Spending time in the garden is a great escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life. But when it's 11:45pm on a Tuesday night and you just can't shake the stress of your day, digging around in your rose garden isn't exactly… reasonable.
That's where Viridi comes in, a new video game from Ice Water Games that's based on gardening. It isn't the first game for garden junkies - Gardening Mama claimed that title in 2009 - but it might be the most zen.
"I asked myself, what is my ideal happy place game?" Zoe Vatanian, Viridi's creative lead, told Fast Co. "And I realized I wanted to make some beautiful little world where everything's pleasant."
The result? An interactive game that lets you pick a pot, plant a succulent, and then care for it over the course of a week, after which it grows to fruition.
Viridi isn't hyper fast-paced or over-stimulating, like many of its video game counterparts. Instead, it is meant to be a calming influence, and a way to bring something positive to your life - even if that's just the success of not killing your fake plant for a whole week.
We already know that gardening has proven to be scientifically soothing, and planting trees can help bring back your youthful glow. But will a virtual reality of this outdoor pastime really have the same positive impact? Decide for yourself, as Viridi is currently available to play for free on PC and Mac devices, with Android and iOS versions in the works for later this year.
h/t Fast Co.
