A Young Witch’s Guide to Herbology is a solo journaling RPG adventure and biology/ecology workbook created by Minyoung Huh and Michelle Seaberg. It is designed for early elementary school students. Players will play as a young witch completing their herbology course. Activities include outdoor exploration, arts and crafts, journaling prompts, and biology review. Playtime is approximately 45 minutes, but it can also be played in several sessions over a long period of time. There is no winning or losing. Players grow their scientific knowledge while cultivating their relationship with nature. This game was created for the class "EDST210: Educational Gaming Lab" taught by professor Camilla Zamboni at Wesleyan University.
Being in charge of the design and user experience aspect of the game, I tried to be as considerate as possible of factors such as the age of our players and being inclusive as possible for all kids. Throughout the semester, we had read texts on game design and theory such as Jesse Shell's "The Art of Game Design" and Josè Zagal's and Sebastian Deterding's "Role-playing Game Studies."