Neat Corporation, the studio behind stealth VR game Budget Cuts (2018), unveiled a new VR project late last month called Garden of the Sea. The game, which puts you on a magical island where you tend to your garden, gather resources, and raise local fauna, is out now in Early Access.
Update (June 11th, 2019): Neat Corp have released ‘Garden of the Sea’ on Steam Early Access, pricing it at a very reasonable $6. It’s still too early to tell how the game will fare over the course its Early Access period, although 100 percent of user feedback on Steam thus far has been positive.
Check out the trailer below:
Original Article (May 28th, 2019): There’s no definite Early Access launch date yet, although Neat Corp maintains in the game’s Steam store page that it should be “soon.” (see update)
As somewhat of a departure from their development on Budget Cuts, which was done behind closed doors and released immediately to consumers, Neat Corp is aiming to keep Garden of the Sea in Early Access for less than a year from release, making it an iterative process with the game’s supporters.
Main Early Access features are said to include:
- Growing your own fantastical garden
- Sailing around in your boat
- Hanging out with the creatures living nearby
- Solving puzzles and challenges
- Feeding the birds
- Listening to the ocean
The full production game however is said to feature activities such as fishing, plant & creature breeding, new islands with more plants, recipes, puzzles, creatures, and unlockable quests.
Garden of the Sea is targeting SteamVR headsets such as HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
If you’re looking to get involved with Neat Corp’s next project, the studio has set up a Discord server (invite link), where you can get live updates on what promises to be a unique and whimsical gardening sim.