Manifold Garden [Nintendo Switch]

Manifold Garden from William Chyr Studio and iam8bit for the Nintendo Switch is a game that reimagines the laws of physics.

Rediscover gravity and explore a beautiful Escher-esque world of impossible architecture. Geometry repeats infinitely in every direction, and falling down leads you back to where you started. Manipulate gravity to change your perspective and see the world in new ways. Master the rules of the universe and restore a barren world with vegetation and life.

The conundrum of video games is that there is always a limitation - whether budget, memory and/or time. There’s no escaping this practicality... or is there?

Case study anomaly: the technological and artistic achievement that is Manifold Garden, created by the genius William Chyr over the course of 8½ painstaking years. At first blush, it’s a psychics-dripping puzzle game, but examine further and you’ll realize that it has actually cracked the conundrum.

It is “infinity incarnate” - an endless masterwork that tells a finite story, but does so with the beautiful illusion of absolutely limitless scope. Environments stretch of forever and ever, but yet, despite its impossible architectural trappings, there is a natural beauty at play.

You, the player, are meant to cultivate a garden, and by encouraging the prosperity of plantlife and waterways, you continue to unlock the many secrets of this abstract and amazing world.

Manifold Garden has been nominated for several awards, including “Best Debut” from the Game Developers Choice Awards and the BAFTA Awards. It was selected as one of the New Yorker’s best games of 2019, and was one of the Design Museum's Designs of the Year for 2020!