First few minutes of gameplay
The player starts their session by looking around, exploring their fresh new plot, taking note of the three dry hills surrounding a grassy valley and a dried stream-bed leading way from the hills through the valley and out of the plot. The flood season is about to begin and the player must make the most out of it in order to have their BioSquare thrive. The player examines their options in the blueprint menu and decides that the best thing they can do with their limited time is to build two small Check dams in the dry stream bed. They select the check dam blueprint and place two copies in different locations along the stream, costing them a few credits. The player then drags their character to the first blueprint which triggers the avatar to walk over and start the construction of the first dam. As the avatar arrives at the construction site a small timer appears informing the player that the construction of this small dam will take one real-time minute to complete.
While waiting for the dam to complete, the player explores the technology options and a percolation pond that spikes their interest, believing that it would be able to store some of the water from the flood season for a longer period of time if they built it along the already existing stream. However, to gain access to the pond blueprint the player must first build a tool’s shed, something they don’t have enough credits for at the moment.
Luckily, the player spots a small patch of Ugandan Greenheart trees at the base of one of the hills that are ready to be harvested. They swiftly tap each tree to harvest some of the leaves that are commonly used as spice for food and thereby gain enough credits to purchase the tool’s shed.
At this point the first of the Check dams are complete and the player assigns their avatar to start construction of the next dam.
As a reward for completing construction of their first blueprint the player gains access to a bonus volunteer for 24 hours. A new avatar appears in the plot, ready to assist with a blueprint. The player places the tool’s shed and assigns the new volunteer to its construction. When the volunteer arrives the timer displays that the construction will take thirty minutes to complete. At this point the player closes the game to attend to real world responsibilities.
Thirty minutes later the player gets a notification that the tool’s shed is complete and logs back on to reassign the avatars to new projects. As the plate opens the game they are greeted with an unlock popup letting them know that they now have access to the percolation pond blueprint. They then harvested the patch of trees again in order to gain enough credits to construct the pond, however the trees did not yield enough credits to afford it.
Suddenly, the player is then notified that a minigame just started, if they are able to find “waldo” before the timer runs out they will be granted a reward. The player quickly scans their plot and with just a few seconds left sports a strange character peeking out from behind one of the trees and presses it and is rewarded enough credits to purchase the pond.
The player places a pond blueprint on the stream behind the two dams and assigns their avatar to it. The time to complete the pond is two hours, which would be too late for the upcoming flood, so the player also assigns the bonus volunteer to the pod, cutting the construction time in half. Feeling content about their flood preparation they sign out and wait for the construction to complete.
When logging back in a few hours later, the pond has finished construction and the food season has started. Water starts trickling down the stream, collecting in the dams and in the pond. The dams manage to slow the flow of water enough for it to absorb into the ground turning the surrounding grass green. The pond slowly fills with water providing the player with a longer lasting source of water allowing them to plant productive crops and other plant life. Inspired by the progress and new opportunities the player starts planning their next steps to turn their BioSquare from a desert into a paradise.