Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator news & patch notes

Dear gardeners, A small patch has been released today.

• Various bug fixing
• Fixing snips behaviour with roses
• Tools storage fix

Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Dear Gardeners! We want to thank you all for your patience on this long-time coming patch! Some of you may have already hears some whispers of our up-and-coming features through our Discord channel. Time goes by and we're still in awe of all your garden creations. You're all getting more and more creative, and we're proud of it! A great community is also growing on discord, so don't hesitate to join us and share your thoughts and creations. This is the biggest patch yet and contains some quality-of-life improvements we would not have been able to discover without the input from all of you.

Patch 5 at a glance:

• Save game back up system
• Plant limit increase option
• Sort button
• New flower inventory
• New cutting tool 'Snips'
• Holding down single transfer keeps transferring more items
• Information banner in the main menu
• Soft lock fixed when interacting with the customization board and credits
• Further fixes to climbing plants growth patterns

Save game back up system

After hearing the hardships and working with you to discover this issue, we have implemented a back up system that will keep a copy of the saved file in a different folder. No need to enable this it will run quietly in the background as you play. To access the save files enter into your file explorer (copy and paste): %localappdata%\GardenLife\Saved\SaveGames To access the backup save files enter into your file explorer (this will be dependent on where you game installation folder is located: “your_game_installation_folder”\GardenLife\Backups and the easiest way to get to the game installation folder is by right clicking the game in your steam library, Manage > Browse local files. When replacing make sure you take note of the save slot you’d like to replace and keep the file names first part. Remove all numbers after “arz”. For example to place the first slot in garden life save I would: Close the game entirely. 1. Enter %localappdata%\GardenLife\Saved\SaveGames into my file explorer. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/7e3f195d1888e5d7908e23287814a968b6b17bea.png 2. Locate the file to replace this in the back up system. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/be86fe174dfb5c7b688fdda8e818195e14a2eab2.png There are multiple back ups of each save game, you may have to try several before locating the one that has the correct save. 3. Copy the back up file and paste into the folder: %localappdata%\GardenLife\Saved\SaveGames {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/31c3a23bc538b9cbf6165219e2b14e2d21e2fddf.png 4. Delete the broken save file and rename the newly added file to match the broken save. (right click on the desired file and select ‘rename’) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/0b1c683c0385e6b74b519e3d1e4051b6d5b2dfa8.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/a7c582b121fa21147af1bae64027dd2217c780ab.png Launch the game and check the save slot edited.

Plant limit increase option for PC

You told us, we tested, and now introducing the ability to increase the limit on the amount of plants you can have in your garden. To answer the frequently asked question; why do we need a plant limit in the first place? The answer is simple, to save your PC performance. Not everyone has the same hardware, balancing the performance vs how many plants you want to have in your garden has been something we tested with the community on our discord. These tests were vital in being able to gather the information to make an informed choice. Now you will have the ability to change the option from medium (the original limit) to high. This comes with a warning, when placing plants your pc may experience some struggles on taking care of that many plants. Check to see if you’re experiencing a slow down or use a lower quality setting to see if this improves. If you have already planted more than the limit and would like to re-introduce the medium limit, simply select the option in the settings menu, quit to the main menu or travel to the village square, ending the day will not change the plants in your garden to the right limit. You will receive the excess plants back into your inventories, the game will decide which plants to take you back down to the medium limit. Remember you can always remove plants and get the seed back by using the shovel tool.

Sort button

The sort button, this quality of life feature now allows you to quickly sort items in your shed inventories. Holding down the button labelled ‘sort’ will automatically sort your items alphabetically (keeping the plant groupings). Don’t worry, we added the hold, so it is not instant! After seeing the efforts and stunning organisational skills you players have gone to we wanted to make sure this allows you to still keep the order you’d like.

New flower inventory

In line with all the helpful feedback received on inventory management, the flower storage was a community suggestion. When you enter your shed, you’ll notice some empty buckets. This is the all-new flower storage, the only thing that can exist in here is cut flowers and cuttings from your plants. Making an easier time on sorting through which cuttings you want to store for both requests and to complete the pavilion! After the update you can now only take flowers and cuttings out of the seed storage, they will stay where they are until you remove them. Once removed you cannot put them back in the seed storage from now on.

New cutting tool 'Snips'

The snips you can purchase from the shop for a price (in story mode or free in creative mode!) This new tool will allow you with just one cut, remove all flowers from that plant, freeing up that time spent searching for the exact spot and keeping the shape of your desired plant! Holding down single transfer keeps transferring more items When splitting a stack, when you hold the button to split this will tick up, allowing you to create larger stacks of items for delivery to whoever needs them!

