The Gardens Between 
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Daily Deal - The Gardens Between, 80% OffJan 13, 2020 - AnnouncementToday's Deal: Save 80% on The Gardens Between!* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends January 20 at 10AM Pacific Time NEW: Previously unreleased music from the Gardens Between out now!May 31, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsGlowing Pains: Deep Cuts - the second volume of the official soundtrack to The Gardens Between, made by the game’s musician Tim Shiel, is out now! Stream or purchase on Apple Music, Spotify, iTunes, Deezer, Bandcamp. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/403995066f52fe0d7f774d59d98531fbf698bc32.jpg The artist Tim Shiel shared some thoughts about the origins of this album: ‘Deep Cuts’ create the scars that you later cherish from things that might have hurt when you were a kid. Like when you had to say goodbye to that friend, it hurt but now that scar doesn't really hurt any more. It’s just a reminder of something that meant a lot to you. It’s also a subtle reference to a famous song - "the first cut is the deepest" - which is in reference to someone's first love, first heartbreak. But could also refer to those pains / memories you have from childhood - your first 'loss' of a friend hurts the most (but it’s something that shapes you/that maybe you cherish). The album was made by taking the sounds from inside the game and then asking 20+ of my friends from around the world to improvise new parts, build on what was there. I then took all of their parts and reshaped it into a seamless narrative of music that (I hope) reflects on the themes of the game - childhood, memory, loss, hope, friendship. The Gardens Between soundtrack - Volume One Tim has recently released a very limited run of the first volume on vinyl - only 500 copies. In true retro style you can now spin the vinyl at your next house party! You can purchase one of the 500 pressings on Tim's Bandcamp page or Vinyl Me Please! We got our hands on a copy of the vinyl, and it’s as beautiful as the game that inspired it The weird and wonderful voids of video gamesApr 8, 2019 - EurogamerVideo game worlds are facades, and sometimes we catch a glimpse of what's beyond. Recently, while exploring one of the intricate levels of Dusk, I somehow managed to slip through the cracks and found myself on the other side of the invisible partition that upholds the illusion of coherent space. I'd entered a world of broken, gravity-defying architecture, and there in the middle of the level had opened a pit that revealed a vast grey void beneath my feet. Close by, there was an exasperated message on the ground: "YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE, GO AWAY." Anyone who's spent a lot of time playing games will have their own stories of discovering the cordoned-off spaces behind spaces. We know the strange feeling of clipping through the ground only to plunge into a bottomless void while the level we've been exploring recedes into the distant ether above us; a tiny island unto itself, a dwindling speck suspended in the great digital void. These are accidents and glitches, but then again, if we're not supposed to gaze into the abyss, then why is the void such a popular trope in games? It seems any self-respecting fantasy game offers its players a tour of the void: There's the Void of the Dishonored games (read more about it here), the Fade of the Dragon Age series, the Realm Between Realms of God of War (2018). Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire also dip their toes into the great nothingness. These are metaphysical spaces inhabited by or associated with gods and spirits, the afterlife, and, most significant of all, origins and acts of creation. They are displaced and timeless, existing in between or beyond conventional space-time, and are only accessible through special pathways that pierce the veil: dreams, visions, rituals, death or magic. Read more We're up for a Webby! (Vote now Apr 2, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsHey Gardeners :) We're super excited today. We've just been nominated as a finalist for two Webby awards - Best Art Direction & Best Puzzle Game. There's some phenomenal games on the list and we're incredibly humbled to make it to the top 5. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/7684718af4fbeb7f624a92d1f739d0ef10cd04d7.gif YOU DECIDE WHO WINS! The fun news is: You decide who wins the people's choice award in each category. Vote for your favourite games here: https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/3f25a74066ed567896fd4fafa900aecf3f2674c2.png Vote for Best Art Direction Vote for Best Puzzle Game The Concepts Between - Art from 4 years of developmentFeb 14, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsWho likes art!? We sure do! I was recently having a look through the archives, and boy do we have some treasures to share. I don't want to bore you with words here, a picture tells a thousand of them. In The Gardens Between we let the art tell the story, and that's what I'm going to do below. Enjoy this visual story of several long years of game development. Enjoy! Frustration -> Nightmare