Manifold Garden

Almost perfect. I loved my time with Manifold Garden; it immediately clicked with me. Games aren't movies or books, they are their own thing and this is a journey that could only be experienced in a game, an attribute I increasing value. This is not a purist puzzler, the puzzles are only part of the point and therefore easy, though still worth admiring for their creativity. The game is easy because its Escheresque world is there not to be studied, but to be experienced; as you see, hear, and move through it, the game provides a banquet for the senses. I spent most of my time with an underlying feeling of awe. The penultimate puzzle, and final section in general, was disappointing. I was hoping for something a little more inspired right at the end. The game is also too expensive for what it is, but goes on regular enough sale, during which I highly recommend you try this out.

It's a first-person puzzle game with giant levels and slow run speed. It's pretty simple and easy, unless you want to get the last achievements. But its USP is the infinitely tiling levels in all three dimensions. So while you do the same basic old puzzles, they do feel fresh. Tho, there's one moon logic puzzle, but when i looked it up to know what i'm even supposed to do, i completed the rest of the type easily. The art-style is similar to Antichamber even including the simple colours and black goo, but in this game it is all unified. Tho, the stupid kaleidoscope cut-scenes are stupid. And you can't even skip them, after they finish they do not end until you press and hold a button for a very long time. It's almost great, but there's plenty of minor or not bugs —things not triggering, objects not spawning, cubes disappearing, water fiddling. And the worst of all you can get stuck inside objects and the game will save you there, instead of at a nearest checkpoint. The only way to get out is to noclip, re-save, and then re-launch the game to restore achievements triggers. You cannot jump, and you can get stuck on tiny ledges, lower than the usual stairs you use. And when you carry a black cube you cannot change the rotation. If you had jumps and even better, rhythm-jumping, that would also help with level-designer's gigantomania. If you are trying to keep the rhythm to go faster — your every step is gameplay, instead of a walking simulator press [W]. It feels like the sizes can compete with Kairo and Chaser. It doesn't overstay its welcome, even if the ending is a bit dragging, with even bigger levels you have to traverse on foot. It's almost great, almost.

I was looking forward to playing this but even playing continuously for 30 mins gives me nausia and motion sickness. This game is primarily you moving around and falling in a void like world. you are constantly searching around looking for where to go which is a bit exhausting for the brain so brain is getting stressed a little but for long time and fatigue accumilates. I haven't completed this game but the puzzles are decent really wanted to complete but not while feeling motion sick and feeling like puking.

a gorgeous game that changes how you think about moving through a world. everything is a floor. everything is a ceiling. i wish the team had gone further with the puzzles and i cannot understand why the "difficult" tag is on this game. the ending was also a little anticlimactic to me (but how do you even end a game like this?) basically, portal if it was on lsd.

A stunningly beautiful puzzle masterpiece. Play this game if you want to feel stupid and feel awe inspired while tripping over your own brain.

This is crazy ! It's an infinite Escher nightmare you will be pleased to try ! The level designs are awesome and the geometries do get your brain on fire. Thank you very much for this game !

A fun, relaxing puzzle game that I occasionally revisit to both do it all over again AND to chill at the gardens I helped restore. Only nitpick is the "dark clouds." They're not needed at all for story or gameplay reasons & feel like *insert corrupted element here.* Besides that, highly recommend to all you puzzle patrons out there (and free falling fanatics)!

This game was incredible! At first I felt very disoriented (which probably won't happen to everyone but I'm not particularly good at visual-spacial thinking). I spent somewhere around 15 minutes just wandering around the first level trying to understand what was going on. I had to get used to thinking about a world in which there exists no concept of consistent orientation (i.e. there is no sense of up or down). However, as I started to progress through the game it began to be very relaxing. The puzzles were never very difficult logically, and the main challenge was often just wrapping my mind around the geometry of the level from different directions, and thinking about what the non-euclidean mechanics allow you to do that you couldn't normally. All throughout though, one of my favorite things was the visuals. The game was breathtakingly beautiful, and I frequently paused to take advantage of the photo mode, which is a great feature! Extremely well executed game that blew me away!

