Developers Journey and Edith Finch create new studio Gardens to release 'mysterious and magical' multiplayer games

Gardens is a new studio made up of former Skyrim, Journey, and Marvel's Spider-Man developers that prioritizes studio transparency, sustainability, and employee empowerment.

The co-founders are Chris Bell (Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch, Sky: Children of the Light), Lexi Dostal (Dustforce) and Steven Bell (Blaseball, What Remains of Edith Finch), but Gardens is already home to developers who have been working on projects such asMarvel's Spider-Man”, the Ratchet & Clank series, the Fallout series and others. While Gardens doesn't have an officially announced new game yet, they say their "core mission is to create vibrant online games that foster meaningful moments and relationships between players around the world."

"The upcoming but unnamed Gardens game is based on the team members' experiences in the past (Journey, Sky: Children of the Light, Ashen, Baseball, Way) where players cross paths in a mysterious world," the press release reads.

Here are some concept art for this untitled game:

“With Gardens, we wanted to create a studio that cares about the health, happiness, and well-being of its team members as much as it cares about the craftsmanship of the games we create together,” Chris Bell said in a press release. “Our top priority is to make sure our teammates enjoy life and get the tools and resources to grow by creating compelling, well-designed games that cultivate new shared experiences between players.”

Gardens will be primarily based in Portland and Los Angeles, but will operate as a completely remote studio. They strive to create games that cultivate strong friendships. They are currently hire employees for positions such as 3D artist, animator and more.

A source: Gardens