Are you looking for a game that’s cosy, but still engaging with a sense of progression? Are you looking for a way to while away a few accidental hours of dissociation in a low-stakes puzzle game? If so, Tiny Garden may be the game for you.
It’s So Tiny
Set inside a Polly Pocket-shaped dome, it’s up to you to figure out how to cultivate the soil and plants. You begin with a small garden plot, planting seeds and nurturing your crops. As you harvest crops, you can exchange them for new crops and items, unlocking more options. The game increases in difficulty as your plot expands and more choices become available, creating a sense of progression as you manage your growing garden.
Tiny Garden has literal turns where you progress your game by turning the handle on the side of your base. Each plant has a number of turns before growing, and others will begin acting out if you leave them for too long. Some require water, while others require specific soil types. Thankfully, placing seeds on plots is easily undone, and you have a few turns before withered plants turn to mulch.
It’s So Cosy
Backed by a pleasant lo-fi soundtrack, Tiny Garden is as low-stakes as they come. There are no time constraints besides progressing your turn. Your plants can wither, but even that can be a good thing. If somehow you run out of seeds, the magic chest generates more over time, and you can set it to create seeds from various sets to skip earlier items.
The aesthetic is bright and colourful, and is accompanied by a solid User Interface (UI) that is easy to read and understand. There are letters containing clues on how to unlock certain soil types or boons, encouraging you to experiment with your layouts without outright giving you the answer.
Time To Decorate
Once you have a handle on things, you can start unlocking stickers and other decorative items for your home. Again, I have to use the Polly Pocket reference as the plastic furniture sits in the lid of your garden dome. It was easy to decorate and there are a lot of options for you to unlock. A completionist will have a lot of fun hunting them all down.
Cultivate Your Tiny Garden
With no timer and ample opportunities to fix your mistakes, Tiny Garden is a great way to relax without becoming boring. Being able to leave plants fully grown in their plots while you figure out the ones around them makes it feel less mean and encouraged me to try again. I also appreciated being able to min-max my plots when aiming for specific goals.
My only gripe comes from the settings or lack thereof. I just wanted to mute the game while I watched something on the other monitor and could find no volume controls.
I was already pretty intrigued by Tiny Garden when it came across my feed, and I was delighted to discover that it was made in Godot by a new developer. Ao Norte has done an incredible job balancing cosy and engaging game mechanics to create a blooming delightful experience.
Platform: PC
Developer: Ao Norte
Publishers: Super Rare Originals, Gamersky Games
Played On: Steam
Code Provided By: Keymailer
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