The Gardens Between

The Gardens Between is a puzzle game that using the metaphor of stars and light to tell a bittersweet, nostalgic story about friendship.

Through protagonists Arina and Frendt, players explore surreal garden islands that are peppered with nostalgic objects, each representing a shared memory between the two friends. In each level, the pair must deliver a lantern to the peak of the island by solving time-warp puzzles. When the puzzle is solved, the light from the lantern shoots up into the sky, and the memory that the island represents becomes a star in a broader constellation of memories above. Each level is full of objects that tease out shared memories and moments in time.

These constellations provide a metaphorical and literal background to their adventures, and are also waypoints in the darkness. The friends sail between memory islands in a floating treehouse – like seafarers of old, they are guided by the stars. Their memories together are bright points in an ocean of fog, guiding them as they learn to deal with change.

Players don’t control the characters per se, but they instead use the game’s time-based mechanic to fast forwards or backwards. Rewinding to the development of the game, that time mechanic was first explored here with us at ACMI during a game jam.