Several of the creators behind games such as Marvel’s Spider-Man, What Remains of Edith Finch, Ashen, Journey, Ratchet & Clank, and Skyrim have announced the creation of a new, remote-first studio called Gardens.
Gardens was initially funded by a seed round from July 2021, led by Transcend Fund, 1Up Ventures, FunPlus, and a private donation from Rothschild & Co. partner David Baron.
Headquartered in Portland, Ore. and Los Angeles, Gardens’ first project is an as-yet-unnamed online fantasy adventure, where players “[cross] paths in a shapeshifting, unpredictable wilderness.”
“Our top priority is making sure our teammates enjoy their lives and are given the tools and resources to grow, while creating compelling, well-crafted, thoughtful games that cultivate novel shared experiences between players online,” wrote Chris Bell, co-founder and president at Gardens. Bell’s previous design credits include Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch, and the award-winning mobile game Sky: Children of the Light.
Bell’s fellow co-founders are Lexie Dostal, who previously co-created the “clean-’em-up” action game Dustforce, and Stephen Bell, who worked on Sea of Solitude and Edith Finch before co-creating 2020’s Blaseball, a browser game that combines a baseball simulator with absurdist horror.
The general theme here is one of surreal, gentle cooperative play. Gardens’ initial announcement specifically compares its first game to Journey, Sky, Ashen, and Blaseball. “These artfully-crafted, living environments… aspire to cultivate lasting friendships,” according to Gardens’ website, “while encouraging players to be considerate of each other and the world they inhabit together.”
Other members of the Gardens team include executive producer Sarah Sands (Desert Child, Chicken Assassin: Reloaded); lead artist Ryan Benno (Ratchet & Clank, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Miles Morales); principal engineer Rose Dale (Skyrim, Fallout 3 & 4); art director Leighton Milne (Ashen); senior engineer Roldán Melcon (Blaseball, Where Cards Fall); gameplay engineer Tonia Beglari (The Under Presents); and a freelance artist working under the pseudonym “ma-ko.”
Gardens is arguably most interesting at time of writing for being the latest new studio that, to summarize briefly, intends to do things correctly this time. Many of the biggest companies in the video game industry have been dealing with multiple allegations of workplace toxicity in the recent past, which ranges all the way up to alleged abuse. As a reaction, many new studios have been founded on the basis of specifically addressing and preventing such issues, such as Bellevue, Wash.’s ProbablyMonsters, and now Gardens.
“I decided to join Gardens after my first meeting with the founders. They’re such genuine and thoughtful leaders who understood all the reasons I left the games industry, and explained why and how they were going to do things differently at Gardens,” Sands said in a press release.
“I’m thankful every day that I get to help build a studio that is focused as much on creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and respected as it is on creating amazing innovative games.”
The studio is currently hiring, and lists a 35-hour work week among its perks. It plans to open a physical office at an indeterminate point in the future, with employees given the choice to come into that office or continue to work remotely.