[b][h1]A brief description:[/h1][/b] Manifold Garden is a surreal puzzle game where you solve puzzles by changing and reshaping the rules of gravity in an “Escher-esque” world of folded, patterned, “impossible architecture” (to borrow the words from its Steam store page description). The premise of the game is that you are solving a series of puzzles to restore a “garden” that seems to be placed at the “center” of the game’s world - if there is such a thing in an infinite, bottomless space. There are [spoiler]7[/spoiler] levels - or “gardens” that you must restore - for you to play through. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3519504507 [b][h1]Why I [b]do[/b] recommend it:[/h1][/b] This is easily one of the best “pure” puzzle games I’ve played over the last few years. If you are a fan of games like Antichamber, Portal, and other puzzle-forward games (what I think of as “pure” puzzle games) like Gorogoa, Paper Beast, and The Room game series, you will enjoy Manifold Garden. It’s a short game and I wish it had been longer, but the “Escher-esque” world in which you play the game is an amazingly innovative puzzle-gaming experience. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3519504559 [b][h1]The Good:[/h1][/b][list] [*] Unique, surreal puzzle-gaming experience [*] Music is subtle but excellently appropriate for the “feel” of the game [*] Controls are super easy to pick up on and navigate [*] Like all of the best puzzle games, Manifold Garden “teaches” you what is possible (and what is not) using a “show, don’t tell” method that lets the player organically figure out how the world works [*] It has just the right balance of difficulty, though of course your mileage may vary [/list] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3519504537 [b][h1]The Bad:[/h1][/b][list] [*] The game is on the short side, so the game can’t teach you very many skills or “rules” for the puzzles. This can make some of the puzzles a bit too simple (in my opinion) [*] There is no in-game “hint” system, which is fine, but there are also very few guides for this game. At the time I’m writing this, there are no (as in: zero) walkthrough guides available. If you get stuck on a puzzle, your best bet is to look up a playthrough video on YouTube. [/list]

A puzzle game in which you manipulate the direction of gravity. It is very abstract at times and it can take a while to travel between puzzles. I would rate this as "Meh" if I could.

Very cool game that deserves more attention. I wish there were maybe 1-2 more mechanics but what's here is a lot of fun and really trippy in a good way.

Absolutely beautiful game, highly recommended. If you like games with puzzles, gravity, fractals and a liminal space feeling, this one is for you. It has similar vibes to Kairo, Antichamber, NaissanceE, so if you played those games you'll love Manifold Garden. If you didn't play those games, play this one and them too, they're lovely.

This game is amazing, clever, and relaxing. If you read my comment, please consider making a sequel or another game developed by you and your team. Thank you.

Almost a perfection - I love puzzle games and I've been eyeing this game for a few years now, great concept of infinite area! A few parts were challenging, which I very much enjoyed, and the game is visually simple yet stunning BUT Would recommend it on SALE, game seems a tad short for a full price, at least for me (finished it in like 2-3 hours with afk moments); don't play if you get nauseous easily, or can't do with puzzles that have no guidance on what you're supposed to do

Fun puzzle game. It's a bit short (took me 3 hours to beat) but i love the whole McEsher type of puzzles.

Do you know a video on YouTube called Aleph-0 by Optie Animation? No? Then check it out, it's cool: [url=https://youtu.be/6WsM9ExX7Bg?si=jj0CVwfziqVv6vTd]The video link (trust me, it's not a rick roll)[/url] Do you know the video or already watched it? Then let's continue the review: This game is like a videogame form of that video. Optical illusions, trippy effects, music giving you this otherworldly vibe, gameplay making you forget which way is up and which down. This is a game more about seeing all the views, falling infinitely many times. Taking a few screenshots. Yes, you have puzzles [strike](it's a puzzle game, what did you expect)[/strike] but their difficulty is pretty low, i think anyone could do all of them. EDIT: Turns out there is a lot of secret paths that require so much thinking i don't think those are possible to be all done without a guide. Using those paths allows you to do a 0% run where you don't complete any levels. If you liked the game i'd recommend doing this too. So if you are looking for a puzzle game, maybe this will be for you, maybe not. But if you are looking for a game with unique style, breathtaking views and trippy gameplay: this game is 100% for you. I highly recommend it.

Game is great, puzzles are interesting and fun to solve. I just can't play it as much as i like because the core mechanic of rotating the room makes me really nauseous. So make sure to turn on instant animation. Although even that doesn't really help. 5 stars, would absolutely recommend!

Astounding visuals. Several times I found myself taking a break from solving a puzzle just to stare at how beautiful the level design is. If you've ever wanted to climb into an Escher painting, play this game. All of the puzzles feel great to solve as well. Even for ones that are fairly obvious, it's still so satisfying to see everything come together. If you like trippy puzzle games like portal and antichamber, play this game.

Barring the odd spike in difficulty and occasionally getting lost, 'Manifold Garden' deserves high praise for its level and game design. It's also ridiculously pretty.

