The Gardens Between
LumiScore
Growth
47/100
Growth Value
- Problem Solving
- Spatial Awareness
- Strategic Thinking
Risk
LOW
Engagement Patterns
Minimal pressure to spend or play excessively.
Heads up
Parent Pro-Tip
Play through the first few islands together to help your child understand the time-manipulation mechanics and enjoy the wordless storytelling about friendship.
Top Skills Developed
Development Areas
Representation?How diverse the game's characters are in gender and ethnicity. Higher = more authentic representation. Display only — does not affect time recommendation.
Bechdel Test?The Bechdel Test checks whether a game has at least two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man. A simple measure of representation.— N/A — no named characters
Game has no dialogue or verbal communication between characters
Parent Pro-Tip
This strengthens problem-solving skills, spatial reasoning, and strategic thinking
What your child develops
The Gardens Between excels as a thoughtful puzzle game that prioritizes cognitive development through its unique time-manipulation mechanics. Players must solve environmental puzzles by moving time forward and backward, which strongly develops problem-solving skills (5/5) and spatial awareness (5/5) as they mentally map cause-and-effect relationships across temporal sequences. Strategic thinking (4/5) is required to plan multi-step solutions, while critical thinking (4/5) emerges from analyzing how objects interact across time states. The game's creative presentation (4/5) encourages players to think laterally about puzzle solutions. The wordless narrative about friendship, childhood memories, and growing up provides moderate empathy development (3/5) and strong positive social themes (4/5) about the value of relationships. The contemplative, non-violent gameplay promotes emotional regulation (2/5) through its calming pace. With minimal motor demands and zero manipulative design, this is an exemplary game for developing analytical thinking without exploitation.
Regulatory Compliance
Tap a badge for details. Grey = not yet assessed.
About this game
The Gardens Between is a surreal puzzle adventure that follows best friends, Arina and Frendt, as they fall into a mysterious world of beautiful garden islands. The player can traverse back and forwards in time to discover each garden’s secrets and, along the way, reveal a story about friendship, childhood and growing up.