Information banner in the main menu

A banner containing updates from our lovely publisher Nacon. This banner will keep you up to date with news and activities surrounding Garden Life, as well as new releases and promotions on other Nacon game Life games. Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Dear Gardeners, If you've been following us on our socials or if you're here on Discord, you've probably seen that we ran a "Spring has sprung" screenshot challenge back in May. In that first contest, the screenshot by "Purpleblob" was voted the most creative screenshot by all the fans! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/9daf7a0b7d4ee01ddb8820e0980545e41214b200.jpg You can join us on Discord and our Socials to participate in the next ones! Also, stay connected: new patch is coming soon! Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Dear Players, A new patch is now available! You'll see improvements to climbing plants and various unfinished quests, and the key binding will no longer be removed every time you restart the game or travel.

• Rebinding keys now saves on quit and traveling
• Description of DLC item and name "Flower Tower" is now updated to be correct
• Bug fixed for inconsistent requests with pictures and signatures
• Various requests have been updated to be completed as expected
• Climbing plant improvements

Thank you again for your patience. Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Hi, everyone! My name is Lorraine – I am a Game Designer for stillalive studios and was the Narrative Designer for Garden Life. Today I’m going to share with you a little bit about the inspiration for and development of the characters you can find in the game.

Robin

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/ed153b1dbb8bd2d9d863453f6037b8a2c389b42b.png From the moment they were created, we knew we wanted Robin to be the most connected character to the garden. We also knew early in development that we wanted to create a sense of wonderous magic, a sense of exploration, optimism, and excitement. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/26ef38cd72eb0cfbb9332f179d65ef728e6855ba.png Robin, being so connected to the garden and the world, had to feel those things as a way to invite the player to feel them too. Inspiration for such a character came from the positive aspects of characters in children’s adventure stories: Alice from Alice in Wonderland (which we were already very inspired by), Digory and Polly in The Magician’s Nephew, or Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/01224054af815ab3bf332ea70b1ccb6258a38990.png Growing up reading these stories, these characters were not just adventurers but daydreamers and optimists who saw aspects of the world other people didn’t – something that really became a core part of Robin’s identity and their drive to make the garden a place their friends could lay down their burdens for a while.

Leslie

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/c67958935ed31d54d2539a64c02748607a955a8c.png The inspiration for Leslie was incredibly easy. In 2020, I sadly lost my grandmother and hadn’t had the opportunity to honor her the way I wanted to, so when I joined the Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator team and learned there was to be an elderly female character of some kind, I didn’t think twice about injecting my memory of her into the game. Leslie quickly became positive and encouraging, and hopefully makes the player feel as though she has their back no matter what. Her love of toads comes from my Granma too, whose house is still full of frog statues and pictures from all across the world.

Laurie

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/97925cf8fa47afee43287be938386e1a1effe227.png Laurie was a difficult character to write at times. We knew from the moment we created Robin that they were going to be a ghost, which of course meant they had passed away. I wanted the player to interact with Robin’s loved ones to highlight what Robin wanted the garden to be, so it only made sense to include a sibling among the cast. Even in the cozy and largely joyous experience that Garden Life is, it felt wrong not to honor the pain Laurie must have felt at Robin’s passing, and that sadness made her stand out among the cast as “the saddest”. To balance that a bit, she developed a stoicism that I think has become a uniquely British stereotype: Keep Calm and Carry On. For Laurie though, this was drawn from the same place I draw from in times of trouble – not a need to be strong or tough, and definitely not just for other people’s benefit, but a wish to claim back some control against something that might otherwise spiral far more unhealthily.

Jasmine

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/1b2d9a9262e9c4552fe58c631ad0ef38205ac53e.png Jasmine is my favourite Garden Life character. She is bold, strong-willed, wonderfully creative and deeply passionate; traits I admire and see in a lot of creative freelancers in the modern age. They are, effectively, where Jasmine’s origins began: someone who has to work far too hard just to get by, even if she recognises that as unreasonable, but is still willing to give everything she has to everything she does. Perhaps it’s a bit of wishful thinking from me that she can do this without taking her foot off the accelerator pedal at any point, while also being a great friend to both Robin and Laurie. It should be noted too that her response to Robin’s passing is deliberately more proactive than Laurie’s, part acting as a tonal counterbalance and part validation that there are many ways to grieve.

Marcus

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/8310dd1f497329c47efb20f4351462b7fab2dded.png Marcus as a character didn’t have a direct inspiration. The foundation of his personality was built from a wish to give Jasmine a loving and fiercely dependable partner who was as driven and hard-working as she became over the course of her development. The icing on the cake of Marcus’s character was his love of magic, fantasy and the fantastical. The story he tells when you complete the dragon Pavilion statue (Nightshade, who is awesome!) is – once again – inspired by my Granma, who alongside her frogs had many a fairy, toadstool, or dragon statue in her home when I was growing up, just like Marcus’s.

