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A Good Gardener Is A Lovely Wartime Grow 'Em Up

Help the war effort

Planting seeds in a ruined home, returning each day to water them, chase off hungry birds, pluck weeds, and watch your plants grow is delightful in A Good Gardener [official site], a newly-released garden 'em up from the duo behind the lovely Little Party. When the weather's right, it's nice to sit back in a chair and simply enjoy your garden. You might almost forget it's not your garden, but one you're forced to grow as a prisoner during a fictional war.

I'm trying to grow a pleasing garden, and enjoy seeing it sprout. Dry spells, when water runs low, are stressful. When I finally triumph and raise a plant to its full glory, and my garden looks glorious, I am very pleased. Then people sweep in after I've left to harvest them. I'm disappointed every morning when I return to find bare soil in place of my pride and joy. But they're not mine, and I'm not here by choice.

Over the days and weeks, a visiting official lets on more of what's happening in the world around you, why you're locked away, and who you were before. I haven't finished A Good Gardener yet but suspect it's not a game to marathon, more something pleasant to return to when you want to potter and plant.

A Good Garden is out on Itch for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It'll run you about £4.

Cover image for YouTube video

Do also check out Little Party - I'm tickled pink that it took me just as long to write about that as it took creators Ian Endsley and Carter Lodwick to finish another game.

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A Good Gardener

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Alice O'Connor avatar

Alice O'Connor

Associate Editor

Alice has been playing video games since SkiFree and writing about them since 2009, with nine years at RPS. She enjoys immersive sims, roguelikelikes, chunky revolvers, weird little spooky indies, mods, walking simulators, and finding joy in details. Alice lives, swims, and cycles in Scotland.

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