Hey there and welcome to our Steam community!
I’m Louis Durrant, the sole developer of The Garden Path. This project has been a labour of love for me for some years now, and I’m very proud of how far it has come in that time.
As this is my first post here, it felt only fitting to welcome you to the garden and explain a little about how the world works behind the scenes. So, without further ado, welcome to the garden...
Deciding how big the garden should be was more difficult than I had anticipated. I want players to feel like there's a thrill to exploring, but that they'll soon have it mapped roughly in their heads.
To have curated the entire space should be a tremendous challenge, but most players should feel content that they have shaped a corner of the garden to their liking.
Originally, I had intended on having the world be entirely randomly generated so that every gardener had a completely unique place to explore. In the end, I settled on making the garden a collection of different ‘acres’ (randomly generated puzzle pieces).
Some ‘acres’ will be more interesting than others, while some will be rarer. Each, however, should offer something new to uncover.
With this system, players who enjoy rebooting and rebuilding their garden might experience some deja-vu, but ultimately will be met with a fresh new world to explore each time. Meanwhile, players dedicated to their original garden can continue to explore, expand, and enjoy the environments.
Every ‘acre’ is approximately 9 screen sizes, and every garden is made up of 36 ‘acres’. It’s pretty big. As is the most important metric: running from one side of the map to the other certainly takes a fair bit of time.
But with flora and fauna to examine, as well as charming characters to chat to on the way, players will feel satisfied in finding something new every time.
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My goal for The Garden Path was to create a game where players could have a tranquil space to kick back in, feel safe, and get lost in their garden. With this system in place, I think the garden will be a cozy and comfortable home-away-from-home.
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading a bit about the garden. Expect more updates to follow as I continue working on The Garden Path.
Until then...
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