▼ Not recommended
4 hrs
Garden Paradise (aka Poly Garden... never a good sign when a "developer" doesn't even know what their software is called) is not a game. Games contain meaningful gamelike interaction and game loops, which are absent in this software.
This is a pointless bit of software that lets you (badly) manipulate various low poly (and presumably asset flipped) objects on a grid. That's it. The UI sucks even more than the low quality assets. So yeah, move buckets and plants around randomly. You don't even get to choose which objects are generated so your "garden" looks ugly, and all you can do with it is look at it, so this is pretty awful. And they want YOUR money for this garbage.
For those unfamiliar with what actually makes something a game, a "game loop" describes the interaction and feedback a gamer has when playing a game. Tetris, for example, has a game loop where a random block appears, the gamer interacts with the block to position it, and then the game decides if that finishes a row or not, increases the players score if any rows were completed, then gives the gamer another block to position. Counter-Strike has a game loop where a player seeks another player, tests their skill against that player by shooting them or being shot, the computer rewards the player if they win, and then if the player survives, they repeat that loop. There's no loop here, no true interactive feedback. It simply is not a game, it cannot be "played".
This has misleadingly been launched in the "Games" section of Steam instead of the "Software" section. This is a common mistake for developers who are new to Steam, or don't understand the difference between games and software which isn't a game. It seems this software published incorrectly as a game is simply lack of experience/knowledge of the correct process.
Here's a link for the process to publish non-game software on Steam:
Steam Developer Help With Software Publishing
It's unfortunate this process was not known about/followed, resulting in a software application being published in the wrong place.
Publishing things which aren't games on Steam in the Games section as games is misleading to gamers and somewhat harmful, because it pollutes the Steam marketplace and takes away visibility and market exposure for genuine game developers who do the right thing and make games for gamers.
There are no gameplay loops in this software, no "gameplay", no meaningful game like interaction. It's a software application and as such has no merits as a video game for gamers. Because of this, I cannot recommend this non-game software as a game to gamers.
The poor quality of this software is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the software all-time peak player count was only ONE player. That's right, only one person ever played this at a time. When I played this for the purposes of reviewing it, I equalled the peak player count for the software. OUCH.
The only user activity occurs once or twice a month at most, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 120,000 real games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality software is to be expected.
So, should you buy this software? Is this one of the best of the 110,000+ games on Steam?
Garden Paradise has the almost unethical price of around $5 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality games on Steam.
For comparison, the $5 asking price for this software could get you real games like "Ark: Survival Evolved", "The Walking Dead" or "Just Cause 3". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
This is a pointless bit of software that lets you (badly) manipulate various low poly (and presumably asset flipped) objects on a grid. That's it. The UI sucks even more than the low quality assets. So yeah, move buckets and plants around randomly. You don't even get to choose which objects are generated so your "garden" looks ugly, and all you can do with it is look at it, so this is pretty awful. And they want YOUR money for this garbage.
For those unfamiliar with what actually makes something a game, a "game loop" describes the interaction and feedback a gamer has when playing a game. Tetris, for example, has a game loop where a random block appears, the gamer interacts with the block to position it, and then the game decides if that finishes a row or not, increases the players score if any rows were completed, then gives the gamer another block to position. Counter-Strike has a game loop where a player seeks another player, tests their skill against that player by shooting them or being shot, the computer rewards the player if they win, and then if the player survives, they repeat that loop. There's no loop here, no true interactive feedback. It simply is not a game, it cannot be "played".
This has misleadingly been launched in the "Games" section of Steam instead of the "Software" section. This is a common mistake for developers who are new to Steam, or don't understand the difference between games and software which isn't a game. It seems this software published incorrectly as a game is simply lack of experience/knowledge of the correct process.
Here's a link for the process to publish non-game software on Steam:
Steam Developer Help With Software Publishing
It's unfortunate this process was not known about/followed, resulting in a software application being published in the wrong place.
Publishing things which aren't games on Steam in the Games section as games is misleading to gamers and somewhat harmful, because it pollutes the Steam marketplace and takes away visibility and market exposure for genuine game developers who do the right thing and make games for gamers.
There are no gameplay loops in this software, no "gameplay", no meaningful game like interaction. It's a software application and as such has no merits as a video game for gamers. Because of this, I cannot recommend this non-game software as a game to gamers.
The poor quality of this software is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the software all-time peak player count was only ONE player. That's right, only one person ever played this at a time. When I played this for the purposes of reviewing it, I equalled the peak player count for the software. OUCH.
The only user activity occurs once or twice a month at most, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 120,000 real games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality software is to be expected.
So, should you buy this software? Is this one of the best of the 110,000+ games on Steam?
Garden Paradise has the almost unethical price of around $5 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality games on Steam.
For comparison, the $5 asking price for this software could get you real games like "Ark: Survival Evolved", "The Walking Dead" or "Just Cause 3". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
Profile Features Limited!
Valve have marked this software as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the software (to date). Until this status changes, this software will not give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying this software.
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