Evergarden, the newest game from Madison-based developer Flippfly — founded by brothers Aaron and Forest San Filippo — actually began its life about six years ago as something a little different than it is today. Back then, it was called Hexarden, a game that featured a simple plant-combining mechanic set on a hexagonal garden board.
But then something unexpected and tragic occurred: In 2016, Bonnie San Filippo, Aaron and Forest’s mother, died of pancreatic cancer. And the brothers decided to channel their grief and love into their still-evolving game design.
Flippfly is best known for Race the Sun, a hugely addictive 3D endless runner that has sped its way onto every modern gaming platform since its release in 2013. Bonnie San Filippo was a tireless supporter of her sons’ game-design ventures, but Race the Sun wasn’t really her cup of tea.
“We didn’t want it to be autobiographical,” says Forest, who handled Evergarden’s art, sound and level design from northern Wisconsin; Aaron handled the programming and some level design work here in Madison. “It came out of us wanting to make this magical game my mother would have appreciated.”
Evergarden now straddles two genres — an evergreen puzzler and a narrative-driven adventure game. It is set in a gorgeous environment where everything seems to glow and shimmer. Plants, animals and other objects seem like pieces of elaborate origami come to life. And strategy is key. Progressing through the game’s puzzles, which require splitting and combining plants to generate bigger and more elaborate plant life, you eventually unlock and discover notes that provide clues to the game’s overarching mystery. The whole game’s set inside a magical terrarium on a desk in a recreated version of Bonnie’s study.
Evergarden is Race the Sun’s antithesis — instead of dodging obstacles hurtling toward you at 100 miles per hour, you’re free to carefully consider your plant-combining choices. And you’ll need to: Each puzzle gives you a limited number of turns to reach your goal, represented by the number of times you can click on a clock to advance and make the plants grow. (Strategically combining certain plants can earn you extra turns.) It seems straightforward, but Evergarden has plenty of surprises hidden in its weeds, er, plants. Forest cites games like Triple Town (for the combining mechanic) and Bejeweled (for the spectacular after-effects) as inspirations.
“One of the things we tried to do was set player expectations and then break them,” says Forest. “We built in a basic puzzle game and stacked more systems on top of that.”
Evergarden’s officially available for purchase on iOS and Steam on Aug. 16. So far, the challenge has actually been getting the word out in a games development landscape that’s cluttered with sound and fury.
”So many people are getting into indie games now,” says Forest. “The world has really changed. Back when we did Race the Sun, there was a lot more support for in-development games.”
If you’d rather sample Evergarden before committing, it’s also scheduled to be front and center at the next local Indie Arcade event — which just happens to have a gardening theme — on Aug. 31 at Robinia Courtyard.
Evergarden can be pre-ordered here. Steam users on PC can “wishlist” Evergarden to get a notification when it is launched.
