Aug 2, 2026 · 1 hr 6 min · 12 segments
Danielle Reynolds interviews first-time game designer Sarah Joshua (they/them) about their debut game, Enchanted Ivy. Sarah opens up about their queer journey, coming out as non-binary in their…
Sarah JoshuaGuest
Josie GrundlerGuest
Danielle ReynoldsHostClaraWant to talk about the game and the inspiration to start so we can kind of give the audience an idea of what we're talking about?
Yeah, so I guess the game itself, so I guess coming at it from like the narrative perspective, play a character called Ivy who uses they, them pronouns.
They've grown up on a farm in what we call the sunny side and they get a letter from mysterious sender calling them towards this, uh, in at the crossroads, which, uh, is a crossroads between the sunny side and the shady side of this, of this fantasy world.
These are just kind of like two cultures that exist and they become the innkeeper of this, of this space.
And they realize that they might have some kind of connection with, with the, the inn and the Ivy that grows on the inn.
And, and, um, they can, um, and make the building take on different shapes, bespoke to the guests that wander in, all the travelers.
The game itself is a solo game, and it is... pretty similar to something like a Cascadia.
You have a tile laying game with another pattern building game on top with very simple turn structures.
But within that, we get to tell some really cool emergent stories, because if we're going to keep the Cascadia comparison, you have like five different animals.
But in this game, it's quite like that, except that instead of you know five animals you've got something like 25 unique guests and each one of them has their own pattern relating to them and we really put a lot of care into making sure that those patterns read as something that you can you can map reality to so you might have a fool who's a juggler and they want empty spaces above them they don't want to hit a balcony on the way up
So, you know, ideally, we do have like a text, we have like a little introduction to scenario, we have a closing text.
But within the game itself, I think it's cool that we've set it up in a way where you can have those emergent stories.
And I think that's particularly important when you're playing a solo game, and you don't have other people across the table to bring the game alive.
yeah I mean I would echo that as I've played just a little of it I played one storyline or act or whatever you ended up calling it in the game but I thought it was so charming finding out like yeah the fool or the jester with the tossing or I think it's like a raven and it kind of wants to poop on you and I'm just like it's just really cute and humorous and it made it like more interesting to me especially because I'm not someone who does a lot of solo gaming but it captured my attention because of the story.
Want to talk about the game and the inspiration to start so we can kind of give the audience an idea of what we're talking about?
Yeah, so I guess the game itself, so I guess coming at it from like the narrative perspective, play a character called Ivy who uses they, them pronouns.
They've grown up on a farm in what we call the sunny side and they get a letter from mysterious sender calling them towards this, uh, in at the crossroads, which, uh, is a crossroads between the sunny side and the shady side of this, of this fantasy world.
These are just kind of like two cultures that exist and they become the innkeeper of this, of this space.
And they realize that they might have some kind of connection with, with the, the inn and the Ivy that grows on the inn.
And, and, um, they can, um, and make the building take on different shapes, bespoke to the guests that wander in, all the travelers.
The game itself is a solo game, and it is... pretty similar to something like a Cascadia.
You have a tile laying game with another pattern building game on top with very simple turn structures.
But within that, we get to tell some really cool emergent stories, because if we're going to keep the Cascadia comparison, you have like five different animals.
But in this game, it's quite like that, except that instead of you know five animals you've got something like 25 unique guests and each one of them has their own pattern relating to them and we really put a lot of care into making sure that those patterns read as something that you can you can map reality to so you might have a fool who's a juggler and they want empty spaces above them they don't want to hit a balcony on the way up
So, you know, ideally, we do have like a text, we have like a little introduction to scenario, we have a closing text.
But within the game itself, I think it's cool that we've set it up in a way where you can have those emergent stories.
And I think that's particularly important when you're playing a solo game, and you don't have other people across the table to bring the game alive.
yeah I mean I would echo that as I've played just a little of it I played one storyline or act or whatever you ended up calling it in the game but I thought it was so charming finding out like yeah the fool or the jester with the tossing or I think it's like a raven and it kind of wants to poop on you and I'm just like it's just really cute and humorous and it made it like more interesting to me especially because I'm not someone who does a lot of solo gaming but it captured my attention because of the story.
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