Frank

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/6e6d77816103c969cb8188a7e709e313f81fc4a8.png Frank began his existence as a less hands-on Gandalf. He is probably the character who went through the most iterations over the course of development. I think this is based in the fact that his was one of the last concept arts to be created, and until we saw him, it was harder to nail his exact personality down. After that, he became an elderly uncle of sorts; always a solution to every problem, always an alternative way to look at a situation. We had long before established he would be very health-and-fitness focused and would run the local gym – when I saw his artwork for the first time, that almost became a playful subversion of audience expectations. Let’s be honest. He doesn’t look the part. And somehow that makes it all the more perfect.

Ema

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/2a63fbc9d6005c622c3fbff2c9fea5bc372dd081.png We had long loved the idea that one of the characters you could meet in Garden Life would be responsible for making some of the decorations you could use in your garden, but it was a while before that character became Ema. In a way, she is a narrative foil for Jasmine’s more chaotic youth, but she was originally more of a meta character than she developed into; the one character constantly questioning the slightly weird and fantastical elements you’ll find the longer you play the game. Tonally, that became less and less important as work went on, which left Ema a wonderfully simple character to write.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into the characters of Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator – they are a fun and quirky bunch who will long hold a special place in my heart. Of course, there is one more character in the game that I can’t and won’t take any responsibility for, and that’s you! I hope you understand when I say that Robin, Leslie, Jasmine, Laurie, Marcus, Frank and Ema cannot wait to meet you and are very excited to see what you do with the community garden. Much love, take care and – most importantly – have fun! Lorraine and the whole team at stillalive studios 🌼

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Dear Players, We're having a run at the moment! We've just set a new patch live with the following enhancements and fixes! You will notice things we got a lot of feedback on and we could pack into our short timeline. I hope you'll like it!

• Missing icon for 'keeping stock' tutorial mission fixed
• Dark and pale pink amaryllis seeds are now consistent
• Seasonal secateurs now cut with continuous behaviour and fixed SFX
• Time of in game day extended
• Time is paused whilst in a menu
• Crafting now uses items from inventory

Thank you again for your patience. Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Hello fellow green thumbs! Once again, we'd like to thank you for all your feedback. We're still working hard to try fixing the problems you may have, but it's great to see your stunning garden screenshots! Today a new patch is being released, fixing the bug when buying the winter fences and causing the game to crash. We are also adding the continuous cutting when you keep holding the button: no more spamming!

• Winter fence crash fixed
• UI crash when opening fast fixed
• Cat has run off home from the outside of the garden
• Holding the use button with the cutting tool allows for continuous cutting
• Additional rucksack slots are now functioning as normal in creative mode

You can expect more fixes coming in the coming weeks! Thank you again for your patience. Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Hello fellow green thumbs! Thank you for all the feedback on the Steam forums and our Discord server. We're gathering your input and ideas! Today we're happy to release our first patch for the game. It focuses primarily on issues you reported that block gameplay. Crashes, blocked flower statues, and also some additions we could add to the gameplay like a bigger bag. Read about the details below. Thank you for enjoying Garden Life and sending us feedback for the game!

• More bag space
• Fix to dragon floral statue so it does not block the throne statue
• Fixes to chinese Localization
• Video for steam deck now working
• Updated Size UI in the flower stand
• Stopped the summer tool sound in the distance when it's raining
• Replaced clock ticking sound in shed
• Moisturise me achievement fix
• Achievements now trigger after the end of the day
• Achievements now trigger that were gained / are gained in the market place

You can expect more fixes coming in the coming weeks! Thank you again for your patience. Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Dear Gardeners! While we're still working on the first patches, the first of which should arrive on PC this week, we'd like to tell you more about the technology we've put in place to develop flowers and plants in Garden Life. Enjoy your read!

