The Garden Path looks like a hand-drawn Animal Crossing, and it's coming in 2021

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Like Animal Crossing, only even more relaxing

The Garden Path is a new indie life-sim with a gorgeous hand-drawn aesthetic coming in 2021.

In development at carrotcake, The Garden Path looks like Animal Crossing but with an isometric perspective and more subdued art style. Its world runs in real time complete with the changing seasons, it's inhabited by various animals with unique personalities and stories, and your goal is basically to hang out, fish, tend to your garden, and meet new friends.

"Charming inhabitants will come and go, from Bunk, the tea-brewing macaque to Larto, a Greenlandic Musk Ox with a penchant for song-fish. You may even find some visitors willing to make their home alongside your own!" reads The Garden Path's Steam product page.

There are quite a few life sims out there right now, with Animal Crossing: New Horizons' extremely well-timed release early last year reinvigorating interest in the genre. But The Garden Path's appeal seems to be that it focuses solely on letting you step away and catch a breath from the breakneck pace of the real world these days. It almost sounds meditative, even. No scary bunnies on Easter, no ruthless turnip market to keep up with, just soothing sounds and sights to live in, if and when you please.

"The garden is calm and still. A tender world of familiar sights and sounds, melody, and friendly faces. A space to call your own, to curate, and to reflect," says carrotcake.

This exceedingly cozy life sim doesn't have an exact release date yet, but it's due to launch this year on Steam.

For more to keep you busy, here are the best sim games to play in 2021.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.