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The RPS Advent Calendar 2022, December 4thGrowth market
Growth market
It’s the fourth day of the RPS Advent Calendar and today it’s rainy. But it’s nice rainy - relaxing. There’s a purring cat. You’ve got a brew on, and nothing in particular planned. Maybe you’ll recatalogue your rustling, living inventory.
What else could it be butStrange Horticulture!
Strange Horticulture - Story TrailerWatch on YouTube
Strange Horticulture - Story Trailer
And you open your big illustrated tome of plants, and you flick to the right page, and you take note of the description. And then you look through the pots on your shelves, and you find what your customers are looking for. There’s a deeper mystery, too, but what I most loved about Strange Horticulture was that tactility. As I moved the plant pots around, as I read about how some leaves felt sharp, or others smelled of citrus, I was transported! I felt I really was pulling open the secret drawer in my desk and poring over the map of the area, that I really was putting new pages in my instructional tome, and carefully writing out my labels for the plants. What a lovely, and slightly sinister shopkeeper to be.
There is no cat in this image.
Kendal and Tebay are also lovely, if you’re ever tempted to put together a Strange Horticulture-inspired tour of the region, which I’ve just decided is what I want to do on my holidays next year.
Strange Horticulture wasn’t a hard sell for me: it’s an indie game about running a little plant shop in the company of a friendly black cat, and to be honest, I think about chucking in this job to pursue that exact dream at least once a week. What’s more, I have an enduring interest in video games set in the UK that aren’t based around London. To the best of my recollection I’ve only visited Windermere once in my life, but it was one of those random nice days out that for some reason becomes a core childhood memory, so I was out-of-proportion excited to see the Lake District as the setting of a game.
There’s also a certain fascination I have with any game that puts you in the shoes of a character who’d traditionally be an NPC. I’m a sucker for the sub-genre where you run a blacksmith’s shop or a market stall of miscellany, providing the heroes with the key item at the exact right moment, but for you it’s just an ordinary day. In Strange Horticulture, the leading figures in an intricate occult mystery pass through your shop on a daily basis, but you’re just mainly puttering about the place thinking about your plants. It’s a delightful side-angle to see this dark fairytale from, with the added bonus that it ups the creepiness factor significantly.
Now remember: it’s scritches for Hellebore,thenring the bell.
