The demo is live
The Waking Grove now has a playable demo. It covers from the first dry patch of soil to a garden that keeps growing while you watch it.
You decide where the garden grows
This is the biggest change since the last build, and it came out of a simple problem: the island used to expand on its own. Every couple of seasons it grew by one row, in a shape nobody chose. Growth happened to you.
Now the shore is yours. Beyond the edge of your island there is sand, and every season you get a handful of claims to spend on it. Claim a tile and it becomes soil, and the sea beyond it pulls back to reveal more sand.
Where you spend those claims is the whole decision. Reach out in a long thin arm toward the water, or stay compact and dense. Grow fast and spend the season restoring more ground, or stay small and finish early. The island you end the year with is a shape you drew, not one the game handed you.
Claimed ground is permanent. Seasons reset what is growing on your island, never its size.
What comes after the demo
The full version opens the map. Once an island is fully restored you can leave it behind and claim a new one, and the old island stays on the map as a living, matured place that keeps producing on its own while you work the next one. Sea channels grow between them as the archipelago forms.
Workers spread across the islands you have settled, and the ones you leave behind keep tending the ground you already brought back.
Thank you for playing.