Grunn

Grunn (2024) is a world-building game where you play a gardener in a small town property. Play is a simple task of exploring and completing gardening tasks, but you soon discover all is not what it seems in the garden and town that surrounds it. It stands out for the world to explore that changes as your limited two days tick away on each run.

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You’ve been hired to tidy up a garden deep in the Dutch countryside. You explore the garden and use tools to trim the grass, water the flowers, and pick up trash. However, it becomes apparent that many of your tools are missing. Should you try and mow the lawn with scissors or head out to hunt down better implements?

As you complete these tasks and head out into the small town you start to hunt down your missing tools. This is fine in the day, but after dark you discover all is not well and that you are being watched. Then there is the owner's house that's off-limits but seems to hide more secrets (and maybe tools) inside.

The result is a beautiful little world to explore, complete with simulated weather, real birdsong and lots of gardening. What starts gently soon turns into an unsettling journey with multiple endings (each one with its own polaroid) where your main task is not really gardening but trying not to die.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Grunn (Sokpop) 9 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 10 days ago.