving knowledge through play, creative data work and visual imagery. Their work has received grant awards from Mozilla/GIZ, APC and the University of San Diego Kroc Institute of Peace and Justice, and has been featured in Bloomsbury Press, Feminist Africa and Chatham House.
Miriam is a technologist whose work focuses on using technology to bring communities together and connect people with the resources they need.
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