Partners in time

The Voxel Agents is cultivating a curious, time-bending fable about childhood friendship

The Gardens Between is a fable about childhood friendship

Growing up is a kind of time travel – a very slow, awkward kind, sure, but time travel nonetheless. That might explain the surreal premise of The Gardens Between, a puzzleadventure game set across several vibrant garden islands. “We took aesthetic cues from landscape garden design, as well as contemporary illustration and photography, to create a visual language that juxtaposes natural and unnatural,” says Josh Bradbury, designer and animator.

Outsized items litter levels – a tower of Jenga blocks here, a walkie-talkie there. “The oversized objects are crucial to the storytelling,” explains Brooke Maggs, writer. “They add to the wonder and whimsy of the world and are integral to Arina and Frendt’s friendship, because the gardens are formed by their shared memories.” Moving forward and backward around the spiral path of each islet alters time to solve puzzles. “It was important to our art style and world that we didn’t go too hard on any sci-fi or ‘digital’ imagery when we were representing the flow of time,” Bradbury says. “We settled on a directional ‘time ripple’ effect that subtly distorts the edges of the screen.”

There’s a very real, relatable story at the heart of this time-warping tale, which releases next year on both PC and Mac. “It’s rare to see stories about the formative friendships of our childhoods,” Maggs says. “We wanted to tell a story about a boy and girl being friends, rather than sweethearts or siblings, and have moving moments to do with them growing together, rather than one rescuing the other.”