Horticular News

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This. Is. Not. A. Drill 🚨
Horticular is officially available!

After 3.5 years of development and love, we're so excited to be able to finally share the full game with you! Whether you've been supporting Horticular from the beginning or you're new around here, every single wishlist, share, and demo play means so much to us 💚

For those of you who have played the free demo, there'll be a tonne of new features you'll notice in the full game, so we'll go over some of the highlights for you. Shall we jump right in?

New Game Modes & Difficulties

First up, you'll notice that there are new game modes now available when you're starting the game; you'll have three difficulty levels for the Story Mode, and you can now select three variations of Sandbox Mode, too: Storyless, Peaceful and Creative.

New Decorations, Creatures, and Quests

Naturally, Horticular has expanded from the tutorial - now you'll have the full range of creatures, decorations, and quests available to unlock in-game, so you might see a few new additions during your gameplay this time around!

Mod Support

You'll now be able to access mods for Horticular using an in-game editor, so you're free to create or download any mods you like to the game. This includes Steam Workshop support, so we've made it as easy as possible for you to share any mods you might create - or download those that you're a fan of. We can't wait to see what you create!

Twitch Integration

Streamers and content creators can now enjoy full Twitch Integration in-game, allowing you to incorporate your community even more whilst playing. Viewers will be able to use Bits to add their name to the naming pool for all incoming creatures and Keepers to the garden, as well as sending mail for streamers to receive in-game.

Full Controller Support

For those of you who prefer to use a controller over keyboard and mouse, Horticular has full controller support. This also means you can play on your Steam Deck!

And, finally, if it's been a while since you've played Horticular, don't forget we've recently updated our free demo to include lots of new features - go and give it a try if you're wanting a little taste of the game to refresh your memory ahead of purchase!

Don't forget you can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Discord if you want all the latest news, memes, and UGC we have to share!

pleasant new game about gardening is on the way out this week, with the gnomes of Horticular asking you to revitalize a wasteland into a nicely-sculpted ecosystem of plants and animals that can stand up to the decay of the corrupted world around it. The little game is an indie with some real scope to it for such a simple premise, giving you all kinds of aesthetic and magical tools to tweak your landscape and bring in inhabitants like new animals, plants, and eventually housing for the various gnomes that will aid your cause...
Read more.

Hey Keepers!

With Horticular's full release fast approaching (less than a week to go, ahhhhh!), we've decided to bring you a demo update to tide you over until the game launches on July 11th!

Keep reading for all the details about what you can enjoy in the latest version of the demo! Spoiler: there are a lot.

New Creature Tool
We're sure a lot of you will be excited for this big addition to the demo; we've now added a creature habitat tool to your toolbar, which will help you to build the correct habitat for the creature you're targeting, instead of having to rely on the overlay (although your creature overlay will still be available).

Story, Decoration and Animal Adjustments
We've made some adjustments to how the story progresses in the demo, which also means you'll notice some differences in the quests, which animals you have available, and which decorations are obtainable in the demo. We've given you some new decorations and animals too, so there's still plenty to do - this just makes it a little simpler to progress in the demo story.

Keeper Upgrades
Your Keepers are now better than ever at helping maintain your garden - especially when they've been upgraded! This should make handling any decay much smoother in-game, giving you a little more freedom to focus on your overall garden health. Decay has been overhauled, too, so you'll be very grateful for this adjustment - trust us on that one!

Major Polishing
Almost all of the UI and in-game assets have had an overhaul in this patch, giving a lot of Horticular a brand new look and feel. We're excited to see what you think!

Of course, there are lots of new QoL updates and bug fixes in this update, too. You can see the changelog below, and all you have to do to enjoy these improvements is update your version of the demo.

If you'd prefer to stay on the older version of the demo for now, you can do so by clicking on the settings next to Horticular in your Steam library, then selecting 'properties' and 'beta', then choosing 'beta3' from the dropdown list.

If you have been enjoying the demo so far and haven't had a chance to wishlist the game yet, please do - it helps Horticular massively in the run-up to launch, plus you'll get notified as soon as the full game is available to purchase on the 11th of July!

Changelog:

• Fresh lick of paint: Most assets and UI elements have had some polishing.
  
• Story adjustments: While most things remain the same, a quest or two have been replaced, and some aspects have been tweaked.
  
• Item adjustments: Some items have been moved to further in the story and have fallen off the demo. But there are a couple of new additions to look at as well.
  
• Animal adjustments: The game has a larger overhaul to animal habitats, and we've replaced the demo moth with the snail to match the story progression.
  
• New creature tool. Habitat planning can now be done with a bespoke tool to help you design habitats. This replaces the awkward overlay usage (but the habitat overlay is still there).
  
• New item selector grouping: All your yarrows now live in the same place.
  
• New contact page in the notebook that lets you see your contacts and their completion.
  
• New photo album viewer. Browse your captured screenshots from the game.
  
• Decay has been overhauled to be less annoying but also potentially more dangerous.
  
• Keepers are really good at their job now and even better when upgraded!
  
• You can now pause time in-game if you need to think a bit.
  
• There's a copy button that lets you copy the hovered surface/item without entering the catalogue.
  
• Rumble on gamepad.
  
• Curbs can be manually adjusted if you don't like the auto-selection.
  
• See names of creatures when zoomed out.
  
• TONNES of polish and touching up the experience. From bug fixes to QoL and performance boosts.
  
• BETA Twitch integration. Let chat interact with the game.
  
• More settings to tweak including Mouse Size and Alternative Fonts (latin languages).
  
• Automatic crash reporting: should the worst happen, you will get a prompt to send an automatic crash report.
  

I'm not sure if this applies in other countries, but in England we have this thing where you'll stroll down some random suburban street without a care in the world, and stumble on a house that has been absolutely overrun by garden gnomes. A house on which garden gnomes have either settled, like the avian hoodlums in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, or from which they have erupted, like the malignant mushrooms of Annihilation.

A hundred clay and plaster eyes catch yours, unblinking; a hundred figures seemingly freeze in the act of pushing a toy wheelbarrow or smoking a pipe. The tune you were whistling dies in your throat as you hurry past into the reassuring shadow of the relatively gnomeless bungalows to either side. Gardening sim Horticular is like that, but with an even greater sense of contrast, because it asks you to resettle a desolate planet. There is no generic urban scenery to hurry onto, here. There is only bare, cracked earth. And the gnomes.

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Hi again Keepers!

Phew...you might have already seen, but June was a huge month for Horticular! Not sure what we're referencing? Luckily, we've got another monthly round-up for you, so let's recap everything that's happened with Horticular in June!

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Launch Date Announcement 🎉

Yep, that's right - June was the month we officially announced our official launch date for Horticular! ICYMI, Horticular will launch on 11th July (this year)! If you haven't added Horticular to your wishlist yet, make sure you do so you're alerted as soon as it's ready to purchase.

You can read all about what's coming in the full release here, if you want to get even more hyped.



A Chaotic Mini-Competition

If you're following us over on Twitter, the fact that we've done another slightly chaotic thing on the platform...this time, in the form of an impromptu competition! We asked our followers to photoshop one of the Keepers into another game and got some...interesting results. You can see them here, or enter yourself to be in with a chance to get a Steam Key!
You've got til tomorrow to enter, so get photoshopping...

That's everything we have for you for June, but be sure to check back next month, after our official launch!

As of July, we'll be sharing some of our favourite screenshots and videos from your gardens in each of our monthly round-ups. Want a chance to be included? Be sure to send us your screenshots on Twitter, Facebook, or Discord if you'd like the chance to be included!