Behind the scenes look at our flower growth system

It’s a cold day in November 2023. The developer team at stillalive studios in Innsbruck, Austria, are working on the release candidate of Garden Life. Garden Life is a cozy gardening simulator. A game about planting flowers, enjoying them grow and decorating the garden to your heart’s content. With a deep focus on non-punishing gameplay, a light story, and a stunning, animé inspired art style. At stillalive studios, we take pride in our expertise in simulation games and their underlying technology. As we started fleshing out the idea of a gardening game, we thought it should be easy enough for a company that has people with a degree in quantum physics. But could we create a gardening game that hid all the simulation complexity and love for data structures under a cup of warm tea on a cold winter’s eve? {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/7fafdc80fbcba51bb185f60ee276b70c67984ea3.jpg

Our Producer Is A Florist

It all starts with Kay, our producer. She’s the one that manages the Garden Life project at stillalive. Kay knows a lot about flowers as she was a proper florist in her past professional life. Putting together flower arrangements for festivities and weddings. For her craft, Kay won prestigious Gold and Silver medals at the world’s famous Chelsea Flower Show in London. This knowledge had to be put to good use in a cozy gardening game. With her on the team, we had one of the puzzle pieces down. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/1b3e4244febc918f3f9b70296135611c6212135a.jpg

Why Does Garden Life Need A Lot of Tech, Anyway?

Computers are not very good at randomness: the little quirks and irregularities that make nature so diverse and interesting. When artists create 3D models, the computer is always going to re-create those models exactly. Identical copies down to the vertex. We couldn’t imagine anything less cozy than a garden full of identical storm troopy flowers, growing in lockstep. And this is where our tech department set out to find ways of breaking these patterns. Adding randomness and quirks back into the cold determinism of computer processors. Flowers often only play a background role in games. With grass and flowers only being represented as quick texture shaders or 2D images to please peripheral vision. But in a gardening game, flowers are front and center. They need to look stunning. One of our design goals was therefore to make every flower look unique. So much so that a full garden of flowers would look natural, as in real life. No copies. No storm troopers. No tricks. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/393c18560db905f3abfae2627ae6c6db781c5056.gif Early tests from our plant growth system.

This Is Where Our Sim Background Shines

Looking at above growth animation it becomes clear our flowers are not static 3D models. Every flower model is generated on-the-fly. Follow the algorithm / recipe: - It starts in the ground, where the first stem segment is generated and grows. - When the segment is finished, a new segment is spawned. - The growth direction for the new segment gets a kick in a random direction so the stem does not grow in a straight line. - At every new segment and depending on the flower, there is a random chance that a leaf grows out of the stem. Or the stem splits up into 2 segments. - The more segments the plant spawns, the bigger the chance to produce the final flower at the top, finishing the growth process. - Depending on the flower type, the top gets another kick in a random direction for good measure. This simple recipe allows for so much variation and produces organic, beautifully looking flower beds. Every flower has leaves at different places. Some stems are shorter, some longer, with random variations in growth direction here and there. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/6ec56e6329c08ab6c7fcb04d7e90ba3638ae7675.gif Behind the scenes look at our flower growth system. To realize the variety of flowers we have in the game, every specimen has a slight variation of this recipe. How big and long are the stem segments? How straight, interwoven? How many segments can there be, determining the total height of a plant. And while sunflowers grow very tall and have one stem, Hellebores grow in small bunches, and Roses go all-in on the bushy, entangled structure. As mentioned above, computers are not very good at coping with randomness. While there are tricks to make hundreds of identical models run smooth on today’s GPUs, with high frame rates and all, it was a long and winded road to optimize performance for on-the-fly generated 3D geometry. We’re very happy with the outcome! Together with our animé inspired art style, Garden Life simply looks gorgeous and promises many hours of relaxing gameplay. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/3f914592b08e1e3e24b1be3e1f92267f7e6a1a00.jpg Our natural garden. Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Dear players, Today we have big news for Steam players: cloud saves are now available! If you play on two machines (PC/PC or PC/Steam Deck), you'll have now to choose the save you want to keep. Before making your choice, press windows + R on your keyboard and enter the following: %localappdata%\GardenLife\Saved\SaveGames, and copy/paste your saves to a safe place, in case you lose them. Be careful, the choice is final and irreversible. At the same time, we're continuing to pay close attention to all your feedback, and in particular to problems linked to crashes and various major bugs, and we're working on a first patch which should arrive shortly. Many thanks for your patience. Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Dear gardeners, In 2 hours, you'll be able to attend Nacon Connect 2024, our annual publisher conference bringing fresh insights on various games and unannounced projects. Garden Life will be present! Let's meet tonight at 07:00 PM CET (19:00 Paris time) / 10:00 AM PST on Twitch or Youtube. to know more. Don't miss the call! Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Dear Gardeners! Garden Life has been available for 5 days now, and we'd like to thank you for your incredible support. After months of development, it's just incredible to see the project come to life in the hands of players, and the team at Stillalive Studios or Nacon is very proud to see you enjoying and relaxing on the game! We've taken note of all your feedback on social networks, Discord and Steam. Naturally, we'll need to carry out a full analysis to see what solutions we can provide, and in what timeframe. We are looking into the most pressing issues like crashes first so you can play the game uninterrupted. Other feedback we have gotten and that we forwarded to our development team is: inventory sorting, pruning process, days being too short, plant limits and more. Note that a solution can already correct some crashes by forcing the game to launch with DirectX 11. Here's how to do it: - right-click on Garden Life in your Steam library - click "Properties..." - go to "General" tab - in the "Launch Options" field write "-d3d11" A FAQ is also available on the forum: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1915380/discussions/0/4340977379960931230/. We'll keep you posted on the progress of the fixes, but in the meantime, don't hesitate to share your feedback with us! Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Dear Gardeners! After hard months of development, Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is now ready to welcome you into its warm and colorful world. Whether you are a green-fingered expert, nature lover, or gamer looking for a new "cozy" world, you are sure to enjoy this game concept where nature and a passion for flowers take centre stage. Design your ideal garden with the variety of plants and ornaments available, and then expand it as you see fit using the various unlockable structures. Plant your seeds wherever you want, and set up pathways and decorations to create the ideal garden. Our specially developed growth simulation technology ensures that each plant thrives independently while adapting to its surroundings. There are over 120 plants (including color variations) and 245 ornaments to discover, allowing you to express your creativity. Check out the Launch Trailer on YouTube: Buy the game now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/

