Hi everyone 💚
The past few months have been big (and slightly surreal) for us, so here’s a quick update on what’s been happening with Garden Ink.
First off: Thank you to everyone who played and shared the demo during Steam Next Fest!
The response genuinely meant a lot to us and gave us a ton of useful insight moving forward.
We’ve been nominated for the DCP (Deutscher Computerspielpreis)!
The event is on April 29th, and we’re super grateful to be part of it. You can join the Watch Party on our discord for it!
We showed Garden Ink at several events, including Caggtus, and got to meet some of you in person. Which was really special. Garden Ink also won the best presentation award at MAG-C and best game at Baltic Games Fest!
A lot of the past few months were about iterating on what’s already there and reacting to feedback:
Minigames (Kite Game especially)
Improved flow and added a reward: if you find the little guys 3 times, you can place them as world objects.
More world customization
After unlocking the final biome, you can now move the ground itself.
City biome expansion
Added a lot more elements, making it feel fuller and more alive.
Ending & presentation
Added an end cutscene and a loading screen.
Audio
Added more music and sounds to round out the experience.
Polish
Ongoing balancing, bug fixing, and performance improvements.
If you haven’t tried it yet, the Garden Ink demo is still up on Steam 🌿
You can:
Explore parts of the first four biomes
Play around with coloring and merging
Get a feel for the overall tone and pacing
It’s still an early version, but it already reflects a lot of what we want the full experience to feel like.
Next up, we’re focusing on:
Expanding and refining biomes
Adding more objects and interactions
Continuing performance improvements
Iterating based on your feedback
The past few months have been a lot in the best way. Between Next Fest, events, and the DCP nomination, we’ve felt a huge amount of support.
If you have the time, don’t forget to check out the DCP awards! Join our discord to watch it together!
Thanks for being part of it 💚
~ Jess from Kranich Games