A friendship folded inside a dream
Arina and Frendt have been neighbours forever. On the night before one of them moves away, a storm carries them into a sea of half-remembered places — islands grown from treehouses, bicycle rides and quiet afternoons.
There is no dialogue in The Gardens Between. Every memory is told through objects: a VHS tape, a paper crown, a telescope pointed at nothing in particular. The islands do the talking, and the light in Arina's lantern does the remembering.
Where every story begins
The treehouse between two backyards becomes the first island. Two kids, a thunderstorm, and a light that refuses to go out.
Memories become terrain
Screens glow, tape rewinds, dominoes fall and un-fall. Each puzzle island rebuilds a moment the friends thought they had forgotten.
Some things cannot be rewound
The deeper the pair travels, the more the sea pushes back. Time stops obeying, and the islands begin to sink.
The hardest puzzle of all
Not every ending needs a solution. The last lantern is lit not by winning, but by letting go — together.
Meet Arina & Frendt
Two friends, one lantern, and an entire ocean of memories to cross before morning.
Arina
Bold, curious and impossible to slow down. Arina carries the lantern that channels the islands' light — she is the one who places the spark on each altar and drags Frendt into trouble he would rather avoid.
- Carries the lantern of memories
- First to leap, last to look back
- Never met a puzzle she could not charm
Frendt
Thoughtful, cautious and quietly brave. Frendt walks his own path through each island, and the solutions only work when the pair move in concert — his timing is the metronome the whole dream keeps.
- Moves when the moment is right
- Sees paths Arina rushes past
- The heart of every puzzle pairing
Better together
Neither friend can finish an island alone. Every mechanism in the Gardens assumes two hands — and the game's quiet message lives in that design.
You don't move time — you conduct it
The friends walk forward on their own. Your job is to slide the whole world backwards and forwards, watching cause and effect untangle until a path appears.
Scrub the timeline
Swipe left to rewind, right to let time flow. Objects remember their trajectories — dominoes rise, rain climbs back into clouds.
Freeze the pieces
Some elements answer to their own clock. Hold a saw still, or let a floating light keep travelling while the friends stand frozen.
Deliver the light
Carry the spark to the peak altar. Every lit lantern releases a constellation — a memory returned to the sky.
Rewind everything
Undo a collapsing bridge, un-drink a glass of juice, or reverse a VHS player mid-scene to recover the route.
Puzzle layering
Later isles run several timelines at once — Arina's path, Frendt's path and the island's own loop, all braided together.
Chart a course through the Memory Isles
Each cluster of islands is a different chapter of the friendship — and a different flavour of impossible architecture.
Treehouse Cluster
Wooden forts, rope swings and bicycle wheels drifting through the air. The first islands teach you that time is a dial, not a line.
- 6 puzzle islands, gentle introduction
- Memory item: the paper crown
- Hidden constellation: the Kite
Arcade Cluster
CRT televisions, cassette players and a couch that floats like a raft. Here the timeline fights back with mischievous moving parts.
- 7 puzzle islands, mid-game twists
- Memory item: the VHS tape
- Hidden constellation: the Controller
Storm Reach
The sea rises, the wind pulls lanterns off their hooks, and the final isles ask you to rewind what you would rather keep.
- 7 puzzle islands, the hardest braid
- Memory item: the telescope
- Hidden constellation: the Anchor
The world fell for the Gardens
A meditation on friendship told through some of the cleverest time puzzles ever put on a touchscreen. The Gardens Between is small, perfect and quietly devastating.— Press round-up, launch season 2018
"Every island feels like a diorama built inside someone's fondest memory. Gorgeous and sharp at once."
Read press coverage"Time manipulation has never felt this tender. A puzzle game about loss that never once says the word."
Read press coverage"Proof that a two-hour game can sit in your chest longer than a sixty-hour epic."
Read press coverageA soundtrack that hums like a memory
Composer Tim Shiel built the score from soft synths, tape hiss and field recordings — music that sounds like it is already being remembered. Rain on tin roofs, cicadas at dusk, an orchestra heard through a wall.
- Are We Dreaming?3:42
- The Treehouse2:58
- Your Memory Lane4:11
Built for thumbs, tuned for wonder
The whole game is one long, gentle swipe. No virtual buttons, no clutter — the timeline lives under your finger exactly where your eyes already are.
One-finger control
Swipe right to let time flow, left to rewind. Every puzzle in the game was designed around that single gesture.
Silky performance
Steady 60 fps on mid-range phones, fast island loading, and sessions that resume exactly where the dream paused.
Kind to your battery
Optimised rendering keeps an evening of island-hopping well under a single charge.
Progress that follows you
Cloud saves carry your lanterns between phone and tablet — start on the couch, finish on the train.
Millions of lanterns lit worldwide
Players share their constellations, their theories about the ending, and fan art of two kids and a storm that never quite arrives. The Gardens community is small, warm and fiercely protective of its spoilers.
Medals of the dreaming hours
Finishing the story is only the first constellation. The Gardens keeps a quiet ledger of the players who noticed everything.
Global constellation progress
0% of dreamersShare of players worldwide who lit every altar and released every hidden constellation.
Lightkeeper
Light every altar without letting a single lantern fall into the sea. Earned by fewer than one in five players.
Chronologist
Spend an hour rewinding a single memory until it confesses its secret. Yes, the game is watching your patience.
The Quiet Ending
A hidden medal for players who sit with the final island instead of solving it. The Gardens rewards stillness too.
Begin the journey tonight
One purchase, the whole dream. Download The Gardens Between and spend an evening inside a friendship you will not forget.
The Gardens Between © The Voxel Agents. Portal operated by The Gardens Between World, Melbourne.