Frequently Asked Questions

For the full FAQ, check the FAQ post on our Steam forums. Be careful, the FAQ can contain minor spoils. What is Garden Life? Garden Life is a relaxing gardening game in which you create your dream garden in a peaceful, colourful world. Is Garden Life a real gardening simulation? No, we took inspiration from real life gardening and created a cozy game simulating the rewarding parts of gardening. Flowers bloom much faster than in real life and are not affected by changing seasons, even winter. Is the game Steam Deck compatible? The game is fully playable on Steam Deck, but some numbers and letters might appear small. Is a Mac version planned? There are currently no plans for a Mac version of Garden Life. Can I play with other players? Join our friends' gardens? Unfortunately, Garden Life wasn't originally designed as a multiplayer game, so you can't join up with friends or visit your friends' gardens. Is any DLC planned after the game's release? Two DLCs are available on all platforms. There are no current plans for further DLC content after the release, but we'll let the players if that changes in the future. You can susbcribe to our official newsletter to keep up with all future news on our website: https://www.garden-life-a-cozy-simulator.com/ How do I use the photo mode? When playing, the key to press in order to get access to the photo mode is displayed at the top of your screen. Can we date the characters? There is no dating in this game.

About your Garden:

Are there seasons in the game? Can you skip them? There are four seasons to experience in Garden Life, each lasting 30 in-game days. In the creative mode, they can be changed instantly. There are no adverse effects on the plants in different seasons, but you will notice different items in the shop, different customisation options for the garden fence, and a difference in the price of certain bouquets when you sell them in your stall. In story mode, you can't skip seasons. In creative mode, you can go into the shed and change the season by selecting the pictures just underneath the clock. Can I customize the decorations? There is a brush you can purchase from Leslie's shop that can change all of the placeable decoration's colors. How do we get new seeds and decorations? Seeds can be gained from a few ways: purchased from the shop, harvested from established plants, or given as a reward for a request or mission. How do we get new seed colors? When a plant is ready to harvest, you will have a small light (VFX) coming from them. This will indicate a new seed. If the VFX is green, the seed will be the same colour as the plant you are harvesting from, and if it is a pink, the seed will be a different colour as the plant you are harvesting from. In creative mode, all colours are available from the start in the shed. Can we extend the garden? Can we unlock the garden? How do I unlock the new zones? In story mode, play through the game by completing missions and requests for the characters. Once available, use the customisation board at the entrance of the Garden to unlock new areas. How do we know a plant can climb? Why is my climbing plant not climbing? In the plant book inside the shed: you can see the type of plant you have (normal, bush or climbing plant). Climbing plants are: Ivy, Clematis, Morning glory and Jasmine. Make sure you have placed the plant close to an item that has height (such as a trellis or fence). Cut the top of the plant and check back: climbers can be tricky to get to take, so regular pruning is required. How do I know my plant is infected? You will see a small cloud of black flies and hear a buzzing in the location of the infected plant. How to get rid of pests? You can get a pest removal spray for free in Leslie's shop. Can I move a plant? You are able to move plants with the trowel tool which you can purchase from the shop.

About the cats:

Can we pet the cats? You can pet two cats in the garden and one cat in Leslie's shop.