https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/1ae3a06485b2d6ff30ead437bec0f978ed4509fb.png https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/1dfc36783aa438a3012e524f9f002144f0fc45f3.png https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/b698a12c13db2bff16159acb135de312797dc015.png Engine Test : Fascination -> Frustration -> Nightmare https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/ef8b84085a76d5d0e3d2c25d083adbd836052000.gif https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/6c287f58065e52de98620608d9033869d65a7db2.gif https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/ea1a9375e4c5d1e571853b4ac09bb818e5585cdf.gif https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/60fcb15f19fd1abd154e3c4ad22afd8be4eb4861.gif Puzzle Designs https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/e891fd471b4288028b1a4d718c65c5635eddf2f1.png https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/8cd7baa56ce3d142dae857b27ebdfc41893ad66c.png Communicating The Story Through Memories https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/d42e624186521f21933d2328871bcc76e5f56763.png https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/cf44a2e87bc49aa998c3708e3c216efd322f0276.png 2017 - Applying Art to the Drain Concept https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/9a61bd63c63cef19941094be8a90147ab87ea5cb.png Find more concept art from the development of the game on our Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.GOTY! #gratefulAF Shot to the heart with all the feelsDec 10, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsThe last few weeks have been incredibly exciting for the team behind ‘The Gardens Between’. We have been awarded MAC GAME OF THE YEAR and AUSTRALIAN GAME OF THE YEAR! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/6e6708189e2646accbd3946b0890b2ea3ee2b589.jpg It is so incredible to be recognised for all of the effort we put in over the last four years of development. We are so touched by all of the support. Be it a tweet from a fan of the game or a big nod from Apple, our heart skips a beat. It’s as though there’s this momentary spark of personal connection with whoever we are hearing from. Like we are felt, understood, and we belong. As though you all know and own a piece of us, like a friendship, understated and subtle... just like our game :) It’s such an unbelievable honour to have so many people loving the game, “someone pinch me, am I dreaming?” Especially since when we started The Voxel Agents TEN YEARS AGO (woah!) we were operating from a tiny corner of an office building, an old fire escape at the end of the hallway. We were right near the bathroom, practically in it. Everyone would have to walk past us to relieve themselves (the horror!). From those awkward beginnings, so much has happened, so much has been achieved, but we are still as awkward as ever. I’m just hoping adorably so :P Livestream with Developer CommentaryNov 2, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsTomorrow, Saturday, November 3rd https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/973d89a7d56dbc1ddd53ff92ad4205cd3ab80919.jpg Join us tomorrow, Saturday, November 3rd, at 1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern/8pm GMT when we join up with Jessa from The Jessa Channel to play The Gardens Between with developer commentary by Simon Joslin of The Voxel Agents! Jessa produces livestreams served up with a soupçon of silly and a whole lot of story, so come watch us right here on Steam. See you then! Now Available on Steam - The Gardens Between, 10% off!Sep 19, 2018 - Product ReleaseThe Gardens Between is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!* The Gardens Between is a surreal puzzle adventure that follows best friends, Arina and Frendt, as they fall into a mysterious world of beautiful garden islands. Manipulate time to solve puzzles and discover the secrets of each island. *Offer ends September 26 at 10AM Pacific Time The Gardens Between review - a short but vivid voyage into a friendship's pastSep 19, 2018 - EurogamerI've been reading a lot lately about the different ways we imagine time, and one, rather obvious thing I've belatedly realised is that we do not actually perceive time at all, but matter in motion. Time is not a tangible entity whistling past, an arrow through the present's heart, but the shifting sum of the timeframes created by the objects around us: sunrise and fall, the tumbling of popcorn from an upturned bowl, the tickle of drums in a passerby's headphones, the bobbing of cans in a flood. An affectionate, if slightly ephemeral puzzler from Australian indie The Voxel Agents, The Gardens Between revels in this thought. It represents the past as a series of spinning island dioramas, at once unearthly and ordinary, made up of objects you must meddle with to allow time as a whole to play out. Fancy temporal machinations aside, the game is about the bond between two children, Arina and Frendt, the experiences they have shared and the things they must leave behind. It begins with a long, gloomy silence in a treehouse, a metro train screaming across the cityscape to the rear. Then it whisks you away from all that, away from the harshness of the urban night, to a dreamy