Highlighting the Gardens’ PS5 features by June 16th

The Gardens Between will launch on PS5 on June 16! We spent a few months creating The Gardens Between specifically for the PS5 and it comes with exclusive sharp details, green HDR color and bespoke sensing for the PS5 Dualsense Wireless Controller.

Honestly, we thought things would get better after four years of developing the game. We thought we’d make it easy. But it was a huge journey and the reception was beyond our wildest dreams. We were nominated for over 30 awards including several Game of the Year awards and it took us around the world!

That we are perfectionists, each new platform has taken a little longer than we thought. We first started tweaking and improving the game for the PS5 in early 2021, but we’ve enjoyed the process so much that we’ve been making it better at every turn. In this blog post I will explain in detail what has changed and why PlayStation 5 is now the best platform to play The Gardens Between.

A quick compilation

The Gardens Between is a surreal puzzle adventure that follows best friends, Arena and Friend, as they fall into a mysterious world of beautiful Garden Island. They wake up in the world like a vivid dream that presents their significant memories from an adventurous friendship since they were neighbors next door. You manage and manage your own time to help Arena and Friend solve puzzles and unlock garden secrets. Together you explore their blossoming friendship through their memories, all turning into a climactic ending that I will not spoil for you.

This is a very unique game. The story is told without words or text. Instead the story is told in an abstract and surreal environment, surrounded by the emotional reactions of the characters and their growing friendships. Observation is the key to understanding the story. It’s a welcome, peaceful experience without the stress of time, failures, or complicated user-interfaces for learning.

The game has been described as “the easiest deep game possible”, and a “short story masterpiece” – something we’re very proud of.

Okay, let’s dig into what’s new!

Dualsense wireless controller

The PlayStation 5’s dualsens wireless controllers are simply great. The new high fidelity haptics give a distinctly sensitive feeling, which inspires us to completely recreate haptic moments to take advantage of completely new technology. Exclusive for this new Bespoke Haptix PlayStation 5 DualSense controller!

The haptics we have added are designed based on the experience of Arena and Friend in the garden. We asked ourselves, “How do they feel when they navigate the greenery?” The deep roar of lightning. Momentary light floating on the lantern. The crisis of placing lanterns on the surface of a rock.

We also support responsive triggers in DualSense controllers Over time push on any obstacle that blocks your progress and you will feel the time push back.

Graphical Leap

Thanks to the power of the PS5, The Gardens Between looks much better than before. Upgraded to HDR (enabled screen), combined with true 4k resolution at 60 frames per second, and the temporal anti-aliasing (first shipping on PlayStation 5) game is both crisp and fluid. We then published the full texture resolution where it was lacking, increased line rendering, increased shadow accuracy and probably spent unreasonable time adjusting the water reflection shades. It looks great!