Grow on the Go Review

Game: Grow on the Go
Genre: Casual, Simulation, Gardening, Indie
System: Steam (Windows and SteamDeck)
Developer | Publisher: Pixel Drip Games
Controller Support: No
Price: US $3.99 | UK £3.39 | EU € 3,99
Release Date: May 8th, 2023

Review code used with many thanks to Pixel Drip Games

As you might have gathered, I’m a big fan of gardening games. This stems from the time in my life when I loved gardening. This was before I got discouraged with the battle against the weeds and before my body started protesting to get on my knees in the dirt. Video games about gardening give me the same good feeling, without having to get my hands dirty.

Lately, some good games have been released by indie developers. Grow on the Go landed in the Steam shop in May. Let’s see if it scratches the gardening itch.

Fill Your Plant Shop

In Grow on the Go, you manage your own little storefront to make customers happy with a potted plant to their wishes.

The starting menu of Grow on the Go with the continue or start button, options, the controls and quit button — The starting screen greets you. If you’re playing on a PC, you can check the controls there.

You start out with a few unknown seeds and nondescript pots, and the fun starts with discovering what kind of plants you can grow. Select a seed and a pot, and the pot will automatically appear on your grow mat. Water it (filling in its water meter) and wait for the plant to bloom. When it does, you can use the camera to take a picture. When it’s the first time photographing it, it’ll unlock the plant in your catalogue.

The catalogue in Grow on the Go. The pictures you made of your grown plants are in there — The catalogue, where unlocked plants are shown

Managing the Store

After you’ve grown it once, you can also grow it to sell to a customer. That’s where the management part of Grow on the Go starts. You choose which order you can fill, try to find the plant and pot that best matches their wishes and grow it. This plant will have a label attached, and as soon as the label turns green, the plant is fully grown, and you can put it on the sell shelf. Where it disappears into a puff of smoke, and your coins come in.

Showing the seeds I can now grow, the ones that are in my catalogue. Also, the orders I have and the pots available. — These are the plants and pots I can use; it also shows which ones I have in stock.

The trick is to try and make the most profit. So finding orders that suit your plant shop best. Customers can ask for a plant that needs a lot of attention, or a lot of water, or one that has a certain size. And they can have a preference for a simple pot or a more elaborate one. The closer you can get to their wishes, the more stars you earn. But sometimes, for the price customers are willing to pay, you can only go for the cheapest plant and pot; otherwise, you’ll even lose money.

The counter at the Boardwalk shop with several plants I have grown. On the right lower corner is the calculation of profit made in the last sale. — In the lower right corner is the calculation of the profit made in the last sale.

Several Regions

There are several goals to meet, with which you can earn Leafs. As soon as you have enough, you can unlock a new region. Your little storefront changes slightly, as does the view from your little counter.

Shows a bit of the tutorial in Grow on the Go, telling you what you need to let plants grow in different climates in different regions. — The devices to buy when you are choosing a tropical climate or a cold one are shown.

Your first one, the Boardwalk, will stay in stasis for your return, and you then choose a region that has different conditions and different plants to grow. Like in the tropical region, I chose next. It also means you can buy devices to help plants that aren’t really suited to the climate cope.

Shows the store from which you sell plants in the tropical level, with plants dotted around — Got a shiny variety in my store in the tropical level: de purple one in the middle

Graphics and Sound

The gameplay of Grow on the Go is calm, cute and relaxing. Notice in the short clip below how the plant, once it blooms, waves at the camera when you take a picture.

The pictures get a subscript too. That is fun.

The background tune is not intrusive but fitting to the relaxing gameplay. The graphics are clean and colourful. There are a couple of screen bugs that need addressing. Like how the text overlaps in the example below and how the text of the customer’s wishes doesn’t fit in the frame.

All five levels there are, and the milestones are shown to earn the in-game currency, Leaf.

The developer has proved since release that he is ironing out the kinks, so I’m hopeful this will be addressed in one of the next updates.

SteamDeck

Since its release, Grow on the Go has been updated to fit the Steam Deck as well, and it works well on the device. Though manoeuvring the mouse can be a bit finicky. If you want to play it on SteamDeck, you have to change a setting:

Go to the game, but before starting, choose settings. Go to properties —> Compatibility—> check Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool. You get a drop-down for Proton compatibility, choose any as this is irrelevant.

Furthermore, there is no cloud save, so both the game on the Deck and in Steam (if you play on the PC as well) run separately.

Conclusion

Grow on the Go is a good addition to the gardening games out there. It focuses on managing your shop, growing plants in several different regions of the world and finding new varieties like shiny plants and out-of-the-ordinary colours.

Some small bugs need ironing out, but for the price, this is a lovely gardening game. Look at the world from your storefront window, and make your customers happy while surrounded by your green cute friends.

Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot