Reach for the Sun Game by Filament Games: the Plant Life Cycle

Reach for the Sun is a resource management game made by Filament Games, a Madison, Wisconsin studio that builds educational games. It was released in May 2013 as a single-player web game. The player controls a plant and tries to produce as many seeds as possible before winter arrives.

Three resources drive play: water, nutrients and starch. They pay for roots, leaves and flowers, and each part has a job. Roots and leaves bring in more resources, and flowers make seeds. Seeds also work as currency between levels, unlocking new plant types and garden extras such as fertilizer, a watering can and a praying mantis that keeps pests away.

While playing, students pick up photosynthesis, plant anatomy, the roles of male and female parts in pollination and the cycle of growth and death. The lessons sit behind the interface and the game loop, so the player does not meet them as quiz questions.

Filament designed the Reach for the Sun game for inclusive science classrooms with a wide range of learners, including English language learners and students with disabilities or reading difficulties. It follows the Universal Design for Learning framework and aligns with key state standards. Filament's own project page lists the age group as adolescents and the subject as science. Its stated learning outcomes are understanding plant life cycles and their link to the seasons, identifying plant anatomy, reproduction and pollination, explaining how photosynthesis powers growth, and recognizing the resources plants need.

The game won Best Gameplay at the 2013 Games for Change Festival, the tenth edition of that festival, held in New York City. Filament's page also lists a best in show award from the 2014 Games+Learning+Society conference, first place for most innovative ed tech product or service at the 2012 SIIA Innovation Incubator Awards, and a 2016 finalist spot for best game-based curriculum solution at the SIIA CODIE Awards.

The product page on Filament's website that was used for the game in 2013 no longer loads. The game has moved to a project page on the studio's current site, which describes it as a plant growth learning game for web and PC, lists the release year as 2013 and shows a Play button. That button leads to the game's page on the Steam store.

Filament Games itself is active and presents a portfolio of more than 400 educational games. The project page gives no price or classroom licensing terms.