‘Tiny Garden’ by Ao Norte is a game with an interesting concept, and that, my friends, alone is commendable because thinking outside the box is rare.

There is a loose narrative attached to this game through letters you unlock as you progress. It is quite a touching little story of connection, attachment and finding value in things you would least expect. It wasn’t the most profound narrative, but I am glad there is still something there to connect your gameplay to a purpose as to why you are tinkering around, since no voice acting or dialogue ties it together, which is really unfortunate.

You are thrown into a situation where you must manage a micro garden inside a ‘Polly Pocket’ inspired toy. Much like the famous but trivial game of ‘Farmville’ of peak 2010 Facebook days, you must grow plants from seeds in different terrains, collecting your yield to unlock more and more produce.

The more product you produce, the more furniture you can buy for a quaint little home above. It is holistically very cute indeed, and I found it such a relaxing and cosy experience bunkering down to play for long stints of time.

Collecting a certain amount of vegetables will unlock things like items to put in your quaint little house, change the colour of your outside shell, add stickers, or even change the background atmosphere colour.

You start with the initial plot of land that you plant seeds in. Different seeds need different soils to grow. Some might need plain, simple soil, while others might turn soil arid like cacti, some might need pools of water like water lilies, and some might even need mud or marshes. The range of soils is very diverse.

To progress, you must have a certain amount of a particular resource. There are 7 collections with many types of seeds to be grown. These are grown by using the crank on the side of the capsule to cycle through the day. One crank, one day cycle.

Some items may take one crank, others more, as they interact with each other, so you need to plan your garden wisely. It is a cool little mechanic, and the trick is to organise your plot so you have all the elements needed to grow certain crops.

It is a nice little balancing and coordinating process, but it does get repetitive, and I wish there were more toy gardens of different shapes and varieties.

The visuals are very cartoony, whimsical, and cute. With bold lines and bright colours, it’s like the game slides between the pages of a colouring book. The pastels are instantly calming. The little garden features, furniture, and tools are quaint and charming, perfectly matching the toy-like aesthetic. There is a lot of customisation of elements in your toy house, which is commendable.

The music is not very memorable, and I had to even dip back into the game to remind myself. It is nothing special, very generic, but sweet enough to fit the themes. The sound effects are very basic, with pops of vegetables coming out of the ground and scratching of soil as you plant seeds into cubes of dirt.

Tiny Garden is such a comfort game, but it is very much a complete cycle of monotony. The inspiration is great on the surface level, and I did enjoy it for its calming experience, but I needed a bit more to dig into.

Written by: Stacey