When Plants Play: Rethinking Plant Materiality in Digital Games

Plants are rarely positioned as active participants in digital games, serving as decorative elements or passive sensors. We present Plant.play(), a plant–digital game system that positions a living plant as the sole player in a pet-simulation game. Using bioelectrical signals, environmental data, and circadian rhythms, the plant autonomously performs caregiving actions while humans engage as observers. A workshop with five game experts informed the system’s design, which was then implemented and deployed in a four-day exhibition. Observational fieldwork and interviews with twelve visitors revealed how people initially sought control, then gradually shifted toward interpreting the plant’s slow, unpredictable, and impartial behaviors as meaningful play. Participants formed emotional connections with both the plant and the virtual pet, extending these reflections to their relationships with nonhuman beings. Our findings contribute empirical insights into interpretive engagement with nonhuman actors and offer design considerations for future plant–digital game systems that embrace materiality, perceived agency, and more-than-human perspectives.