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lilithkismet rated Autumn

A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

This game is a little buggy and has been abandoned by the dev, so player beware.

You take on the role of a nature spirit who plants trees in the spring and harvests their energy in the fall. While you wait for the trees to grow and release energy, you can play a few built in puzzles which reward you with a philosophical/zen quote or teaching if you complete them. As you play the game you unlock new trees and items that can be used to improve your energy harvest or other bonuses. The artwork is simple but attractive. The background sounds are calming. I liked how the flowering trees changed through the seasons. the stone-stacking puzzle is simple and relaxing.

Other aspects of the game aren't very well executed, though. The sliding puzzles can be different levels of difficulty - the easiest difficulty isn't bad, but if you get an intermediate or difficult puzzle it's almost impossible due to a combination of no reference image, some of the tiles just being a generic background (if you  have two "sky" tiles and one goes on the right side and the other goes on the left side, good luck telling the difference or switching them when the puzzle inevitably won't register as complete), and the puzzle movement being weirdly non-responsive. Also, as you collect teachings/quotes, at least one of them causes the game to crash. After you unlocked that quote, you'll never be able to look at them in your inventory again without crashing the game.

Something that personally didn't bother me but which many people complained about this game is that there is no way to save. If you exit the game, you'll need to start a new forest. According to the dev it's supposed to have some death-and-rebirth meaning where the only thing you bring with you into any given instance of the game is the knowledge you earned previously (the quotes, teachings, and ability to place different kinds of trees or items will persist in your inventory chest across sessions). Many players felt like they put enough time and attention into their little forests that knowing they couldn't pick up where they left off really discouraged them from playing.

If you're interested in trying this game, I suggest you just ignore the puzzles and the quote/teaching collection aspect. Treat it like a zen water painting board or sand/rock garden on your desk.  Take a break by planting some trees, admire the way they grow and change, then be done.