Developer: Campfire Studio
Publisher: Campfire Studio
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Dream Garden – Review
What defines the “game” part of a video game? It’s a question we found ourselves asking as we were meticulously raking the digital zen garden we had just finished putting together in Dream Garden. On paper, Dream Garden barely qualifies as what most people would consider a game. There is no high score to beat here, nor is there a story to complete or puzzles to solve. Yet somehow, time flew by, and we found ourselves mesmerised as we played -no, interacted– with Dream Garden. How can something so simple, so… basic even, capture our imagination? We’ll do our best to explain exactly what makes Dream Garden such a special little… game. (Yes, we’re still going with that for lack of a better term.)
The idea behind Dream Garden is deceptively simple: all you need to do is build the zen garden of your dreams…. Or don’t, as the game doesn’t really expect you to do anything. You’re simply handed the tools to create and left to your own devices. Dream Garden doesn’t even have an in-game tutorial, although you can consult its manual at any time. Not that the game needs to provide a lot of guidance: everything is intuitive and accessible, and if you do happen to “screw up” you can simply start over. This creates an interesting conundrum in and of itself that fits perfectly with the game’s carefree philosophy: on one hand, mistakes don’t matter, as you can erase your zen garden on a whim. On the other hand, every decision you make is the most important thing at that moment, as you are creating your garden for yourself. There is one element here that might indirectly alter that perception, and that is that the game has Steam achievements. We can’t think of a game where these feel more out of place, and we’d even say that achievements actively go against the spirit of the game.
In theory, you could see everything there is to see about Dream Garden within minutes, but the possibilities are nearly limitless. Creating the perfect garden takes time as well as minutiae and that’s kind of the point. The tools at your disposal allow you to shape the terrain of your garden, paint different textures on its surface and place objects -including buildings and animals. You can change the seasons and watch your garden get covered in snow or rain. You can carefully rake the sand, creating different patterns. You’re in control of this tiny, pocket-sized universe where no bad things can happen. It’s a satisfying exercise in mindfulness, and a fantastic tool to relax and decompress after a stressful day.
Of course, in order for Dream Garden’s illusion to work as well as it should, it’s essential for the game to look and sound the part. The layouts and designs of individual gardens are up to you, the player, of course, but the game provides you with ample elements to compose the garden of your dreams. There is a wide variety of trees, plants and rocks as well as buildings and wildlife, all rendered in a pleasingly stylised-but-realistic manner. Dream Garden’s audio ties it all together, with natural ambience and tranquil music. You don’t just build your garden, but you compose its soundscape as well, as the sounds of nature match what you put in your garden.
We won’t deny that Dream Garden achieves what it sets out to do -and masterfully so, we might add- but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some minor room for improvement. The water mechanics, in particular, are a bit underwhelming as well as underexplained. We were initially looking to find water among the terrain texture brushes, but as it turned out, it was a simple matter of lowering terrain: any gaps you create are automatically filled. Still, having the option to add small streams or even waterfalls would have been very welcome, if only to add the sound of flowing water to the soundscape. Our biggest wish here for the game, however, would be to see Dream Garden make the jump to Switch 2 or mobile. Being able to tend to your garden on the go, anytime, anywhere, would really elevate the experience even further. Even then, there are worse ways to spend €7.99, even if your pocket zen garden is locked behind your PC.
Conclusion
We didn’t find the answer to our initial question about what makes a game a game in Dream Garden. The core experience is built around what bigger games would essentially consider a terrain editor, but by boiling everything down to just that, Dream Garden ends up feeling much more substantial than what you’d expect. This is the kind of game that shouldn’t work as well as it does, one where the sum is greater than the individual parts and one that you should absolutely give a chance.
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