Gardenscapes is a Match-Three Game with simulation elements. You play the owner of a mansion, who along with your butler Austin, work to restore the grounds to their former glory. You complete match-three levels to earn stars, which are used to complete tasks around the grounds. As you interact with the townsfolk, they are added to Austin's social media network, where you can see them make posts and comments.
This game was originally released for PC in 2009, before getting ported to iOS and Android in 2011, and on Nintendo 3DS in 2012. Gardenscapes 2 and Gardenscapes: Mansion Makeover were released for both phones and PCs in 2013, but falling popularity on the latter, meant that 2016's Gardenscapes: New Acres and 2017 Homescapes (where you have to help restore the house where Austin grew up to change the mind of his parents, who have been thinking about selling it) were released only on mobile.
Contains examples of:
- Anti-Frustration Features: After you finish a level, you can skip waiting for the remaining power-ups and combos to clear and go straight to the winnings screen.
- Birthday Episode:
- The story behind the Party Room area in Homescapes is Austin and William preparing for Olivia's birthday.
- The Open Air Cinema room renovation was about preparing a movie night for Einar's birthday.
- The Butler Did It:
- In one of Austin's Idle Animations, he is reading a book and makes an exasperated comment about the story's culprit having turned out to be the butler.
- When Austin calls Jane to borrow a hazmat suit, she jokes, "Don't tell me the butler did it!"
- Cat Up a Tree: You meet Lucy when her cat gets stuck up a tree in your garden.
- Character Blog:
- Childhood Friends: Austin and Robbie have been friends since childhood. So have Austin and Katherine.
- Crossover: One room renovation event has Austin helping his old friend Carl from Manor Matters fix up an old castle and find a lost crown hidden inside.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- Homescapes puts the focus on Austin's parents.
- Certain areas and room renovations focus on certain characters (for example, the tropical corner event focused on Katherine and Stephanie, while the thirteenth area in Gardenscapes puts the focus on Jane).
- Epic Fail: The ads for Homescapes show the player using the wrong tools to try to fix the rooms, only to destroy them in the process.
- Fictional Counterpart:
- During the attic renovation event, Robbie finds records by The Heatles and The Rolling Cones, referencing The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
- The garage renovation in Homescapes centers around repairing Austin's father's old Forsche.
- Genuine Impostor: In the Left Wing arc of the Mountain Estate in Homescapes Rachel turns out to be a con woman pretending to be a Barrow in order to find and steal a priceless painting of a Barrow ancestor. She ultimately comes to care too much about the family and runs away, leaving behind a clue to find the painting. Austin finds it...and the ancestor is the spitting image of Rachel, proving she really is a Barrow.
- Happily Married: Austin's parents are very much in love with each other.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Your name, as well as the names of the dog, the horse and the cat are decided by the player.
- I Have This Friend:
- Annie asks for dating advice by saying it's for a friend.
- Before Austin is due to take part in the dive, he posts asking what people do when they're feeling anxious. When his father asks what's got him feeling anxious, Austin says it's for a friend.
- When Austin enters a dog show, Peter advises him not to get the time wrong, saying it happened to one of his friends. When Austin says to send his condolences, Peter replies, "Thanks, but it won't happen to us this time!"
- An Interior Designer Is You: After each level, you help decorate the garden (mansion in Homescapes).
- Jerkass Has a Point: Stephanie Broom may be condescending and boastful about her own skills, but she repeatedly shows that she genuinely possesses the talent to back up her claims, and the points she makes are generally accepted by the other characters. Their response is often a variation of "She's right—I just wish she could be nicer about how she says it."
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Jane the scientist is usually wearing a lab coat.
- Married to the Job: Winston's relationship status is "Married to his job", and Jane's is "Conducts research".
- Meaningful Name: Many of the townsfolk have these.
- Robbie Wood is a carpenter.
- Martha Goodwill loves animals and runs an animal shelter.
- Winston White runs a cleaning service.
- Colin Stone is a mason.
- Claire Hoverson flies a helicopter.
- John Rockit throws firework shows.
- Annie Smith is an apple farmer.
- Jason Armstrong is well built.
- Jonathan Mooney is an astronomer and is first met being nervous about a date — mooning over someone is something someone on a date might do.
- Stephanie Broom is a rather stuck-up woman, leading to people say she's a witch.
- Never Trust a Trailer:
- In the late 2010s, Gardenscapes among other games of this style started putting out misleading ads which portray the games as being chaotic Solve the Soup Cans games of various styles (such as choosing objects to fix a broken house or pulling giant pins to get someone out of a dangerous situation) that very rarely have anything to do with the actual premise of the game in question. Minigames of that sort were introduced in mid-2020 as a response to false advertising complaints, presented in-universe as "Austin's Bad Dreams" (or as "Austin's favourite videogame" in Homescapes): however, they rarely come up.
- A few trailers for Homescapes, for some reason, portrayed Austin being in a romantic relationship with Katherine and cheating on her with Jane from Gardenscapes (who is presented as a housemaid rather than a scientist).
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- A "Patty Kerry" is mentioned on a newsfeed, referencing Katy Perry.
- The camper renovation event centers around Robbie buying a camper and discovering it was once owned by "Rick Dagger" (a play on "Mick Jagger").
- Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: Stephanie Broom, a stuck up woman who goes about her way to criticize Austin and his family (even her friend Olivia) and tries to control her adult daughter Katherine.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Early on, Austin cuts down a tree, which falls into a fountain which he then needs to get repaired. Any time dealing with a tree comes up after that, expect someone (usually Robbie) to remind him of this.
- Punny Name: Some of the townsfolk have these, such as John Rockit the fireworks guy, Annie Smith the apple farmer (like the Granny Smith apple), and Henry Right the reporter.
- Shout-Out:
- When Austin posts a photo of himself wearing a hazmat suit with the caption "Getting ready for an experiment!", Robbie comments, "Looks like Austin is breaking bad…"
- In Homescapes, when Austin buys an aquarium, the fish have a strong resemblance to the major characters in Finding Nemo.
- In Homescapes, there are some references to Harry Potter, who gets identified as "the boy with the scar". When Austin tries to find a way to open the secret room near the library (the cinema room), somebody suggests hissing at a faucet.
- After you plant the hedge maze, you get a letter inviting you to take part in "a new action movie called Hedge Maze Runner".
- Jason posts that he was thinking about making an iron man suit, but it turns out someone beat him to it.
- When Colin is working on a sculpture in the pond, Austin looks at the unfinished column of stone and says it looks like an evil fortress from a fantasy novel... and the image he thinks of looks a lot like the film version of Barad-Dur from The Lord of the Rings.
- One of the things Austin can see while reading the newspaper is the results of a lottery where the winner gets a flight to a tropical island. The winning numbers are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42, referencing Lost.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Stephanie Broom and Olivia are the embodiment of this trope, as captured in Homescapes. At first Stephanie is straight-up rude to Olivia, but after completing the Kitchen Area, the latter defeats her in a cooking challenge, which mellows Stephanie out. Even so, she remains uptight, but it's clear that the two enjoy their banter and have accepted their clashing personalities as a major part of their long friendship.
- Wedding Episode: One Area Story is focused on the wedding of Alex and Jason.