About the Village:

How do I get to the village? You can access the vilage by clicking on your bike, clicking on the Village Square sign, or walking to the end of the road. How to get rocks? How to get sticks? Rocks can be found at the start of your game in your garden and then, to get more stones and sticks, you will need to use the shop. You can craft large rocks into smaller ones at the crafting bench in your shed. Where can I sell things? How do I unlock the stand / stall? Can I sell my bouquets? In story mode, play through the game by completing missions and requests for the characters. You will eventually unlock a stall in the village's square where you can sell cut flowers and bouquets.

About the Greenhouse:

How to open the Greenhouse? Do I have to water my plants in the greenhouse? In story mode, play through the game by completing missions and requests for the characters. You will eventually unlock the Greenhouse by paying for repairs and garden cleaning on the board at the entrance to your garden. There is an auto-watering system in the greenhouse.

About the Creative Mode:

How to get new seeds? In creative mode, you have access to all seeds of all colours in the shed from the start of the game. Seeds can also be bought for free from Leslie's shop. Do I have to take care of my plants? You still have to take care of your plants. Is there a way to delete everything? There is no way to delete everything, but you can start a new save in creative mode. How to change seasons? In creative mode, you can go into the shed and change the season by selecting the pictures just underneath the clock.

You need some help?

How to report a bug? To report a bug, you can contact us here: https://garden-life.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Hello Gardeners, ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! ONE DAY LEFT! Last day of "teasing", you can have a look at the Village and the Flowers Pavillion! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/e3c322f6bcd8d098abc6d002cfa7017f6b747c03.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/3bd3686d16831f7df7da07ba125800e5fe68eb59.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/978d8a6e49d91c441797a364a8a008ae5158afc0.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/48be2c63d785ee89df53eef11b37420ddab60ff8.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/78ceb24cc39fcbdace2cd2e910cb6b97fe8c7c8c.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/72333945de6004d6c07c5b3d44eb6df341d941bb.jpg And finally... meet the team :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/6d5dc9b13c1924c174fe90839e95a50c3dc5960e.jpg

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator will be released on Steam on 22 February 2024!

Wishlist the game now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼 Join-us: Garden Life FacebookGarden Life TwitterGarden Life InstagramGarden Life DiscordNacon TikTok

Hello Gardeners, How exciting is that? 2 DAYS LEFT!! As we're really close to release, here are some brand new screenshots of garden decorations! Let us know what you think :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/9483ea4196cb2fc9e91ea8f1e77a451337766153.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/e13aa4b416db872152046e9e986ad6dcb0297207.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/f201cb74b3b244d9c101079e3223f22ab599e65e.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/bc90736619b587ae2268d3417e029152ba40bc16.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/8d39762dbd92b8ff5488365f31c220ec6897f373.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/f3e36f62d5f74b3e8245dcf66e539dc71fb0a252.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/f0bd98cdd2f2c62986d4af661eacf4221116fac9.jpg

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator will be released on Steam on 22 February 2024!

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Hello fellow green thumbs, The release of Garden Life is almost there, 9 more days to wait! Today, we are giving you a closer look to some missions or requests you can receive in the game. As you can see, requests can take several forms: either a character speaks to you directly, or you receive a postcard in your mailbox (the cards are ✨wonderfuuuuuuul ✨). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/fa6af125efa410f4b3cd3f6f6289a3f76886cf8c.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/5b0148184594aa7d0156774e9142e862e7201c7b.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/7502af068ad491e031d80ea4514b0615d0fe492c.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/20a130a95946ee33026409a03f84918e52d1cbbf.png

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator will be released on Steam on 22 February 2024!

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Hi gardeners! I’m Benedict, sound designer and composer at stillalive studios in Austria. Our latest title Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is a fun, relaxed, and charming game, and it was incredibly important to me to enhance the coziness with audio design and music. Sound design in games is important for two main reasons – informing the player of things happening (e.g. a button pressed, a backpack opened); and immersing the player in the game world alongside the visual style. With Garden Life being a relaxing, cozy game, the immersion and feel-good factor were the main focus for this project. When it comes to sounds triggered by player actions, there is a lot of variation in the sounds players will hear often. Even “simple” actions such as opening up storage containers can be made up of around 6-10 audio elements, all of which are randomized to never sound quite the same way twice. After all, hearing the exact same sound over and over again is a sure way to pull the player out of the experience!

