Jar of Gnomes: Press kit
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Fact sheet
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Developer: Bartpirat Games (one-person studio, Germany)
Publisher: Bartpirat Games
Status: In development, wishlist open on Steam
Early Access: 24 Nov 2026
Price: €4.99 · US$4.99
Platforms: PC (Windows), Steam Deck
Languages: English, German
Genre: Incremental, colony sim
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5462560/
Website: https://bartpiratgames.de/jar-of-gnomes/
Last updated: 17 October 2026

Short description
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An incremental colony game in an allotment garden. Hundreds of gnomlings pick berries, merge fruit in a magic cauldron and fling it through the air. When the run slows down, make jam: jars buy lasting upgrades in the Gnome Village under the compost heap.

Description
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In Jar of Gnomes, a crowd of tiny Gnomlings harvests an allotment garden for you. Berry bushes sprout on their own. You pick the first berries by hand, and soon the Gnomlings carry the fruit to a bubbling Magic Cauldron – and in there, two matching fruits merge into the next better one. A redcurrant turns splendid, then golden, then enchanted, two enchanted redcurrants make a blueberry, and far up the chain waits the giant pumpkin.

You decide where the colony works: buy Gnomlings and upgrades in the Allotment Row and feed the best bushes compost. A run never ends on its own. When it slows down, you make jam: the harvest turns into jam jars, and Mr Krause finally mows the lawn.

Jars are yours to keep. Spend them in the Gnome Village under the compost heap, a web of 41 nodes in five workshops, and rearrange them for free between runs. Some nodes only open up once you have earned an achievement. Most of them show up front roughly how many more jars per run they will bring. And every jar you have ever earned adds +10% harvest, so the next garden always grows a little faster.

Jar of Gnomes is coming to Early Access. Planned after launch: telling your Gnomlings which bushes to prefer, compost and builder Gnomlings, Garden Tricks to pick during a run, new gardens and a grand finale at the regional garden show. What comes when will also depend on your feedback.

Features
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- Hundreds of Gnomlings on screen at once
- A 6 × 6 Magic Cauldron and 15 fruit varieties in four qualities
- Six buildings in the Allotment Row, from the Summerhouse to the Throwing Range
- Giants who carry almost five times as much as a Gnomling
- Throwing: Gnomlings fling fruit into the cauldron, and some of it merges in midair
- A Compost Catapult that feeds your bushes while you watch
- "Buy all" for the later game
- Grandpa Mossbeard explains everything once, then leaves you in peace
- 17 Steam achievements and a fruit collection
- Full controller support, built for Steam Deck (1280 × 800)
- Mouse and keyboard work just as well
- Calm effects that really switch off shaking and flashing
- Choose how much fruit is shown on screen
- Keeps running while minimised, saves to Steam Cloud
- English and German

Timeline
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24 November 2026: Early Access launch on Steam (planned)

AI disclosure
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Graphics are drawn by code at startup; that code, the gnome figures, the in-game texts, the store texts and the sound effects were created with the help of AI tools (Anthropic Claude) under the direction and review of the developer. The music is by Kevin MacLeod.

For streamers
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You are welcome to stream Jar of Gnomes and make videos of it, including monetized ones.

The music is by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0. Please credit it in your video description: "Glitter Blast", "Morning", "Life of Riley" and "Evening" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Keys are available on request by email to contact@bartpiratgames.de. There is no obligation to cover the game.

Contact
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Franz Petschull, Bartpirat Games, Bautzen, Germany
contact@bartpiratgames.de