archipelago under alien stars - the treehouse now a boat which carries the children from island to island. Each level is a puzzle consisting of objects from Arina and Frendt's memories - from beachballs and hosepipes to paint buckets and sofa cushion fortresses, the debris of childhood play swollen in hindsight to elephantine proportions. Your goal in each case is to kindle the lantern Arina carries and place it on a plinth at the summit, whereupon the view sweeps upward to reveal the event each island is based on, preserved forever as a constellation. Read more… Wot I Think: The Gardens BetweenSep 19, 2018 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunThe Gardens Between is all about reminiscing. It plays like two friends talking about all the adventures they’ve had, with the conversation flowing as they remember details and go back over stories that ve grown with the telling. Do you remember…? it seems to say. Oh yes, but before that-! And of course there was the bit where-! This is not a feeling that comes from the words used because there are none. Instead, it stems from the gentle back and forth rhythm of the time-manipulation puzzles that make up each level of the game. (more…) The Gardens Between, a tale of childhood friendship and time travel, comes out next monthAug 21, 2018 - PC GamerThe Gardens Between, a tale of two friends growing up in a surreal world of magical gardens, will be released on Steam on September 20. The Voxel Agents, the studio making the game, also dropped a new trailer teasing the time manipulation mechanic that will carry Arina and Frendt along on their very strange journey. "It's our hope that players are not only touched by the story of Arina and Frendt, but that they take time to remember their own special relationships growing up," The Voxel Agents co-founder Simon Joslin said. "While so many of the objects featured in the gardens are from our own childhoods, we hope our audience will relate and recall a time when friendship meant everything." The time-bending element evokes memories of Braid, the famed puzzle platformer that helped put indie games on the mainstream map. And it definitely sounds like that type of game: The announcement said the pair will "uncover objects and situations that form the foundations of their friendship," while they "relive the emotional journey of their past, cherishing the memories they’ve built together and understanding what must come to an end." Even without digging down in the specifics of the mechanics, that should give you a pretty good idea of what's in store. The Gardens Between will go for $20. More information can be had via Steam or at thegardensbetween.com. The Gardens Between is coming to PS4™Oct 30, 2017 - Community AnnouncementsWe're super excited to announce that The Gardens Between is coming to PlayStation®4 in 2018. To celebrate, we have a brand new Gameplay Trailer on YouTube. Unless you've been lucky enough to play the game at PAX - this is the first time we've shown off the unique gameplay that defines The Gardens Between. In this game, you don’t control the characters; in this game, you control TIME. http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/20fe6efb6206e00cd7911eaa597c6c12778fc203.gif I’m Matt, and at The Voxel Agents we’ve been working on this wild game idea for some time. Back in 2011, we had a concept for a game based on that scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise is scrubbing backwards and forwards within a memory trying to uncover clues. We built several prototypes around the idea, and one of those prototypes blossomed into The Gardens Between. The game follows two best friends, Arina and Frendt, who find themselves in this strange and surreal world of garden islands. As a player, you follow the pair and manipulate time to solve puzzles and uncover the gardens’ secrets. As you control time, moving it backwards and forwards, the characters can manipulate the world around them, changing the flow of cause and effect. http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/ca9adb6db2f9c61e829595df0c76574064cd2548.gif One of our driving principles during development was to build a game that anyone can play. We wanted The Gardens Between to have simple controls, to encourage stress-free exploration, and to tell a genuine story without text or dialogue. We strongly believe that games are for everyone, and The Gardens Between fits that perfectly. At its core, the game is about exploring, but unlike most games, where you explore space, in The Gardens Between you explore time. In some ways this is simpler. On a timeline you can only move forwards and backwards, but time travel is full of its own complexities, and that’s where the puzzle elements come in. At The Voxel Agents, we’re all about beautiful, simple, crafted experiences, he kind of games that we played growing up. It’s no coincidence that our game is packed full of 90s childhood nostalgia. We’re super excited to be launching The Gardens Between on PS4 next year, and we can’t wait for everyone to play it. We’ve poured our souls into The Gardens Between, and we think you’re going to absolutely love it! http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/c3007da9ea47de843f4ef41dc8491b4ba566c5b6.gifThe