Bringing The Garden Inside

As gardening is the primary activity in the game, and you play from a first person perspective, I started most of my design with a base of realistic sounds that you would expect to hear as you carry out gardening actions in real life – the movement of soil, the scraping and digging of tools, the sploshing of water in a watering can, and so on. The only way to get exactly what we needed for the game was to hit the garden centre and bring home loads of tools, soil, and ornaments to record myself! I set up a makeshift recording room at home, using blankets and mattresses to deaden the echo in the room. I made quite a mess, but luckily managed to clean it all up before anyone got home! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/3e70133a13b62f155f846212141aa11a8e24330a.png

Adding A Touch of Magic

Early in development, we decided that there would be hints of magic or fantasy in the game world. Perhaps there are spirits living in the nearby forest, or there are magical tools which couldn’t exist in the real world. Considering this, I would exaggerate some of the sounds to make them just a little bit larger-than-life, fun, or even fantastical. For example, dig up and remove a dead plant, and a sad, descending bell will jingle. It’s subtle but adds a lot to the cozy feel. From simple concepts such as player footsteps that change depending on the floor surface and the weather; to more crazy things such as the seed-planting sound that uses whooshy synthesisers, wooden rattles, and cowbells; there’s a lot of diversity in the game’s sound, ensuring that it never gets old and always sounds pleasant and fun! There’s a lot of hidden sound to discover, too – different locations in the village have different variations on the theme music that you can hear emanating from inside shops, and I wonder if you might notice something special if you have a collection of frog statues in your garden?

Mood Music

The music that accompanies you in the garden was the very first thing that I came up with for the game, and doing this helped set the right vibe throughout development. From the very beginning, the idea was to have many musical elements that are put together on-the-fly, so the tune never sounds exactly the same twice. And still you could always have an idea of what was coming up next, and follow the tune along in your head. Imagine having a friend sitting in your garden, playing a tune, but occasionally playing it a slightly different way – that’s the kind of relaxed vibe we wanted. To do this, I recorded loads of variations of guitar riffs, piano lines, ukulele parts, percussion measures… and stitched it all together in audio software called FMOD. Under the hood, this allows all sorts of real-time magic, like enabling different parts of music based on the time of day, weather, or at random. And disabling other parts completely. Making the music different with every playthrough. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/f2dade43b97f71ce01c40664d6187b2ae39b6c4b.png

Audio Systems Are Always Cheating

A cozy game is one that you can get lost in, where you can unwind and relax, and allow yourself to be surrounded by things that just feel good. To achieve this with Garden Life, I wanted there to be enough realism in how the sound reacts to you so that it was believable for the player, especially in the ambience and nature sounds. It’s unintuitive, but a 3D game world has no idea how sound works. That, for example, sound should be blocked by walls. On the other hand, developing physically accurate sound simulations would be prohibitive in terms of performance. And so sound designers always have to create clever little cheats to make games sound good. In Garden Life for example, you’re enveloped in the cozy sound of nature. But when you enter a building, the sound of the outdoors folds together and can be heard coming from the doorway - not all around you like before you entered. These little things make a big difference when navigating the garden, especially as you leave a building and smoothly hear the garden ambience envelop you. With more of these little tricks, moving around the garden, under the tree, and into buildings, especially when it’s raining, sounds natural and seamless. I’m really looking forward to seeing people’s reactions when they enter the cozy little shed, and hear the soft purring of the snoozing cat alongside the soft pitter-patter of rain on the wooden roof! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/1b591b708732f5728f0b09696d34b387b93a4dcf.png Working on the audio for Garden Life has been great fun. Being in control of both the sound effects and the music allows for some fantastic interplay between the two elements. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the game, and I hope you can feel the deep relaxing effect the sound and music has. Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Hello, Gardeners! Take part in an immersive and cozy journey where you will have to bring back to life a communal garden. Garden Life combines gardening, decoration, and an engrossing story to create a singularly cozy experience. Complete the many quests to access the greenhouse, an additional area of the garden and transform an overgrown forgotten plot into a flourishing community garden. Get ready to reveal the hidden magic behind each petal. Check out the Story Trailer on YouTube: Wishlist the game now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Hello fellow green thumbs, The Steam release is almost there! How exciting is that?! Today, we take a look inside Leslie's shop 🛍️🐸 In her shop, you can buy new seeds, as well as tools and decorations! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/6d1956659ed42bf37ee0fb0c074e3cedf3b7adb5.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/c73b4af0b0a916900e585269db6b9eda9d4356cd.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/f621c90303529d25a2978eea42e4e4fee1499e13.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/d09d31f8b75e9158da140fbebdbeb0950771b229.png Check out our latest trailer: Wishlist the game now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Hello, Gardeners! While Preorders are not available on Steam, both editions will also be available for purchase on Steam the day of release, at the price of 24.99€ | 24.99$ | 24.99£ for the Standard Edition and 29.99€ | 29.99$ | 29.99£ for the Deluxe Edition. The Eco-friendly DLC will be available free for anyone who buys the game during the first week after release. Check out our latest trailer: Wishlist the game now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼

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Hello fellow green thumbs, Who else loves autumn and winter? Isn't it the best time of year? {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/2d78ec37ba2a1858abfc7b5288c97f606044b22a.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/c10a05757bb6d3f1ecdeb3eef988fdd6ad154f67.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/b0b5b0dd607f29b56105a1c2044fe746d2f98b30.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/d827d0566fb49032da3f08f003251d4871049f5e.jpg

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator will be released on Steam on 22 February 2024!

