Introduction

In the game of Seikatsu - a word that means "life" in Japanese - players plant a shared garden between each of their pagodas, and compete to have the most breathtaking view of the finished garden. Take turns drawing and playing Garden Tiles that feature both a bird and a flower to create flocks of birds and rows of flowers, as seen from your pagoda. Who has the best view of the garden? It's all a matter of perspective!

Game Components

-32 standard tiles

-8 Koi tiles

-4 Fountain tiles

-4 Fountain Flower Cards

-4 Fountain Bird Cards

NOTE: The standard game is for 2-3 players. Fountains are an optional part of the game, if you did not opt to use them in the game then ignore any mention of fountain tiles in these rules and no bird or flower cards will be dealt.

Gameplay

The game is played in turns, beginning with the first player and going clockwise, until the entire Garden has been filled with tiles.

On your turn, perform all three steps in order:

• Play a Tile
• Score Matching Birds
• Draw a New Tile

Play A Tile

• On your turn, play any tile from your hand adjacent to another tile in the Garden.

Koi Tiles may be played as normal, or as Fountain tiles. There can be no more than 4 Koi or 4 Fountains in the Garden. When you play a Koi tile, you may choose to replace it with a Fountain tile from the faceup supply next to the board, if any remain. If there are already 4 Koi in the Garden, you may only play a Koi as a Fountain. The only time a Fountain may be placed adjacent to another Fountain is if there are no other spaces available, you have no other tiles available, and you cannot play the tile as a Koi because there are already 4 Koi in the Garden.

Score Matching Birds

• Standard Tiles

When you play a bird next to one or more identical birds on adjacent tiles, score 2 points for each matching bird on each adjacent tile. Ignore non-matching birds, Koi, and Fountains adjacent to the tile you played. Remember, you do not score for the bird on the tile you played, you only score for the adjacent birds that match the bird you played.

• Koi Tiles

Koi tiles count as a bird of one color of your choice but only on the turn they are played. You’ll score points for all adjacent birds of one color when you play a Koi, but on all subsequent turns taken by you and your opponents, the Koi tile does not count as a matching bird for any tile played adjacent to it, including another Koi tile.

• Fountain Tiles

Fountains do not score for matching birds. All Fountain scoring occurs at game-end.

Draw a New Tile

• Draw a new tile from the cloth bag, if any remain, then pass the bag clockwise to the next player, who takes their turn.

Tile Types

• Standard Tiles

There are two duplicates of each of the 16 different Garden tiles. Each Garden tile features a bird and a flower. There are 4 types/colors of flowers and 4 types/colors of birds. Each of the flowers and birds appear on exactly 8 Garden tiles.

• Koi Tiles

The Koi tile is a "wild" tile that features a koi fish instead of a bird/flower pair. When you play a Koi tile it scores as a bird of your choice. Once your turn is over, the Koi tile no longer counts as a bird. At the end of the game, each Koi tile scores as a flower of your choice for flower scoring. A Koi tile may be scored as a different flower by different players. Each player chooses to score the Koi as the flower color that is most advantageous to them.

• Fountain Tiles

Koi tiles may be played as Fountain tiles, as explained above. Fountains are not birds or flowers. At the end of the game, score 2 point for every bird and flower of the same type as on your Fountain Cards and that is adjacent to a Fountain. In other words, look at each fountain, and score 2 points for birds and flowers adjacent to that fountain that appear on your Fountain Cards.

End of Game

When each player has played the last tile from their hand, the Garden should be completely filled and the game is over. To determine the winner, each player will score for the vertical rows of flowers they have planted, and add those points to the points they earned for Flocks of birds. Each player will then score for Fountains, and add those points to their total.

• Scoring Flowers

To score flowers, look down the vertical rows of tiles on the Garden board, from the perspective of your pagoda. BGA places lines on the board so you can more easily see what lines you will score flowers on.

In each vertical row, identify the largest flower set, which is the largest group of a single type of flower in that row. The flowers in the set do not need to be adjacent to one another in the row. You score only the largest flower set in each row. If there is a tie for largest set in a row, simply score one of the tied sets. Each Koi tile acts as a flower of your choice during flower scoring. A Koi tile may be scored as a different flower by different players. Fountains do not count as any type of flower.

Sets of flowers score as follows: Flowers -> Points

1 -> 0

2 -> 3

3 -> 6

4 -> 12

5 -> 18

6 -> 24

• Scoring Fountains

To score Fountains, look at your Fountain Flower and Bird cards, and score 2 points for each of that flower and bird that surround each Stone in the Garden. A flower or bird adjacent to more than one Fountain will score 2 points for each Fountain it is adjacent to.

Victory

After flower and fountain scores have been determined, the player with the most total points is the winner!