The Gardener and the Wild Vines

Released: Sep 9, 2021
Platforms
Last updated: 05 Sep 2026, 12:00 GMT

Updates & announcements

11 posts

08 Aug 2023Developer post
v1.1.0.0 Patch
This update introduces everything being localized in Spanish thanks to our friend, Ginni Correa! If you play the game in Spanish and notice any issues, please let us know so we can adjust! We've also added some other quality of life updates and bug fixes. This update adds the fol
This update introduces everything being localized in Spanish thanks to our friend, Ginni Correa! If you play the game in Spanish and notice any issues, please let us know so we can adjust!
We've also added some other quality of life updates and bug fixes.
This update adds the following features and fixes:
Fixing Crashes
Anyone who experienced the game freezing or crashing during dialogue should now be able to enjoy the story with ease. The issue was related to how come computers/languages were changing some game data periods (.) into commas (,), and the dialogue reader couldn't handle that. We apologize for taking so long to fix this issue, but since these issues mostly occurred in other languages, we could never quite track this down.
Achievements
We have left in the invulnerability setting but no longer disable achievements from firing if you use it. We don't want anyone who uses this setting out of necessity be unnecessarily punished.
Bug Fixes/Improvements

Finally fixed the "new" always being active on the main menu after completing the game
Fixed issue with how caged birds sometimes didn't hide themselves all the way when already claimed
Updated windmill wires to be green if permanently activated and yellow if temporarily activated to better tell the difference.
Moved the call to save a level right when the player lands on a tower in case more dialogue issues ever come up!
Happy Gaming,
- Finite Reflection Studios
Original post
28 Jan 2022Developer post
v1.0.1.0 Patch
Once upon a time, there were a few developers making a game, and in making this game, they played it every day for over a year. As it turns out, when you play a game every day for over a year, you get pretty good at it. So good, in fact, that you don't quite realize how parts of
Once upon a time, there were a few developers making a game, and in making this game, they played it every day for over a year. As it turns out, when you play a game every day for over a year, you get pretty good at it. So good, in fact, that you don't quite realize how parts of the game are actually pretty challenging for people who haven't been playing it for years. Weird, right?
Unrelated to the above story, we added checkpoints to some of the longer levels.
This update adds the following features and fixes:
Checkpoints

Not every level has checkpoints, but we added checkpoints to some of the longer levels starting in The Islands region.
Checkpoints look like flower pots, and activating one grows a flower in that pot. If you lose all your hearts or press retry, you will be reset to the last activated checkpoint. Pressing restart level will clear the checkpoint and start you at the beginning.
Progress towards the collectible in that level will unfortunately not be saved along with the checkpoints (including if you have finished getting the collectible in that level on this run).
Improved Vine Growth

Vines now grow closer to objects like bridges and walls. In the case of bridges, this should make it significantly easier to spawn a leaf to help you access the bridge.
Vines growing at the top of a tower section are more likely to grow downward, reducing the likelihood of more vines not spawning and leaving you stuck or in a difficult position.
Level Design Improvements

After watching more of the community play, we've made improvements to several later levels that were either unfair or frustrating. These include:
Added leaves to the bottom of most levels to avoid a bad spawn where you couldn't reach the lowest leaf.
Fixed a bridge on Mountains 3 that would lift you in the wind instead of letting you land on the bridge.
Fixed the impossible set of orbs that would guarantee a hit in Mountains 4.
Redesigned the tower section in Mountains 5 that would be awful/almost impossible to get back up if you fell down with the snowball.
Added a leaf near the end of Mountain 6 to avoid unnecessary travel if you missed the roof initially.
Blocked of the safe-looking but actually death-ensuring empty space in Mountain 7.
Several more small level design changes.
Bug Fixes

