Prune is named as TIME magazine's best video game of 2015

By John Callaham
published

What's the best game of 2015? According to TIME, it was not a high-profile game like Fallout 4 or Halo 5. Rather, it was Prune, a minimalist game about tree pruning, that was released for Windows and Windows Phone just a few weeks ago (it was previously released on iOS and Android).

Here's what TIME has to say about Prune:

"As its name suggests, Prune is a game about removing things to nurture other things, where you swipe your finger to sever restrictive limbs and free others to grow. But it's also about basking in a minimalist garden of forking paths as you work out the spatial logistics of coaxing a tree to blossom. It's both an arboricultural exercise and a meditation–on light, darkness, color, sound and perhaps most of all, the things we're forced to leave behind."

The fact that this critically acclaimed game is available for Windows Phone, in addition to iOS and Android, shows that Microsoft's platform still has a lot of support among developers who see the OS as a viable platform to sell their creations.

Check out our review of Prune for Windows 10 and Windows Phone

Download Prune for Windows and Windows Phone (opens in new tab) ($3.99)

Prune

Source: TIME

John Callaham
John Callaham
26 Comments
  • Awesome game . Really.
  • Absolutely, just NOT GotY class though. I've already sunk over 120 hours into fallout 4 (yeah yeah, I have no life) and am still discovering new stuff and tasks to do, but Prune lays all of its cards on the table after only 20 minutes or so.  I've no great desire to load it up again for a while.  Thats not what a game of the year should do.
  • Assuming you were able to play as much as possible on release date and today, that is 8.6 hours per day. How have you possibly found that much time!?!? Even when I was in college I doubt I had that much time!
  • Mmm you do know you are comparing a $4 phone game to a $60+ console game don't you? Some of us don't have those kind of hours to waste a way so a game like prune is a welcome one that lasts more than 20 min for most of us
  • Never heard of it. Then again, Time.....lol. They're not relevant and their opinions mean nothing to me. Especially their bs politics
  • Well, it doesn't specify "our game of the year" or anything like that.  It's just Top 10 list, but I see your point.
  • It might be good, maybe have a decent learning curve but I honestly think that saying a mobile game is the best game of the year when 1. The year isn't even over (Elite: Horizons, get hype!) and 2. There's wonderful titles in which people put a lot of effort such as MGSV, Undertale, The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, the soon-to-be-released Just Cause 3... I don't know man it seems a little weird to me
  • If they said it was the best mobile game, then they'd be a lot closer to reality than to say its the best game out of every game released this year on every platform.
  • .....what?
  • tree pruning? for real?
  • Goat simulator? 'nuff said, twice.
  • Can someone comment on the Time article that they should have it listed for [iOS] and [Windows 10].  Annoys me when Windows is ignored.   (my PC does nothing when I click the comment icon, so perhaps adblockers are blocking..)  Thanks.
  • Don't forget, the gaming community has changed so much over the years. We console and PC gamers are becoming the minority market... Maybe that's why a game like this could be GOTY, from a non gaming perspective, as opposed to some games we have poured hundreds of hours into... That would be Forza 6 for me...
  • I heard about. Now I will try it.
  • TIME is all about politics now..
  • It would be my best video game too, if it were free ;P
  • Ridiculous.  These are not real video games
  • Sleep is overrated.
  • The developer expressed some interest in looking into making this game an ID@Xbox title, and @iocat reached out to him with the information to register for the program, so maybe there is hope the game will be updated with Xbox integration, which would help the game get the exposure it deserves and bank the developer more money.
     
  • Time shows its relevance in modern age.
  • Um, is there a different version than the one I purchased? About 2 hrs of game play that I have little interest in repeating.
  • Happy to see it on the platform.  Really good game.
  • Not sure how many gamers get their gaming news from TIME, but I'm willing to bet they'd disagree.. Lol
  • That quite possibly is the dumbest video game I've ever seen.
  • Actually saw this pop up in the Store a few weeks ago. Intrigued, but not enough to drop $4 for a mobile game. TIME (and in turn WP Central) forced me to reconsider thinking maybe, just maybe it could maybe be 2015's Monument Valley. Now I'm sitting here wishing I would have held onto my money instead. Interesting concept? Sure. Beautiful game? Absolutely. Game of the Year??? Not by a long shot IMHO.
  • Very creative idea! Thank you so much developer for committing to windows phone. For just that, I would give this game 5/5!