I’ve played hundreds of puzzle games, and this is hands-down one of the best. The mind-bending journey it takes you on is surreal. Just when you have a handle on one mechanic, another is there to tease your brain. You have NOT played a game like this before. It's a one of a kind experience like Journey. It's weird, beautiful, frustrating, and enthralling. Loved every part of this one and will playthrough again. If you read this whole review, you have waited to long to buy this game. :)

An amazing puzzle game that will really test your thought-processing. Incredible visuals and sound design. Highly recommend.

honestly, so beautiful. Everything; the concept, the puzzles, the design and effect, the music. everything is just on point and so good. Although i think 20 bucks for a game that takes roughly 6 hours to beat is a bit high, considering theres games (for example Hollow Knigh, which took me 100 hours to beat and costs $5 less) that are a bit bigger for a lower price. I still think its a great game and you should definitely get it when its on auction :) and btw, the ending was absolute cinema

A cute lightweight puzzle/walking simulator game with beautiful visuals, I recommend this game for the experience of looking at all the beautiful scenery, not so much the puzzles themselves. Most of the puzzles were alright, at times intriguing, but I felt that there was a profound lack of mechanics that this game missed the potential to use. What about a cube that goes in all 6 directions? How about a special type of floor that you can't walk on? Maybe some more utilization of moving platforms, make it so you have to move with them? I have no idea how this game was made and I think that's the most interesting part about it. You have to be so focused on 3 dimensions when making a game like this for it to work, and the devs did a really good job at it. But mechanically, most of the time I felt like I'm just walking the answer is almost obvious or can be stumbled upon easily, most of the puzzles didn't require that much thinking to solve, and I feel like that's a bit of a miss for me. The purple and orange levels were especially underwhelming, because they didn't teach me anything new, and they just ended really quickly - which is sad, because that's the point of the game where usually devs would start mixing mechanics around to create some really interesting puzzles and complex solutions. TL;DR - I enjoyed this game so I recommend it. But not for the puzzles.

Dude this game is so mind-bending, I love it! The visuals are stunning, the art style is incredible, and the main gameplay mechanics are quite riveting. It never really got tiring like some puzzle games do (*cough cough* the witness *cough cough*) and was honestly such a fun playthrough. The secrets are also awesome, but quite complex, so I had to look up a guide. The only gripe I have is that it felt a little too short, especially to 100%. I'd suggest waiting for a sale for this one, but I definitely recommend!

creative, stunning, and trippy at times, solid puzzles with a comfortable difficulty curve

One of the most abstract games I've played till date. Honestly the infinite toroidal landscape make many places look beautiful. It's funny how after playing for a while you get 'used' to the non-euclidean world; changing gravity, warped space to different areas, mismatched inner and outer dimensions of rooms. It's amazing how the progression of learning how to deal with everything is done. The lack of death and easy to reset areas make the game far more user friendly to explore and think. The difficulty is also just right for casual relaxing game play. I've seen other comments asking for harder longer puzzles but that will 100% alienate the audience who aren't hardcore puzzle solver. But seriously the 0% god cube route is one of the craziest difficulties in the game, both in guessing the route like the narrow space in the white ceiling and water redirection to solving puzzles like the unseen sphere movement. It's also fun how the clues were there all along in normal route such as doors you don't use or areas that lead to others for no reason. Outside this the only mistake I did was forgetting the blue god cube at the start and getting lost in the fulcrum of the garden till I looked up the way back. Anyway amazing dedication to whoever did the 64 possible combinations of endings.

I love this game. It is relaxing, fun, and intuitive. To the Developer: Thanks! Please make more!

While the puzzles are somewhat easy, the Garden is so beautiful to explore and look around at that I recommend the game regardless.

Visuals are always stunning, there’s never a moment where you’re not in awe of what’s on your screen. Puzzles are simple but are able to keep the gameplay fresh. 7.5/10. would be higher if the puzzles were longer and more challenging.

This is a fascinating game! The puzzles are on the simpler side, but the visuals and fascinating way in which you change the orientation of the world makes this well worth getting.

One day, Monument Valley, Antichamber, and Portal got drunk at a bar and had a threesome - and that's how the absolutely brilliant and quite literally endless Manifold Garden was born.

