GrowBud is here to delight idle lovers and weed enthusiasts alike. In this game, you’ll set up a cannabis farm right on your desktop. It’ll sit on the left-third of your screen vertically rather than the popular lower-thirds of idle games like it. In the full game, you’ll grow over 30 strains, customise grow houses, and work toward full automation.
As you play, you’ll unlock new equipment and discover new strains that have unique needs that you’ll have to master in order to make them thrive. Each strain can be leveled up to 6-star buds, and all of them start from seed. So, you’ll be able to take pride in taking the smallest aspect of a plant and raising it into its most flourishing glory.
To keep things interesting, you’ll have two different clubs that you can focus on: The Grow Club and The Bud Club. Each of them will have challenges for you to complete, and you can play them simultaneously, so there’s no need to pick and choose.
Once you’ve got your collection going, you’ll be able to turn your focus to orders that will come in from local dispensaries and buyers. In selling, you’ll not only earn gold, but you’ll get other rewards such as new strains as well!
Lastly, the game has something called ‘gene expressions’, and this aspect is where you get to decide your playstyle. By using the genetic modifiers, you can enhance your plant’s growth, characteristics, and earn productivity bonuses. Whether you want to go full automation or take a more hands-on approach, GrowBud will accommodate your preferences.
Watch the trailer for GrowBud!
Obviously, this won’t be for gamers of all ages, but you can take heart in knowing that there are no depictions of consuming the strains you grow. GrowBud takes the agricultural and scientific approach and focuses more on that aspect of growing. It will have educational and real information about cannabis strain characteristics. So, that’s something to keep in mind before you dive in or decide to gift the game to someone else when it releases.
Right now, GrowBud has a demo out that has a sample of 6 strains for you to try. While I don’t know when the full game will launch exactly, they are predicting a Q4 release for 2025, so it’s just over the horizon.
I played around a bit with the demo, but I think I’m just too used to lower-third games. Having it on the side was a bit of a learning curve, and there’s no way to switch it from bottom to top, nor did I see a way to switch it from one monitor to the other. However, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to adjust these things in the full game.
If you’re interested in trying out GrowBud, then give the demo a try. If you like what you see, then go ahead and go over to the full game’s Steam page and wishlist the game, as that will help out the developers! While you’re here, go ahead and check out a few demos we’ve tried lately: A Storied Life: Tabitha and Nekogumi.
