Have you ever wanted to live the plant parent life but struggled to keep them alive? ‘Garden In!’ from Dramatic Iceberg, is the perfect game to experience plant parenthood without the dread of coming home to them thirsty and wilting. This cozy sandbox game is all about caring for seedlings as they flourish into beautiful plant life.

Starting with an isometric studio room with low-poly furniture and no plants, there’s work to be done. Gameplay is pretty straightforward; choose a pot, throw in some seeds, add water, and wait. Most importantly, as with all good game requirements, you can pet the plants! While they’re growing you can set up the ultimate space with furniture and props, and this part is reminiscent of “Unpacking”, rearranging the room, finding optimal placements, and altering the colour scheme. During the set-up, plants will continue to grow, making the space become more vibrant as they bloom with visually stunning colours and flowers. While all of this sounds simple, it’s the micro-management that makes Garden In! an engaging little game.

Customisation early on is limited, with minimal room colourways, skyboxes, and furnishings. Unlocks are tied to an achievement list for each space, and growing a certain number of plants, caring for them, and planting new types grant new furnishings and colour schemes. Once I unlocked custom palettes I was excited to experiment with hues, but it did have limitations where I couldn’t change some furniture tones, and being able to change wall colouring but not the timber flooring or curtains discouraged me from an interior design much different to the defaults. Having a goal to strive toward through achievements for unlocks was satisfying and gave purpose, but the momentum in this game is very slow-paced and could feel dull.

Patience and care are the main tools you’ll need here. Time is a huge factor for progression, waiting for the plants to grow and dealing with problems as they arise. There’s no instant gratification, which in this case is important, otherwise, the game could easily be rushed. It’s about taking the time to appreciate it.

There is a clock that can be used to fast-forward time but the cooldown for it is huge; it took 4 hours in real time to go from 0% to merely 10% during my playthrough. Luckily, tabbing out or exiting the game and coming back later won’t stop the process, so there’s no need to be worried about keeping the game going, which really helps the time factor. I did want things to move along a bit faster in-game but found it does encourage some mindfulness to check up on them. Alternating between rooms, I was able to keep myself busy in the meantime and provide care to the plants when they needed attention. During this time, they’d need watering or a spritz of insecticide when I came back.

There’s a reasonable amount of seeds, but there are not many to start off with, and I struggled to figure out how to unlock them well into my sessions. The hybridization of 2 different seedlings together produced new types, but I struggled to unlock more other than this. I wanted more variation and excitement to see new species emerge. Thankfully, with options of ground, air, and water plants, as well as different pots, and vases, there was some way of mixing things up.

The soundtrack is a short, simplistic loop – a soft, calming piano melody that wasn’t too overwhelming to take away from the serenity. Skyboxes each come with ambient sounds; the “rainy day” comes with a light sound of rain pattering, and the nighttime ones with the sound of crickets gave a nice atmospheric boost. Sound effects are pleasant tones, and the visual feedback of hearts above happy little plants glowing as they reached their next phase made my toils feel worth it even more so.

Easy to pick up, there’s no real difficulty with no stakes, which is possibly a downside of having no risk/reward situation. Plants can get infested and dry out but they can’t die, only hindering their development until it’s dealt with. The biggest challenge here is staying invested long-term, but being able to tab out of the game or come back to it later and see how they’re all going, giving them some attention, and going about your day makes it more manageable. I found myself checking back, developing a habit of checking up on them. Time and dedication are a must to play, but this type of gameplay isn’t for everyone. I just wish there was more to keep my attention on the game rather than as a background activity where replay value on completion seems unlikely.

Garden In! makes for a relaxing gaming session with minimal stress or commitments. While it doesn’t have the action-packed story or puzzle-based gameplay, there’s enough here for some players, but others may find it’s fairly low on the gaming to-do list. For gamers looking for a chill respite from daily life and being able to set up a small plant sanctuary without the imminent risk of death for the leafy younglings, you may find comfort in adding Garden In! to your daily routine.

Written by: Yasmin Noble