Night Garden
Created: 2022-09-09 (12:00:00) — Modified: 2025-06-10 (18:38:27)Status: completed
Descend into a changing garden, a nightly ecosystem. Find things, drop them down the well and see what happens.
I made the original version of this garden as a vessel to hide some gift codes for a friend. It spiralled into this, something something that responded to limited player input in obscure ways. There are several different phases to the way the garden can grow, decompose and rejuvenate itself, depending on how and when you drop things down the well.
Even if the game is too slow to make finding every permutation of its growth, death and regrowth worthwhile, there’s something fascinating to mechanics like this. I like the idea you may only ever experience the night garden in fragments.
I was influenced by Em Reed’s essay Do Your Dailies although didn’t play the game it primarily talks about, Ritual of the Moon until much later. The mechanic of visiting the same place every day to see what has changed also developed out of my earlier treasure shrine games, although here in the night garden, dropping things down the well does actually have an effect.
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Tags: @completed @my-games @twine @virtual-spaces
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