Market Gardener looks like a good alternative if you’re tired of industrial farming

Farming sims are everywhere these days, but the soil still has nutrients left over for more. Games Incubator has revealed Market Gardener, which appears to be a rather detailed approach to the genre, while remaining smaller scale than, say, Farming Simulator. No release date has been announced, but it’s coming to PC.

You’ve inherited your family’s old garden, and it’s your job to whip it into shape. That quite often is the plot for games like this. The difference here seems to mostly be scale. It’s more than just plopping things in the ground and watering them. It gets up close and intimate with your vegetables, allowing you to not just grow and harvest, but also prune and maintain.

And then you pack everything in your El Camino(?) and take it to sell at the market. It’s kind of funny that the game goes into all kinds of detail, going as far as having you drive to sell your produce, but when you get to the market, it’s just a button to sell everything packed into your stylish(?) car/truck. Like, okay, it’s not like they should make you stand there and select sales pitches from a dialogue tree. It’s just a bit strange that they’d make you drive to a menu.

I’m not much of a gardener myself, possibly due to my unrestrainable hatred for all things living. I also think the El Camino is a gaudy offense to automobiles. What were we talking about? Right, Market Gardener looks like it could be a good time. I hope there are side activities you can drive to. Preferably, fist fights.

Market Gardener is coming to PC. No launch date has been announced.