You love the woods.
You fear the woods.
You can't stay away from the woods.

Document your character’s last days in the nearby haunted woods in Carved by the Garden, a single-player structured journaling game. Using a standard deck of playing cards, you’ll follow prompts that reveal the horrors waiting for you among the trees.

You’ll roll dice, pull blocks from a tumbling tower, and write about your experiences in character.

With 52 prompts, 6 major and 4 minor endings, and 7 thought-starting character archetypes, each playthrough is unique!

Carved by the Garden is a solo journaling game inspired by folk horror stories like The VVitch, The Ritual, Midsommar, and those found in Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology. Featuring a sprawling forest as a backdrop, Carved by the Garden blends self-reflecting questions with unsettling and often bloody discoveries.

What you need to play

• A standard deck of cards with the jokers
• A 6-sided die
• 8 small pieces of nature to act as tokens (leaves, pebbles, seeds, thorns, petals, etc.)
• A tumbling block tower (or one of the listed alternatives)
• Something to write in, such as a notebook or word processor

Writing, design, layout, art: Cassi Mothwin
Assistant developer: Joshua Peters
Editors: Cylinda Parga and Erin Bowen

A5 saddle-stitched zine, 44 B&W pages, color cover.