Plantabi: Little Garden

At first I want to say that I absolutely believe in supporting indie devs and don't feel bad having paid what I did. However, for what my experience was, I think it was too much and there are issues with the gameplay I can't tolerate.

The gameplay consists of you buying plants, growing them big and selling them to people who request those specifically. You also have to water/fertilize your plant and wait. The bigger a plant is, the more passive income you get. So much so that selling a grown plant, unless it's to fill a request, is a waste.

Requests are random but the key to making progress. Requests will come in for specific plants of specific growth stages. This is my biggest problem with the game. I'd rather go into a catalogue of requests so I can make long term plans to progress at whatever speed I'm comfortable at than.. to be honest, what I've been doing. I've felt compelled to plant a LOT OF plants all at once in order to get ahead of requests so I could make progress more consistently and unlock more stuff.

What you unlock is random, and you're not guaranteed to make progress in areas you're interested in. In the beginning, you're guaranteed to unlock certain things like new plants, decorations and upgrades, but fairly quickly it's just random and you might spend a long time playing before you get to see another new plant.

Decorations don't actually do anything other than making your screen prettier. I'm not saying I don't like to decorate, but if I have to choose between space I can use to grow more plants and stuff that's expensive and doesn't give me much benefit, I just prefer to grow more. I know. But I'm a minmaxer, I need a game to incentivize taking it easy in order to take it easy.

When a plant reaches lv4, you can propagate it. Essentially it means to cut a piece off, put it in soil and voila, you have two plants. I was taken aback when I did that and my mother plant turned from lv4 to lv1 and got sick. As like when you don't water or fertilize your plant sick and it has a chance of dying. I'm not saying games HAVE TO mimick real life, but in real life, this sort of thing comes usually very cheap to the plant you're taking the cutting from. Sometimes it's even completely free, if the plant sprouts a second small one or a leaf falls off you can plop into some soil. Even basic maintenance in form of cutting your plant down a little gives you a lot of potential baby plants. A new plant in the game costs~ 200$. With how much bigger plants produce in passive income, this is almost nothing. But in order to propagate a plant, you need to buy an extra pot. Which costs 100$. I think there isn't really a point in propagating plants in the game. It takes significantly more effort and wastes your time and reduces your passive income.

One thing that I've grown to dislike quite a bit was interacting with your plants. Everything you want to do with a plant like watering/fertilizing or placing it somewhere else requires you to click on the plant first. This may not sound like a big problem, but I don't see why I shouldn't be able to simply press Q while hovering over my plant to water it. Clicking on the plant to get a little menu showing the possible sub menus and interactions is fine. But I feel like my intent of interacting with the plant was already made clear with my mouse hovered over it. Doing this with 20+ plants, an invisible timer on plants before they start dying and an effect that's meant to highlight the plants in need but sometimes makes it look like the neighboring plant is the one requiring your attention..

I don't like that I can only choose between giving the game a thumbs up or down. I think this game has a place to exist and it obviously brings a bunch of people joy. But I feel like if I'd ever want to return to the game, some things need to change. I would love to go into a lot of detail on where and how, but Steam reviews can only be a certain length. I hope my words don't sound harsh. I think with a bit more polish, it could be a game I could recommend wholeheartedly.

If you're into simulation games, you would enjoy this game.

I started off seeing a plain blue backdrop in the center of my screen, with a couple of dead plants in the center. The tutorial taught me the very basics, i.e., how to navigate through the store, buy and sell plants, earn money, etc. and that's the end of it. I initially had some reservations at the beginning and I had to try experimenting how to meet some mechanics since they are not mentioned in the tutorial. I was able to complete tasks, slot some upgrades, and change pots after some intuition-based clicking and dragging. I thought I wouldn't last 30 mins playing the game, but whew I never thought to click and click and click for three hours straight, and still enjoy the game

Couple things I like about the game so far:
- adjustable play speed. you decide how hardcore your clicking would be when you are tending a screen full of plants
- a good number of plant varieties, thoughtfully designed imho, from sprouts to fully mature ones. they are very pleasing to look at in their pixelated glory
- you start off with almost nothing on your screen, which is pretty refreshing for a game nowadays. your space is empty, and you have to decorate it from scratch
- in your space, you also get to decide where the end of your wall is (or how wide your floor is)

Suggested improvements:
- more tutorials should be added, like for changing pots, and slotting upgrades. Actually, once you discover how to change plant pots, slotting upgrades apply the same drag-and-drop mechanic.
- need multiple spaces/rooms (unless I haven't unlocked that feature yet)
- probably need to make the carpet height variable depending on where you set your wall

overall a great game, especially when done by an indie developer

Say aloe to my little friend.

The simple but fun job of taking care of plants is at the heart of this cute little game. Relaxing and killing time in a calm way is great for it. As part of the game, you get phone calls asking for certain plants, each with its own amount of hearts. As you take care of the plants over time, they gain hearts. When they hit a certain level, you can sell them to complete quests.

You can completely customize the looks of your garden. Changing wallpaper, pot design, and furniture, and using special orbs that make the gameplay a lot easier.

What adds a delightful twist to the gameplay is the subtle reward of earning money when your plants start glowing and glittering. It's a satisfying moment to drop them into the sell box and complete the request. However, taking care of your plants does come with a cost, especially when you notice a red dot blinking on a plant. This usually signals that the plant needs attention, requiring you to spend money on watering (5 gold) and/or providing new soil (15 gold).

One great aspect is the ability to fast-forward time at x5 speed, making it convenient to progress through the game efficiently. As you bring plants that people have asked for, you unlock new varieties. There are a total of 90 plants to find, as well as furniture and wallpaper that you can use in your garden. It happens slowly, which keeps the game fun and makes you want to keep taking care of your virtual yard.

Final Verdict

It's great that this game is both easy to understand and fun to play. It's for people who like the cozy feeling of taking care of plants and adding small tasks that keep the experience interesting. If you've ever wished for a money tree, this game makes that dream come true to your pleasure.

The Butterfly Effects wishes to thank Adrian Corpuz for providing a curator copy

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