Gardening. You either love it or you hate it. Thankfully, games can step in to scratch the gardening itch for those that aren’t endowed with green fingers – myself being one! Garden In! is a cosy, home gardening simulator that you can relax and take your time with.
Starting out in the studio you learn the basics of how to grow a few starter plants. This consists of picking out a vase, a soil base, and a seed – before waiting for your small sprout to grow. If you occasionally check up on it, give it a drink, and disinfest it from the copious amount of flies that appear – eventually your plant will bloom.
Shortly you are introduced to hybridization, which is a way to obtain new seeds. By pairing off different plants into one container they will – if suitably attracted to one another – spawn a new seed for you to grow. At this current time, there are just under 40 varieties of unique plants which is just about enough for Garden In! to not wilt out of boredom.
Saying that, your plants themselves will definitely wilt. Everytime you open the game you will be greeted with sad- looking, lifeless plants. Half of which having been infested with flies which can be a little grating – especially when you have a room filled to the brim with botanical wonders.
When not arduously cultivating, any remaining time can be spent customising and decorating each room. There are a large variety of items to place, from gaming paraphenalia to science test tubes amongst other trinkets. Some of these can also be interacted with in order to change design or lighting effects, which is a welcome touch.
The palette tool can be used in order to change theme colours into pre-determined sets. Unfortunately, this system is a quite rigid as there are only a handful of colours for each room and there is no way to change furniture colour or wall colour seperately.
There is a lot of scope for future changes with Garden In! and it would be great to see further gardening mechanics implemented such as vegetable plots, different plant issues that require different treatments than merely spraying with insecticide, and a currency system from buying and sellling plants. This could then be utilised to obtain more decorative items or seedlings.
Garden In! – Is it worth playing?
As is the case with physical gardening, you get out what you put in, and Garden In! is no different. Drop into the game frequently, tending to small tasks, then your flowers will bloom beautifully. If you’re into the casual aspect of idle games then Garden In! will not disappoint, but from a personal standpoint, there isn’t a lot to do at this current time and this is where it falls short.
Garden In! is available to buy on Steam now. Whilst you’re waiting for your garden to bloom, why not check out more of our games reviews here?