AUTOMA GARDEN
@automagarden.com
AUTOMA GARDEN is a new board game development initiative started by Michael Burrowes.
https://www.starlinehill.com/
https://www.starlinehill.com/
When the Sky becomes full, one or both players are often left without any legal moves. If we
assume Red has a higher Point total than Yellow, it would be to their benefit to not claim Etana.
If they did so, it would open up lines for Yellow to Claim Hevonen, swinging the game in their favor.
assume Red has a higher Point total than Yellow, it would be to their benefit to not claim Etana.
If they did so, it would open up lines for Yellow to Claim Hevonen, swinging the game in their favor.
April 13, 2025 at 8:04 PM
When the Sky becomes full, one or both players are often left without any legal moves. If we
assume Red has a higher Point total than Yellow, it would be to their benefit to not claim Etana.
If they did so, it would open up lines for Yellow to Claim Hevonen, swinging the game in their favor.
assume Red has a higher Point total than Yellow, it would be to their benefit to not claim Etana.
If they did so, it would open up lines for Yellow to Claim Hevonen, swinging the game in their favor.
In this example of a central opening, Red found a strong first Claim of Etana on the periphery
of the active board – Yellow can’t immediately Draw a Line over the Neutral Stars that are left
behind.
Link in bio to back our Kickstarter project!
of the active board – Yellow can’t immediately Draw a Line over the Neutral Stars that are left
behind.
Link in bio to back our Kickstarter project!
April 12, 2025 at 5:04 PM
In this example of a central opening, Red found a strong first Claim of Etana on the periphery
of the active board – Yellow can’t immediately Draw a Line over the Neutral Stars that are left
behind.
Link in bio to back our Kickstarter project!
of the active board – Yellow can’t immediately Draw a Line over the Neutral Stars that are left
behind.
Link in bio to back our Kickstarter project!
Some players prefer to open by placing their Stars next to each other, typically in the center. This leads to a more combative early-game, where finding a Claim that can’t be capitalized on by your opponent is key.
April 11, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Some players prefer to open by placing their Stars next to each other, typically in the center. This leads to a more combative early-game, where finding a Claim that can’t be capitalized on by your opponent is key.
Some players prefer to open by placing their Stars far apart from each other – the outcome of this playstyle usually tends to be more ‘random,’ – without interference, the Constellation cards that are drawn have a significant impact on which player will be able to score faster.
April 10, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Some players prefer to open by placing their Stars far apart from each other – the outcome of this playstyle usually tends to be more ‘random,’ – without interference, the Constellation cards that are drawn have a significant impact on which player will be able to score faster.
Though 3-Point Constellations are the least efficient in terms of Points-per-Star, they are effective in the middle- to late-game for ‘evacuating’ awkwardly placed Stars to replenish your supply!
April 9, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Though 3-Point Constellations are the least efficient in terms of Points-per-Star, they are effective in the middle- to late-game for ‘evacuating’ awkwardly placed Stars to replenish your supply!
Your Stars are a limited resource; you will need to carefully manage the ebb and flow of your supply as you Draw Lines and Claim Constellations. In this position, Yellow has found a good time to claim Kristalli, as Red does not have enough Stars remaining to capitalize on their threat!
April 8, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Your Stars are a limited resource; you will need to carefully manage the ebb and flow of your supply as you Draw Lines and Claim Constellations. In this position, Yellow has found a good time to claim Kristalli, as Red does not have enough Stars remaining to capitalize on their threat!
Edge spaces tend to be a bit more flexible than corners, while still offering some of their defensive benefits. Use these spaces effectively in the mid-game to dominate a region of the Sky!
Reminder that our Kickstarter is still live with 16 days left!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Reminder that our Kickstarter is still live with 16 days left!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
April 7, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Edge spaces tend to be a bit more flexible than corners, while still offering some of their defensive benefits. Use these spaces effectively in the mid-game to dominate a region of the Sky!
Reminder that our Kickstarter is still live with 16 days left!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Reminder that our Kickstarter is still live with 16 days left!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Corner spaces are very defensive – they cannot be surrounded by your opponent’s Stars, so they are often effective as anchors. Remember, once a corner is used in a Claim, it becomes dead!
