Manifold Garden

Manifold Garden

Manifold Garden is a game that reimagines the laws of physics.

Rediscover gravity and explore an Escher-esque world of impossible architecture. Witness infinity in first-person, and master its rules to solve physics-defying puzzles. Cultivate a garden to open new paths forward, where an eternal expanse awaits.

In November 2012, William Chyr began working on Manifold Garden. Initially the project was called Relativity, and it drew inspiration from various physics thought experiments. In early 2015, Manifold Garden was backed by Indie Fund. Over the course of its development, the game has been shown in over 20 game conventions and festivals, including E3, Tokyo Game Show, Gamercamp, and Indiecade East.

Key Features

  • A unique gravity-manipulation mechanic that allows players to walk on any visible surface.
  • An expansive and beautiful world filled with secrets for players to explore.
  • Mind boggling Escher-esque architecture.

The game takes place in a “universe with a different set of physical laws” where the player can manipulate gravity, being able to “turn walls into floors”. The player must solve puzzles using the world’s geometry in addition to devices within the architecture of the world. To aid the player, the world’s tone takes on one of six colors depending on which direction they have manipulated gravity. Several facets of the game’s world may only be interacted with when the gravity is oriented directly, with these objects sharing one of the six colors.

The game’s worlds frequently appear to repeat into infinity into all directions. Because of this, many puzzles revolve around falling off a ledge from a lower part of a structure to land back on the top of the next version of that structure below. Later puzzles will involve growing trees and natural elements to bring life back to the “sterile” world.

Manifold Garden Review

Manifold Garden is a puzzle game at heart and trying to describe its mind-bending world it which it is set is quite the challenge. I could easily end up in an endless word loop if not careful. The best way I can illustrate this is by comparing the games inventive use of gravity to the very famous scene in Christopher Nolan’s Inception movie. The key part is the Paris city sequence where the streets bend in on themselves and the actors traverse from one plane to the next where the roads intersect. The normal laws of physics don’t apply to this dreamspace. Manifold Garden takes this one step further and gives each plane within the three-dimensional space its own local gravitational field.

Manifold garden is much more than a usual run of the mill first-person experience. It goes way beyond that genre in terms of sheer scope and grandeur. Each new room or area not only presents a new logic challenge but also a new place to explore and absorb. Even before attempting any solutions I would stop and take in the breathtaking views. To speedrun this game would be a disservice to all the hard work required to construct and design such scenery.

Manifold Garden is an incredibly stylish first-person puzzler, like walking through the architectural drawings of a pandimensional designer.  Some of the individual rooms are a little too sterile for their own good but these are always followed up with incredible views that stretch out forever in geometrically pleasing patterns of infinite repetition.  The tendrils of darkness overrunning the garden are a passive threat at their worst, leaving you free to explore and experiment, flipping the world around to see it from a new perspective.  The garden may have seen better days but chasing away the darkness is just the excuse needed to take it all in, solving its mysteries and coming to grips with a creation that only follows the rules of 3D space when it feels like it.

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Summary
As I stood in the impossible world of the Manifold Garden, I felt tested and worthy. Its puzzles are incredibly satisfying and offer a very clever blend of step-by-step knowledge-building with increasingly challenging solutions.
Good
  • Immensely satisfying and challenging puzzles
  • Smart progression gives you just enough information to almost never feel out of your depth
  • Stunningly beautiful and mind-bending environments
Bad
  • May cause some nausea due to constantly shifting perspectives
9
Amazing
Gameplay - 8.9
Graphics - 9
Audio - 8.9
Longevity - 9.1

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