Oma Suunta is an educational game for young people who are struggling with matters concerning their life. Pelinikkarit commissioned me to design the visual look of the game and to design all the card graphics, game box and rulebook. It is meant to be played with a counsellor who can help with the struggles the young person is experiencing. There are four categories of question cards: My Relationships, My Wellbeing, My Circumstances and My Activities. During a counselling session the young person would go through questions in these categories and sort the into stacks based on how well they have it taken care of. If they have a matter under control they put it on the "Well Taken Care Of" stack. If they have a matter that could use some work they put it in the "Needs Thinking" stack, and so on.
It was important to Pelinikkarit that the three cards, showing how well a matter was taken care of, were designed in a way that it would not be discouraging for users to put cards there. After all the point is that there is no single matter that cannot be fixed in the future. As a plant lover I knew exactly what metaphor to use for this. Even if a plant loses its flowers or gets a yellow leaf, does not mean that you're gonna lose it forever. Sometimes it's even meant to lose a couple bits here and there. But with some love and care any plant can flourish again.
