BuGarden New Demo Is Live!

After nearly two months of development,

we’re bringing back BuGarden with an updated demo!

This time, we’re really looking forward to hearing even more of your thoughts.

Alright, no more rambling — here’s what’s new:

We’ve added real-time terrain switching.

1. This demo includes three environments: the familiar grassland, a forest filled with large herbaceous flowers, and a swamp full of… slightly strange-looking plants.

   1. The forest should already feel familiar to many of you. As you collect rare variants, you’ll earn ⭐, which can be used to unlock new terrains — and grow even more chaotic, lively flowers. (We may or may not have been smiling like proud parents the entire time while making these animations.)

   2. It’s not just new plants and terrains, either. Based on your feedback about multi-tile plants, we’ve increased the available planting space in later areas, so you’ll be able to grow more “big boys” in the future. Seriously, who doesn’t love a giant pumpkin?

Different weathers added!

1. A lot of players asked: “What does the sun even do?” The truth is, earlier versions already had a simple light-based growth boost. This time, we’ve fully turned it into a weather system.

   1. Every keyboard or mouse input you make is converted into energy — forming things like the sun, moon, or clouds. Once enough energy builds up, they’ll appear and help your plants grow.

   2. We are trying to keep the skills simple and straight forward: speeding up growth, watering plants, or preserving moisture. This system is more of a small “response” to your idle inputs — something we personally wanted to add — and it’s not meant to be a core mechanic just yet. We’d really love to hear what you think about it.

Next up — our main star: the little snail, Xiao Nao.

1. After walking what feels like hundreds of miles around the garden, it has finally learned how to grow.

   1. You can now spend coins to upgrade its abilities, like watering more or moving faster. It’s trying really hard to be helpful. I’m emotional (?)

   2. On top of that, the snail can now equip one skill. There are currently four options: Care, Observe, Sow, and Beauty. No need to think too hard — just pick “Beauty.” Trust me. /side-eye

This update mainly focuses on implementing new systems and mechanics. Visual expansions like more pot appearances or snail customization haven’t been added yet — those are planned for the full release (and yes, there will be plenty).

So for this test, we’d really like you to focus on trying out the new gameplay systems.

We’ve also added and improved a bunch of smaller quality-of-life features:

1. Drag to plant / harvest is now supported;

2. Added rarity indicators for plant variants (visible in seeds, collection, and inventory);

3. Quick bar now shows your last-used watering can, fertilizer, and bug tool — all three at once for easier access;

4. Added a shovel to remove unwanted plants (currently grouped with the watering tool — we’ll refine tool layout later);

5. Improved UI interactions, including scroll-to-zoom in empty areas and dragging window headers; zoom can also be locked in settings to prevent misclicks;

6. Added minimize and “hide from taskbar” options — you know why /doge;

7. Reworked some sound effects and added new cues (like when plants mature) to make the experience feel more responsive.

That’s about everything important we can think of for now.

This demo will be available a bit longer this time, running until May 7. During the test, we’ll prioritize fixing issues based on your feedback. Once things stabilize, we’ll move on to the final major feature for the full release — the decoration system.

To make sure everything feels solid and complete, this will take a bit more time.

Before the full release, we’re planning to run one more playtest to cover the decoration system and overall experience.

That’s all for now.

P.S. Go plant some flowers! 🌼