Gnome chomp-sky
Grunn is a normal gardening game set in a mundane village, according to the Steam blurb.
It is not at all weird and horrifying, not remotely a glimpse into the abyss.
You won’t accidentally murder a magpie while chopping down tall grass.
And you thoroughlywon’tbe stalked by a nameless tormentor as you go about your gardening work.
Grunn
Okay, thankfully for everyone I can’t keep that up.
The game’s made by Sokpop, after all, the tiny collective whose games like to subvert expectations.
Also, the atmosphere is thick and menacing from the off.
So I arrive in Grunn and I head into a garden.
I need to tidy the grass, water the plants, get rid of molehills and pick up trash.
Oh, and sort the hedge.
All basic gardening stuff.
Grunn plays it straight for quite a while after that.
As I work, the morning turns to noon and then afternoon.
I wonder where the watering can is.
From there, Grunn goes to some very special places.
TheNext Fest demo on Steamright now has five endings, and the two I’ve found so far?
Well, they’re pleasantly skin-crawling.
What I love about Grunn is that it isn’t a simple prank.
It’s not over the moment that you find that this cozy gardening game is curdling into something stranger.
It wants you to realise that pretty early, if anything.