This is game is absolutely visually stunning, with a fantastic art direction, incredible world design, and is a technical achievement by the developers with the infinitely replicating world that they've built here. The sound design is also very good. However, I would not recommend this game to anyone who does not really enjoy puzzle games. The gameplay here basically revolves around solving puzzles in different rooms or spaces by manipulating gravity, in order to activate switches in a number of different ways. Those switches open doors which lead into new areas, and presumably continue to do so until you beat the game. I do not have a lot of patience for puzzle games, in fact I don't really even enjoy solving puzzles in games that aren't explicitly about solving puzzles (like in the Resident Evil series). Alas, I'm less than three hours into the game, and I'm already stuck on a puzzle where you have to manipulate gravity to move a ball through a glass tube, without being able to see where the ball or the tube actually is, because it is hidden behind a wall that you have no way of getting around, so you are basically just guessing where the ball is, and how you have to manipulate gravity to move it around, with no real idea of where the ball is supposed to be going, or where it even actually is going aside from with sound cues which are not very helpful, at all. I tried to find a guide online on how to beat this puzzle, in order to continue the game, and as it turns out, apparently this puzzle which I somehow stumbled upon in my first playthrough of the game is in a hidden room, and also requires you to have made progress in another area of the game, in order to access a third hidden area, which leads you to the outer exterior of the puzzle room, where you can actually see the pipes, in order to map them out and solve the puzzle at a later time, once you make your way back to that area... even trying to explain it is difficult, and I think that's kind of what the game developers were going for. I had to look up multiple playthroughs of the game to find a video that even references the puzzle I'm talking about, because it apparently is not required to beat the game and is considered a secret, additional area which leads to who knows what. I then tried to find my way out of that room and I couldn't. I honestly can't even remember how I found my way into the room to begin with, because I spent over an hour trying to roll the ball around until I eventually just got frustrated and gave up. From a reddit post I found which discusses this puzzle, someone wrote: "The other side is accessible by a different route though, so you can’t really go there directly from this location. You’d have to go back the way you came from, and then find the other side of this place elsewhere. A lot of seemingly unreachable places in this game can actually be reached by following a different route, some more secret than others. So, you might sometimes find yourself on the other side of a space where you’ve been before, not believing initially that the other space could be accessed at all. Some fill a function in the game, and some are just a bit weird and random. Some spaces however are truly unreachable, unless you glitch or noclip inside them, even though they appear like they should be reachable, since there might be doors visible inside such a space. Basically, you can access the inside from the first hub you encounter (it looks a bit like the inside of a pyramid and leads to many different places, so you will be passing through here several times), whereas the outside can be accessed from the second hub, so it’s normally found later in the game. The second hub is just a never ending series of floors with stairs IIRC, with a walkway on one of the repeating floors which leads outside one way, only to lead you back inside on the opposing side of the floor. I believe there’s a tree in the middle of the walkway. This is in no way an exact description of how to access any of those areas, so you’ll have to figure out the rest yourself. I do believe both the interior and exterior areas are a little bit difficult to find your way to, at least this is true for the interior, where you’ve already been. They are also not necessary to complete the main game, but it’s not very strange that you have no idea how you got there as it is indeed a bit tricky." So yeah, apparently, less than three hours into the game, I've stumbled into an optional, borderline unsolvable puzzle, in a room that I am seemingly softlocked inside of. The game gives you absolutely no indication that this room is optional, and also gives you absolutely no indication that there is an easier way to solve it if you progressed further into the game, in order to get a second perspective on how to manipulate the room. This is just inexcusable bad game design. Overall, I think I would have enjoyed this game more as a walking simulator, or a backrooms type game, but that is NOT what this game is, at all. If the game had a story, or some type of character progression then I think I would give it another try, or be motivated to keep going, but if the game only becomes more confusing and obtuse the further into it you go, then I'm inclined to just drop it, which is unfortunate because I really wanted to like this game. My friend had the same experience, less than seven hours into the game as well. Maybe I'm just not smart enough or don't have enough patience for it, and maybe that's my problem, but honestly, this game made me want to punch a hole in my monitor for about the same amount of time that I was actually impressed with it, which is an achievement in itself. I don't think I've ever gone from having my jaw drop at how cool a game was to being utterly done with it in less than three hours.

The game is really good, but very easy. I managed to finish it in 4 hours of gameplay. I hope that someday a Manifold Garden 2 comes out and that it’s truly challenging.

incredible visuals, weird geometric space, and overall enchanting feel

[b]Score: 6/10[/b] [list] [*][b]Art:[/b] Visually original, with striking geometry and recursive structures. However, some areas are overly minimalistic or so abstract they become disorienting, making it hard to tell what’s going on. [*][b]Music:[/b] Ambient and fitting, but largely unmemorable outside the game. The exception is the ending track. [*][b]Story:[/b] No real story to follow. Everything is left to visual interpretation, which may feel empty to those looking for narrative substance. [*][b]Puzzle Design:[/b] Creative gravity-shifting mechanics offer a fresh take, but most puzzles are fairly simple. The oversized rooms stretch the experience unnecessarily, and movement—even with a run button—feels too slow for the scale. [*][b]Navigation:[/b] At times, it's genuinely unclear where you’re supposed to go. The level design can feel more confusing than intriguing, especially without clear guidance. [*][b]Accessibility:[/b] Good accessibility features (color blind mode). [*][b]Target Audience:[/b] Recommended only for fans of artsy games or players curious to experience something abstract and visually unique. [/list]

Very fun puzzle game that makes you think outside the box. 9.75/10

It is a beautiful piece of art disguised as a puzzle game

Very trippy, but very nice

Unique and beautiful, puzzle experience.

It breaks my brain so good

The poetics of space

The most creative game i've ever played.

essa obra de arte não não é boa!

it's very good

cool and good

who up manifoldin they garden

Beautiful game

the ending.

very cool

gravity is a lie