Fixed bug where you had to jump off a bridge and back on it to re-cross the bridge.
Fixed bug that let you drop a coconut on a bridge while crossing.
Other minor fixes/improvements.
Happy Gaming,
- Finite Reflection Studios
Original post
19 Sep 2021Developer post
v1.0.0.6 Patch
Hello everyone, Being seen and acknowledged as you want to be is very important to us at Finite Reflection Studios. We are trying to tell a very specific story with The Gardener and the Wild Vines, and as such, we've seen a few instances where people have misgendered the characte
Hello everyone,
Being seen and acknowledged as you want to be is very important to us at Finite Reflection Studios. We are trying to tell a very specific story with The Gardener and the Wild Vines, and as such, we've seen a few instances where people have misgendered the characters as they've been enjoying the story, and that happens from time to time. To make sure people get the full impact of the story the way we want to tell it, we've added each character's pronouns beneath their name in the dialogue so everyone can know definitively what each character identifies as.
This update adds/fixes the following things:

Added pronouns for each character under their name.
Fixed small design issue in Storm 7 to make it slightly easier.
Added some missing button icons.
Potentially fixed the missing button icons for controllers when using some controllers. These cases should fall back to Xbox UI controls.
Various other small changes and improvements.
Happy Gaming,
- Finite Reflection Studios
Original post
14 Sep 2021Developer post
v1.0.0.4 Patch
Hello everyone, Here is another small update fixing some quality of life issues and more bugs we've seen. Have you ever been walking on a bridge only to accidentally turn around and walk ALL THE WAY BACK to the other side and get really mad at someone because you felt like it was
Hello everyone,
Here is another small update fixing some quality of life issues and more bugs we've seen.
Have you ever been walking on a bridge only to accidentally turn around and walk ALL THE WAY BACK to the other side and get really mad at someone because you felt like it wasn't your fault? And then you see a construction worker who tells you that they added new safety rails to prevent this from happening and so you go BACK across successfully, make it home, have dinner, get in bed, accidentally press up and get teleported back to the bridge because one of the constructions workers installed the safety rail incorrectly? Us too. That's why THIS update fixes THAT problem, or at least that's what this construction working is saying.

Bridges that could have sometimes been activated from very far away have been fixed.
Fixed those OP crabs from moving while the game is paused.
Fixed the bad leaf in Storm 4 whose collider was not turning on properly. Bad leaf.
Improved the camera follow offset that was constantly dipping below bridges.
Increased heart triggers slightly.
Added in an unknown (?) button icon for when the control tries to display something that it doesn't have, instead of just not showing anything.
Fixed The Magaician's ring attack collider and animation.
Prevented The Magician from attacking you from within a tower when you couldn't see him because that was a little TOO tricky, even for him.
Various other small changes and improvements.
Happy Gaming!
- Finite Reflection Studios
Original post
12 Sep 2021Developer post
v1.0.0.3 Patch
Hi everyone, Another small update coming your way. Have you ever been walking on a bridge only to accidentally turn around and walk ALL THE WAY BACK to the other side and get really mad at someone because you felt like it wasn't your fault? Us too. That's why this update fixes th
Hi everyone,
Another small update coming your way.
Have you ever been walking on a bridge only to accidentally turn around and walk ALL THE WAY BACK to the other side and get really mad at someone because you felt like it wasn't your fault? Us too. That's why this update fixes that very problem!

Bridges are no longer activated automatically. You can now press the up arrow on the keyboard or your left joystick up on a controller once you land on a bridge to trigger a cross. You may have to jump and land on a bridge after crossing to activate it again.
Shortened Island 7 as it was just too long.
Chilled out The Magician a little since he was VERY aggressive.
Happy Gaming,
Finite Reflection Studios
Original post
11 Sep 2021Developer post
v1.0.0.2 Patch
Hello everyone, Here is another small update based on some of the things we've been seeing from streamers and other feedback from the community: Added a bloom disable to the settings. Fixed bug where skipping some dialogues would activate tutorials on the end dialogue instead. Im
Hello everyone,
Here is another small update based on some of the things we've been seeing from streamers and other feedback from the community:

Added a bloom disable to the settings.
Fixed bug where skipping some dialogues would activate tutorials on the end dialogue instead.
Improved the wording on the sliding tutorial to make it clearer.
Various balance changes to several levels.
Various small bugs and improvements.
Happy gaming!
- Finite Reflection Studios
Original post
09 Sep 2021Developer post
v1.0.0.1 Patch
Hello everyone, Thank you all SO MUCH for supporting The Gardener and the Wild Vines launch today. We've collected a few reports from people who have been playing the game since launch and have just pushed a small patch to fix the following issues: Fixed control rebindings not lo
Hello everyone,
Thank you all SO MUCH for supporting The Gardener and the Wild Vines launch today. We've collected a few reports from people who have been playing the game since launch and have just pushed a small patch to fix the following issues:

Fixed control rebindings not loading in properly when remapping some items to buttons.
Made Storm 7 a little easier.
Fixed a flower placement in Grasslands 7 that was sitting a little too high above a windmill.
Fixed an exploit in Mountain 6 for the speedrun competition.
Important Speedrun Update
Due to the exploit found in Mountain 6, anyone wishing to submit an entry will need to update their game and submit a run without using the exploit. We want the competition to be fun and exciting, not cheap, so while we encourage creative strategies to getting the fastest speed, an exploit that basically lets you skip the entire level is against the spirit of the competition. Thank you for understanding!
Continue to let us know what you think of the game and how we may improve it.
Happy Gaming
- Finite Reflection Studios
Original post
17 Aug 2021Developer post
Patch Notes - v0.9.5 (1)
Hello everyone! Before you get to the patch notes, we want to remind everyone we have a discord for our studio where you can stay up to date (and get behind the scenes sneak peak at development): Join The Discord! Thank you all for playing the demo for The Gardener and the Wild V
Hello everyone!
Before you get to the patch notes, we want to remind everyone we have a discord for our studio where you can stay up to date (and get behind the scenes sneak peak at development): Join The Discord!
Thank you all for playing the demo for The Gardener and the Wild Vines. We've addressed the following items in this update:

Added a new slide mechanic. Press the down arrow key on keyboard or LB/LT on controller while running on the ground to do a quick slide that will give you a little boosted momentum!
Updated visual for fast-fall animation to make it stand out more clearly.
Fixed an issue where the player's velocity was a little inconsistent when attacking flowers. it should be more predictable now.
Fast-falling now instantly cancels upward velocity instead of just slowing you down.
Added a bunch of audio sfx to the game!
Various other bugfixes and improvements.
Numerous changes and updates to the main game you can't see yet :P
We're excited to be launching on 9/9, and we hope you're excited as well!
Happy gaming!
- Eric
Original post
17 Mar 2021Developer post
Patch Notes - v0.9.2 (2)
Hello everyone! Before you get to the patch notes, we want to remind everyone we have a discord for our studio where you can stay up to date (and get behind the scenes sneak peak at development): Join The Discord! Thank you all for playing the demo for The Gardener and the Wild V
Hello everyone!
Before you get to the patch notes, we want to remind everyone we have a discord for our studio where you can stay up to date (and get behind the scenes sneak peak at development): Join The Discord!
Thank you all for playing the demo for The Gardener and the Wild Vines. We've addressed the following items in this update:

Sped up the vine growth. Vines should reach their destination much faster, allowing for flowers and leaves to appear sooner.
Vine growth should be a bit more predictable
Added heart pickups to levels where the player can lose hearts
Added a Slow Fall tutorial to Grasslands 1
Polished the dialogue UI
Added social links to the main menu
Windmills updated to allow you to jump from anywhere
Fixed knockback pushing player through walls
Challenges updated to be about getting "par" flowers. You now have to get less than the indicated number of flowers to get that star
Added colored flags to various elements in the game to help indicate level parts
Updated controls to allow for the left face button to also cut flowers when using a controller
Happy gaming!
- Eric
Original post
12 Mar 2021Developer post
Join The Finite Reflection Studios Discord Server!
Hello everyone! We hope that you have been enjoying the demo for The Gardener and the Wild Vines and are excited for more! While we continue our development on the game, you should join our Discord server to keep up with us and the progress of our development. Feel free to ask us
04 Feb 2021Developer post
Patch Notes - v0.9.1 (6)
Hello all! We fixed a small bug that was causing the "Challenges" button to not respond when coming back from a level. Happy gaming! - Eric

Updates & announcements

Fixing Crashes

Achievements

Bug Fixes/Improvements

Checkpoints

Improved Vine Growth

Level Design Improvements

Bug Fixes

Important Speedrun Update