Zen Garden

Zen Garden is a calm, top-down zen game where you rake smooth lines through soft sand and arrange stones, moss, a small bonsai, stone lanterns and a water basin. There is no timer, no score and no way to lose. You can play this relaxing game online free in your browser with no download, using a mouse, a keyboard or a phone’s touch screen.

How to play

Press Begin to enter the garden with gentle sound, or Begin quietly to start muted. The garden opens with a sample layout, and your changes are saved in your browser.

• Rake: drag across the sand and the rake draws smooth parallel grooves that follow your stroke, so a curved drag makes curved lines. Choose 3, 4 or 5 tines. Lines stop at the edge of stones, plants, lanterns and the basin.
• Ripple: tap a stone to rake a set of rings around it, the classic pattern of a dry garden. Tap open sand for a small ripple of rings, or tap the basin for one in the water as well.
• Smooth: tap or drag on the sand to flatten that patch so you can rake it again. Smooth all flattens the whole garden but leaves your stones and plants where they are.
• Place items: pick Stone, Moss, Bonsai, Lantern or Basin and tap the sand. S, M and L set the size of stones and moss patches. Drag any item to move it with these tools or with Move, and use Remove to take one out. A garden holds up to 30 items.
• Undo: the Undo button or Z steps back through your last 12 changes.

Night, sound and the breathing circle

Night dims the sand to a deep blue and lights every lantern with a soft, flickering glow, and the basin catches a small reflection. The water basin ripples on its own every few seconds, and you can tap the water to add your own ripples.

The sound is made live in your browser: a soft drone, a slow breeze, occasional wind chimes, basin drips and a quiet hiss of sand as you rake. Sound turns it on or off, and the slider sets the volume.

Breathe opens a guided breathing circle over the garden as a simple relaxation exercise. The circle grows while you breathe in for a count of 4, stays full while you hold for 4 and shrinks while you breathe out for 4, with a soft chime at each change. Stop at any time with the Breathe button or Esc.

Prompts

If you would like a small goal, press Prompt. It shows one of six gentle suggestions, such as raking a full circle around a large stone, raking three long straight lines across the garden, grouping three stones together, lighting the garden with a lantern at night or breathing through three cycles. The game notices when you finish one and marks it done. Press Prompt again for the next one.

Saving your garden

• Save PNG downloads a sharp picture of your garden without the cursor or breathing circle.
• Gardens keeps up to three gardens with a small preview of each. Save writes the current garden into a slot and Load brings it back. You can also start from an empty, smooth garden or the sample layout.

Tips

• Rake slowly around stones. Circle a stone in one long stroke and the grooves bend with you. Use Ripple first for perfect rings, then rake straight rows up to them.
• Overlap rows. To fill the garden with straight lines, rake from one side to the other and start each new row right where the last one ended.
• Leave empty space. Dry gardens often use a few stones in a group and a lot of open sand. Try odd numbers of stones in different sizes.

FAQ

Is Zen Garden free?

Yes. It is free to play with no account and nothing to install.

Can I win or lose?

No. This is a calm game with no timer or score. The prompts are optional ideas, not levels.

Does it work on phones and Chromebooks?

Yes. On a phone or tablet, drag with one finger to rake and tap to place items. The garden won’t scroll the page while you rake. On a Chromebook or laptop, use a mouse, a trackpad or the keyboard.

Is my garden saved?

Your current garden and settings are saved in your browser automatically, and you can keep three more in the Gardens slots. Clearing your browser data removes them, so use Save PNG for gardens you want to keep.

Looking for more calm games? Try Sand Art to layer colored sand in a bottle, or Aquarium Game to set up and care for a cozy fish tank.