Wishlist the game now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼 Join-us: Garden Life FacebookGarden Life TwitterGarden Life InstagramGarden Life DiscordNacon TikTok

Hello fellow green thumbs, Today we're unveiling a brand new gameplay trailer for Garden Life! Enhanced by a warm style and a gameplay close to real life gardening, Garden Life takes you into a soothing world. Surrounded by a comforting visual and audio environment, this game allows you to bring your garden to life by growing authentic plants such as flowers, shrubs and vines.

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator will be released on Steam on 22 February 2024!

Wishlist the game now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼 Join-us: Garden Life FacebookGarden Life TwitterGarden Life InstagramGarden Life DiscordNacon TikTok

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/cbe31ce2edf04954d6726b549c68d2ed133d27dd.png Hello fellow green thumbs, So many of you have been following us for almost a year now, so many of you have supported us by sharing all our posts, by being active on the Steam forum, and so many more have discovered the demo during the month of October! Today we've got some big news: we've got an official launch date!

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator will be released on Steam on 22 February 2024!

Wishlist the game now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼 Join-us: Garden Life FacebookGarden Life TwitterGarden Life InstagramGarden Life DiscordNacon TikTok

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/10937fdef3faeda8a1d1760d03e34e55c10cc2a8.png Hello everyone! First of all, we'd like to thank you once again for playing Garden Life during Steam Next Fest and throughout October. During this event, we were running a screenshot competition for which you were all very creative and original. Thank you all for your incredible entries! Here are the winning entries: FizzyFresh {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/6d59e2567159d8da6888dff19e904903c544f5ae.jpg Kayeia {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/c423e50a081d85a23e8b6485478b0afc72f859ce.jpg Hellbutt {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/876730df0302d57208ba75d780116755c7059887.jpg Cloud {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/2a3c4f7f4c9b4d41d24270393ebcac695126393d.jpg Pansie {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/20fb71b734f8737cb66043345478ad85d5cedf2a.jpg Congrats to them! The release date is approaching, for early 2024, so to make sure you don't miss anything, follow us on social media and add the game to your wishlist. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm wishes, The Garden Life team 🌼 Join us: Garden Life Facebook Garden Life Twitter Garden Life Instagram Garden Life Discord Nacon TikTok

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/7c101cc908fd7921a1eab411472faf1da07fc50a.png Dear gardening fans, Steam Next Fest came to an end on Monday and we're really thrilled that so many of you came along to check out the game! It was very important for us to be able to anticipate your feedback for the Launch and continue to polish the game! Some of the feedback you've given us has indeed highlighted optimisation issues on PC, and we're going to continue our work on this front and do our best to ensure that the game is accessible to as many people as possible. During Steam Next Fest, many of you whishlisted Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator, so we're very proud to have topped 50,000 wishlists! As for the screenshot competition, we're now going to deliberate and vote amongst ourselves to choose the 5 winners! We'll keep you informed here and on our social networks. Once again, thank you all for your creativity and participation! To thank you for your fantastic support, we've decided to extend the demo until the end of October! ENJOY! Warm wishes, The Garden Life team 🌼 Join-us: Twitter Facebook Instagram Discord Tiktok

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/91e3f76c3ae686bd582545470d5f91d96652917c.png Hello fellow green thumbs, The Garden Life demo has now been live for a few days, and we're absolutely delighted to see you all enjoying the game. As you know, we've also launched a screenshot competition, with prizes including physical copies of Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator and a bouquet of flowers from your nearest florist! You can send us your most beautiful creation on Twitter or Instagram using the #GardenLifeDemo or post it on our Discord server! For more information on the rules, you can read the first news here. Warm whishes, The Garden Life team 🌼 Join-us: Twitter Facebook Instagram Discord Tiktok

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43282354/fe171f0da9a464046cd02b3e502db47345e38bad.png Hello, fellow gardeners! 🌱 The demo of Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is available during Steam Next Fest until October 16!

PLAY NOW:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm wishes, The Garden Life Team 🌼 Join-us: Twitter Facebook Instagram Discord Tiktok

Hello Fellow Green Thumbs, It's now the time: the demo of Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is available from today until October 16! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/ Warm wishes, The Garden Life Team 🌼 Join-us: Twitter Facebook Instagram Discord Tiktok