Make sure to back our Kickstarter project today!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Make sure to back our Kickstarter project today!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
April 6, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Corner spaces are very defensive – they cannot be surrounded by your opponent’s Stars, so they are often effective as anchors. Remember, once a corner is used in a Claim, it becomes dead!
Make sure to back our Kickstarter project today!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Make sure to back our Kickstarter project today!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Stars in the center of the Sky board make it easy to build out Constellation patterns in any direction and create more opportunities for Line Draws in any direction. Your Stars in the center can be a long-term investment, so think carefully before using them in a Claim!
April 5, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Stars in the center of the Sky board make it easy to build out Constellation patterns in any direction and create more opportunities for Line Draws in any direction. Your Stars in the center can be a long-term investment, so think carefully before using them in a Claim!
Hi folks! Sending you a reminder our project, Starline Hill, is still live on Kickstarter with 19 days to go!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Here are some of the exclusives we’re offering!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Here are some of the exclusives we’re offering!
April 5, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Hi folks! Sending you a reminder our project, Starline Hill, is still live on Kickstarter with 19 days to go!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Here are some of the exclusives we’re offering!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Here are some of the exclusives we’re offering!
When designing a box, everything must be exactly the right size; you need to consider things like logo placement and folds in the design – we wanted a box where the box illustration wrapped around the box top, which added even more complexity. Our illustrator, Ellen Zhang, handled it all in stride!
April 3, 2025 at 3:53 PM
When designing a box, everything must be exactly the right size; you need to consider things like logo placement and folds in the design – we wanted a box where the box illustration wrapped around the box top, which added even more complexity. Our illustrator, Ellen Zhang, handled it all in stride!
After Michael put together an initial mood board, he and Megan took to a pretty thorough dissection of a number of visual references to determine precisely which aspects to carry over. Early references included art from Hollow Knight, Ghibli films, and Disney’s Atlantis, among others.
April 2, 2025 at 2:43 PM
After Michael put together an initial mood board, he and Megan took to a pretty thorough dissection of a number of visual references to determine precisely which aspects to carry over. Early references included art from Hollow Knight, Ghibli films, and Disney’s Atlantis, among others.
Once we had a more firm idea of how our constellation patterns would look on the cards, we needed to make sure our font choices, shading, and alignment added to the look without interfering with readability.
Link in our bio to back our Kickstarter for Starline Hill!
Link in our bio to back our Kickstarter for Starline Hill!
April 1, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Once we had a more firm idea of how our constellation patterns would look on the cards, we needed to make sure our font choices, shading, and alignment added to the look without interfering with readability.
Link in our bio to back our Kickstarter for Starline Hill!
Link in our bio to back our Kickstarter for Starline Hill!
In our first prototype of Starline Hill, the constellations were simple shapes on dry-erase cards. Since cards are critical to our gameplay, our priority was to make sure the constellation pattern information was conveyed in a readable way on top of the more contextual thematic art on the card.
March 31, 2025 at 3:55 PM
In our first prototype of Starline Hill, the constellations were simple shapes on dry-erase cards. Since cards are critical to our gameplay, our priority was to make sure the constellation pattern information was conveyed in a readable way on top of the more contextual thematic art on the card.
Because of the mechanics of Drawing Lines, corners and adjacent edges that become Neutral Stars can never be Drawn over, and thus become ‘dead’ for the remainder of the game. After Yellow’s claim in this example, 8 spaces in the bottom-right corner are made dead.
March 30, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Because of the mechanics of Drawing Lines, corners and adjacent edges that become Neutral Stars can never be Drawn over, and thus become ‘dead’ for the remainder of the game. After Yellow’s claim in this example, 8 spaces in the bottom-right corner are made dead.
Drawing a Line over 5 or more Neutral Stars at once is very tempting! Watch out, however, for the ‘big line trap.’ Highly linear positions aren’t often conducive to claiming many Constellations – there may be better ways to utilize your limited supply of Stars.
March 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Drawing a Line over 5 or more Neutral Stars at once is very tempting! Watch out, however, for the ‘big line trap.’ Highly linear positions aren’t often conducive to claiming many Constellations – there may be better ways to utilize your limited supply of Stars.
