Flowers, crops, trees – at some point they’ll all wither and die. But perhaps you could bring them back to life, or at the very least, a garden? Trying to catch fishies small and big, hanging with friends, trading a useless item for something of actual value – seems like there’s plenty of fun to be had for those willing to walk The Garden Path.
Although somewhat similar to starting a new save in Stardew Valley, your arrival in The Garden Path is greeted by an area both overgrown and under-nurtured. Don’t panic, however: with a little time, love, and tenderness, this messy wilderness is bound to turn into your home away from home, complete with a colourful cast of characters to interact with and lots of activities/distractions.
Provided you’re willing to put in the hours, that is, as everything grows in real-time here, even if a year only lasts 28 days and each season, well, those change every 7 days (unsurprisingly). Confused by the use of ‘real-time’? Well, as far as I can tell, it works similarly to games like Animal Crossing, in that time flows in-game even when you’re not playing. Plant something one day, come back the next, and it’ll have grown! Oh, and there are ways to manipulate the seasons too, so perhaps one can even shorten or lengthen each day as well? Sure wouldn’t mind that kind of power in real life.
The world is brimming with different visitors who move through different gardens depending on their sights and smells, and – should they particularly enjoy your garden – may be invited to stay.
Anyway, as you can tell from the screenshot above all this text, The Garden Path flexes its visual muscles with a lovely hand-drawn aesthetic with the trailer (below) confirming that no corners were cut in the musical department either. Definitely looking forward to this one, and even more so given its emphasis on… well… slice-of-life, really. I do believe there is no ‘goal’ or ‘end’, and as such, no rush towards some grand finale after which everything comes to a conclusion and that’s all Louis Durrant wrote. No, this definitely has ‘long-term life sim’ written all over it, and that’s a huge part of why I’m hoping it’ll succeed on Kickstarter.
This brings me to the boring stuff where people are asked to bust out their credit cards: crowdfunding. See, while Louis Durrant is confident the game can be finished without a successful campaign (which ends on August 20), the additional funding from Kickstarter could potentially result in The Garden Path hitting platforms other than PC (Steam, itch.io) with additional content/languages, as then recruiting collaborators would be possible, “all while keeping a good work-life balance”. Sounds like an honest pitch to me, and not a bad one either.
So, how about helping The Garden Path on Kickstarter?