The Garden Path, an Indie Game for Peace
There is a new hype in the video games industry, games for relaxing. It is quite usual for people who work 9 to 5 to come home with lots of stress-energy. So, many games have been developed over the years to help detach from work.
Recent studies have even approached to say that gaming is more effective in releasing stress from work than the mindful apps available at any mobile OS store.
A mindful game should have the ability to hook a person quickly and allow them to save the progress automatically because its players need the freedom to stop playing whenever they feel it. You can imagine that the best moment to play this kind of game is during the commuting or right after coming home. So, open-world games are not a good fit for this category because it may take time even to start a mission.
Bearing that in mind, the indie developer carrotcake created the game The Garden Path to be played when you wish at your own pace. The game will have missions and stories that can be continued later.
The sensation while playing The Garden Path will transmit a tranquil and reflective aura of quiet moments of real life. The Garden Path's primary mission is to grow a garden while seeing stunning visual designs made with the prominent hand-drawn aesthetic of a well-done indie game.
The soundtrack will be critical during the play, transmitting calm and stillness. It will come with the sounds of plants and animals of the wilderness to add a welcoming stay sensation. The game doesn't have a release date yet, but it was announced for Nintendo Switch, Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
I discovered the game because Xanaphia read a lot about work post-work recovery and learned about the mindful games.
Xanaphia's sister works in a multinational Swiss Bank in Geneva, and she is with all the symptoms of burning out with emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and acting cynically. Her therapist recommended a couple of apps to recover from the long working hours, but they didn't work. Finally, they tried the new so-called mindful games, which gave her a better relief.
As for The Garden Path, I paid for the early bid game and am looking forward to the Nintendo Switch version. I hope I don't need it to cope with burnout stress.
Xanaphia has been acting strangely recently, and I am sure it is not because of her sister's situation. It seems like she is hiding something from me. I hope she is not considering leaving Luxembourg or anything like that. Her company has been great during the last few months and I have seen an improvement in her Luxembourgish skills. Maybe she can join the Luxembourgish speakers-only Dungeon and Dragons club next year. I hope I'm wrong and it's just my mind imagining foolish things.