We're also showing off a little more strategy around the game!
Yellow’s position is somewhat poisoned here, but with a well-placed Line Draw, they can claim Rapu without opening their position to Red’s attacks, at least as much as they would have otherwise.
Yellow’s position is somewhat poisoned here, but with a well-placed Line Draw, they can claim Rapu without opening their position to Red’s attacks, at least as much as they would have otherwise.
March 28, 2025 at 3:14 PM
We're also showing off a little more strategy around the game!
Yellow’s position is somewhat poisoned here, but with a well-placed Line Draw, they can claim Rapu without opening their position to Red’s attacks, at least as much as they would have otherwise.
Yellow’s position is somewhat poisoned here, but with a well-placed Line Draw, they can claim Rapu without opening their position to Red’s attacks, at least as much as they would have otherwise.
We also have a BONUS animation evolution video collab with @prosanic.bsky.social! We absolutely love it.
March 27, 2025 at 8:48 PM
We also have a BONUS animation evolution video collab with @prosanic.bsky.social! We absolutely love it.
We're also back with a livestream tomorrow, Thursday March 27th at 8pm EDT!
Tune in to watch Michael (@michaelburrowes.bsky.social) play Starline Hill live.
Tune in to watch Michael (@michaelburrowes.bsky.social) play Starline Hill live.
March 26, 2025 at 3:09 PM
We're also back with a livestream tomorrow, Thursday March 27th at 8pm EDT!
Tune in to watch Michael (@michaelburrowes.bsky.social) play Starline Hill live.
Tune in to watch Michael (@michaelburrowes.bsky.social) play Starline Hill live.
Our project, Starline Hill, is launching tomorrow on Kickstarter at 10am EDT / 7am PDT!
We have spent the better part of a year playtesting and building this game, and we're so happy to finally see it go live! Follow along until tomorrow!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
We have spent the better part of a year playtesting and building this game, and we're so happy to finally see it go live! Follow along until tomorrow!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
March 24, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Our project, Starline Hill, is launching tomorrow on Kickstarter at 10am EDT / 7am PDT!
We have spent the better part of a year playtesting and building this game, and we're so happy to finally see it go live! Follow along until tomorrow!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
We have spent the better part of a year playtesting and building this game, and we're so happy to finally see it go live! Follow along until tomorrow!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/aut...
Our project for Starline Hill launches on Tuesday!
We’re highlighting some of our Kickstarter exclusives which will be offered in some of our tiers in anticipation of our launch, so make sure to follow along in our bio!
We’re highlighting some of our Kickstarter exclusives which will be offered in some of our tiers in anticipation of our launch, so make sure to follow along in our bio!
March 23, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Our project for Starline Hill launches on Tuesday!
We’re highlighting some of our Kickstarter exclusives which will be offered in some of our tiers in anticipation of our launch, so make sure to follow along in our bio!
We’re highlighting some of our Kickstarter exclusives which will be offered in some of our tiers in anticipation of our launch, so make sure to follow along in our bio!
We’re at BOINGA today in downtown Boston!
March 22, 2025 at 5:20 PM
We’re at BOINGA today in downtown Boston!
Michael fills up the board in his match against Travis, triggering the endgame state! Can Travis bring it back?
March 21, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Michael fills up the board in his match against Travis, triggering the endgame state! Can Travis bring it back?
Michael shares his thoughts on score differentials – even if you’re behind a full constellation’s worth of points, you can still make a comeback!
We have almost 300 people on our Kickstarter pre-launch before our March 25th launch next week! Click the link in our bio to follow along!
We have almost 300 people on our Kickstarter pre-launch before our March 25th launch next week! Click the link in our bio to follow along!
March 20, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Michael shares his thoughts on score differentials – even if you’re behind a full constellation’s worth of points, you can still make a comeback!
We have almost 300 people on our Kickstarter pre-launch before our March 25th launch next week! Click the link in our bio to follow along!
We have almost 300 people on our Kickstarter pre-launch before our March 25th launch next week! Click the link in our bio to follow along!