Not normal at all, don’t let it lie to you gardening game Grunn is out now

rockpapershotgun.com:

I’m usually a little suspicious of anything that winkingly describes itself as “very normal”. It’s got Mental Baz energy to me. You’ve met mental Baz, right? He’s mental, he is! Has half a lemonade shandy with lunch sometimes, and wears one of those t-shirts that look like a tuxedo. Absolute mentalist! Anyway, after reviewing Grunn last week it’s thankfully far more interesting and creative than poor old Baz, who’s honestly just a bit shy and actually really nice when you get past the facade. Grunn just released today, and my high level tempter is that it’s a little bit like Outer Wilds, just with all the touching wonder replaced by spooky whimsy. Here’s a trailer:

“A gardener gets hired for maintenance work over the weekend. A simple task, but strangely some tools are missing,” reads Grunn’s Steam page. “The owner of the garden isn't around, and their house is off-limits. Perhaps new tools can be found in the mysterious town, or maybe some of the reserved townsfolk have seen them?”

Grunn is from Tom van den Boogaart Sokpop collective, who’ve done all sorts of wonderful bits, including Stacklands, which is just one of 100 games they’d made as of 2022. It’s really one of those less-you-know-the-better cases, but here’s a non-spoilery summary from my review:

Is Grunn for you? Well, do you like the feeling of doing things that took you a long time before, again, but really fast? Do you like weird and delightful discoveries? Do you like going ‘ah!’ really loudly when a mystery clicks together? Do you like dying in various ways and unlocking new endings and knowing to do things a little differently next time around?

I don’t think I’ve ever used one of those quote box things for my own words before. It feels opulent. Dangerous, even. Anyway, Grunn is great. Do check it out.