A mystery game of garden exploration — you are in a garden, or are you? Things have happened here, or have they?

''The Garden of Earthly Regrets'' was my entry for the 2022 Lindenbaum prize for short gamebook fiction, a competition for short, paper-based, interactive fiction.

This is a playable interactive version of the original. (If you'd like to see the original, it's available on the Lindenbaum voting page.)

Features

  • Short choice-based gameplay (15-30 minutes)
  • Multiple endings ... but user chosen endings (pick what you think you should get)
  • Solve a murder .... or a romance ...
StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(5 total ratings)
Authorsolipsistgames
GenreInteractive Fiction
TagsAtmospheric, Gardening, Mystery, self-discovery, Short, Singleplayer, Text based, Twine

Development log

Comments

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(+1)

This game had a weird sort of "dream like" feel to it. It's hard to explain, but as it's not a long game, I believe it's easier for people to experience the garden for yourself than for me to try explaining it. The great grammar within also helped a lot with painting the scenes. :)

Thank you! (Can’t believe I didn’t reply to this at the time). The dreamlike feel is definitely deliberate. In fact, the whole game might be a dream, or a visit to the afterlife, or something else entirely.