Gardens Between is coming to PS4™Oct 30, 2017 - Community AnnouncementsWe're super excited to announce that The Gardens Between is coming to PlayStation®4 in 2018. To celebrate, we have a brand new Gameplay Trailer on YouTube. Unless you've been lucky enough to play the game at PAX - this is the first time we've shown off the unique gameplay that defines The Gardens Between. In this game, you don’t control the characters; in this game, you control TIME. http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/20fe6efb6206e00cd7911eaa597c6c12778fc203.gif I’m Matt, and at The Voxel Agents we’ve been working on this wild game idea for some time. Back in 2011, we had a concept for a game based on that scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise is scrubbing backwards and forwards within a memory trying to uncover clues. We built several prototypes around the idea, and one of those prototypes blossomed into The Gardens Between. The game follows two best friends, Arina and Frendt, who find themselves in this strange and surreal world of garden islands. As a player, you follow the pair and manipulate time to solve puzzles and uncover the gardens’ secrets. As you control time, moving it backwards and forwards, the characters can manipulate the world around them, changing the flow of cause and effect. http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/ca9adb6db2f9c61e829595df0c76574064cd2548.gif One of our driving principles during development was to build a game that anyone can play. We wanted The Gardens Between to have simple controls, to encourage stress-free exploration, and to tell a genuine story without text or dialogue. We strongly believe that games are for everyone, and The Gardens Between fits that perfectly. At its core, the game is about exploring, but unlike most games, where you explore space, in The Gardens Between you explore time. In some ways this is simpler. On a timeline you can only move forwards and backwards, but time travel is full of its own complexities, and that’s where the puzzle elements come in. At The Voxel Agents, we’re all about beautiful, simple, crafted experiences, he kind of games that we played growing up. It’s no coincidence that our game is packed full of 90s childhood nostalgia. We’re super excited to be launching The Gardens Between on PS4 next year, and we can’t wait for everyone to play it. We’ve poured our souls into The Gardens Between, and we think you’re going to absolutely love it! http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27924819/c3007da9ea47de843f4ef41dc8491b4ba566c5b6.gifThe Gardens Between is a surreal, time-traveling adventure about growing upOct 30, 2017 - PC GamerThe Gardens Between is a puzzle-adventure game about two best friends exploring a world of "beautiful garden islands." While wandering these strange worlds, they can move back and forth through time, enabling them to "discover each garden's secrets and, along the way, reveal a story about friendship, childhood, and growing up." It was originally announced for the PC back in February, but it was re-announced, so to speak, for the PS4 today at the Paris Games Week—and that means we get to watch a new trailer. The time-manipulation angle evokes memories of the indie hit Braid, but where that game drove me around multiple kinds of bends with its convoluted, oft-infuriating gameplay, developer Voxel Agents says The Gardens Between will be a "restful, relaxing experience" that's "free from language designed for accessibility." "Our goal is to encourage careful, mindful and stress free exploration throughout the game while providing in-depth puzzles and challenges," the developers said. "When making The Gardens Between we set out to build a world and tell a compelling story that players can connect to and understand, presenting a genuine and consistent universe that offers players of all age groups something to connect with on a personal level." Aside from the brief description above, neither the Steam page nor the site at thegardensbetween.com shed a lot of light on what The Gardens Between has in store. But it looks and sounds lovely, and the element of discovery is a big part of what makes games like this worth playing—and let's be honest, you already know whether or not this is something you're interested in. The Gardens Between is currently slated to come out in the third quarter (July 1-September 30) of 2018. And now, let us chill. Relax with The Gardens Between before it hits in 2018Jul 30, 2017 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunThis is my first look at pretty puzzler The Gardens Between , and it’s giving me vibes that are somewhere between Rime and mobile game Monument Valley. It’s a “surreal puzzle adventure” that’s arriving in early 2018, by the end of March, and three new long videos show off just how good it will look and sound. The music has come out of a collaboration between some impressive sounding people that I’ve never heard of (but you might have), including Grammy award winner Wally de Backer, aka Gotye, and Aussie pianist Luke Howard. The upshot is: it’s very relaxing, and it’s probably going to be my work soundtrack for the day. (more…)
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