‘Planted!’ Game Dev Ben Cawthorne On Digging Up Chaos In A Competitive Gardening Game
News Source
•Sun, 01 Nov 2026 16:31:53 +0000
📰 What Happened
A new game called Planted! turns gardening into a fight. Players grow huge vegetables, then throw them at friends and steal their crops. It comes from Cloth Cat Games.
Creative producer Ben Cawthorne told Deadline the idea came from a simple question: what if gardening was competitive? The team built a small test version for four players on one couch.
The game also has online play and a single-player mode for learning. Each garden patch has its own water supply, and fertilizer makes crops grow bigger.
🔍 The Backstory
Cloth Cat Games works in both animation and game development. Cawthorne used to work in 2D animation, and that background shapes the game's cartoon look.
The team loves couch multiplayer games, the kind friends play together in one room. Cawthorne said he always bought extra controller adapters as a kid so four people could play.
The biggest job was balance. A player near water can grow bigger crops but is far from the selling point. A player near the market can sell fast but struggles to water plants.
🎯 Why It Matters
It is a silly game you can play with friends in the same room. That style of play has become harder to find as more games move online.
A new game called Planted! turns gardening into a fight. Players grow huge vegetables, then throw them at friends and steal their crops. It comes from Cloth Cat Games.
Creative producer Ben Cawthorne told Deadline the idea came from a simple question: what if gardening was competitive? The team built a small test version for four players on one couch.
The game also has online play and a single-player mode for learning. Each garden patch has its own water supply, and fertilizer makes crops grow bigger.
Cloth Cat Games works in both animation and game development. Cawthorne used to work in 2D animation, and that background shapes the game's cartoon look.
The team loves couch multiplayer games, the kind friends play together in one room. Cawthorne said he always bought extra controller adapters as a kid so four people could play.
The biggest job was balance. A player near water can grow bigger crops but is far from the selling point. A player near the market can sell fast but struggles to water plants.
It is a silly game you can play with friends in the same room. That style of play has become harder to find as more games move online.