A pleasant new game about gardening is on the way out this week, with the gnomes of Horticular asking you to revitalize a wasteland into a nicely-sculpted ecosystem of plants and animals that can stand up to the decay of the corrupted world around it. The little game is an indie with some real scope to it for such a simple premise, giving you all kinds of aesthetic and magical tools to tweak your landscape and bring in inhabitants like new animals, plants, and eventually housing for the various gnomes that will aid your cause.
A Unique Blend of Strategy and Aesthetics
Horticular is a strange little game and a hard one to categorize, with the publisher describing it as somewhere between Rollercoaster Tycoon and Viva Pinata. I think that’s pretty reasonable, as there’s strategy here but not particularly tough stuff to tackle… unless you’re chasing the most optimal layouts and cleverest garden features while still aiming for aesthetic beauty.
From Demo to Release
Almost exactly a year ago, Horticular released its first demo. The game has come a long way since then, with many of the more pointlessly fiddly features streamlined out into something quite nice. There’s still a demo to try, and you can get quite a lot of time from it if you’re interested.
Developed by Robert Kaufman
Horticular is developed by Robert Kaufman, a Swedish indie, and published by UK-based Slug Disco Studios. You can find Horticular on Steam, where it’s set to release on July 11, 2024, and on horticulargame.com.