Quick Verdict: My Tiny Garden is a cute game and it plays well. I just wish the idling claim was more true to form. My experience with the game required me to be constantly active if I wanted any progress to be made.A code was provided for My Tiny Garden by the publisher and it was played on PC.
Game: My Tiny GardenDeveloper(s): Frozen Logic StudiosPublisher: Frozen Logic StudiosReview Score: 8Cozy Score: 6Price: $4.99Pros: The plants are adorable, I enjoy that there are variations to each, and it’s really cute to be able to place the plants onto shelves. In terms of gameplay, I didn’t run into any bugs.Cons: While being an idler is one of the selling points, it’s a game that requires you to be extremely active. You’ll see some automation with a robot that you can unlock, but it requires hours of constant attention to unlock and doesn’t reset a plant when it has reached the max amount of coins it will produce without collection.Platforms: PCGenres: Desktop Companion, Farming SimThe cozy score merely reflects how relaxing a game is and does not impact the review score.
My Tiny Garden is a farming sim desktop companion game where you can take care of potted plants and decorate the space. By watering, trimming, fertilizing, and spraying for bugs, you’ll keep your plants happy. Over time, they’ll give you money that you can use to buy more flora or decorations.
You’ll amass a sprawling collection across your desktop, earn coins over time, and build up your little space. If things get out of hand, you can tidy them up by buying shelves to place your plants on.
Occasionally, you’ll place a plant down that spawns a variation. There are three types of variants: normal, colorful, and golden. Normal plants are generally green and closely match the real-world version. Colorful plants have rainbow leaves and offer a slightly better percentage on coin and gem return. Golden plants are all gold and have the best percentage of coin and gem return. More on gems in a bit.
My Tiny Garden claims to be an idler, but in my experience with the game, it’s not. You very much need to be present in order to make any progress here. And, if you’re looking for something that needs your constant attention, this is a great choice. But, if you’re looking for a true idler, then you definitely won’t find that here.
There’s some automation capability by buying a robot that will take care of your plants slowly, but you need 100 gems in order to buy that. You get gems randomly by collecting from your plants. Each type of greenery has a percentage of likelihood that, instead of a coin, you’ll be granted a gem.
It took me three hours of constant (and I mean CONSTANT) attention in order to unlock it. My hope was that once I got it going, I’d be able to enter into the idling phase, but that’s just not possible until late-stage gameplay. The robot will do all the fiddly bits, but it won’t collect coins.
Watch the trailer for My Tiny Garden!
That means that early on, you’ll need to come back within minutes if you want to make more progress. The only way to combat that is to get progressively bigger plants that take longer to be full up. However, that only works if you’ve invested the 3-ish hours upfront for the robot and you’ve amassed a great enough wealth for the plants that take longer.
Without the robot, your plants will need your attention within a minute. Even the plants that take longer to fill up on their coins will be sending out the alert that they need water, fertilizer, and trimming. Bugs will spread like wildfire if they’re left alone. It’s chaos.
Granted, I don’t think you get penalized for not taking care of the plants, so you could just let them go and only collect coins. Unfortunately, they do have icons that pop up above them indicating that they’re in need. So that’s not an option if you want to keep your desktop looking aesthetic.
I’ve talked a lot in a way that seems negative, but it’s really not. The game plays fine and it does all the things it claims except for the idling. And, technically, if you squint hard enough, it has idling capabilities later. It just takes a lot of upfront work to get there.
If you’re looking for something that needs constant attention, then this is definitely a game you need on your radar. And I’d say that I’d recommend it if you are. If you want something with a truer definition of idling, then I’d recommend looking elsewhere.
If you’d like to grab My Tiny Garden, you can get it for $4.99 over on Steam. While you’re here, you can check out some of our other reviews, like This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker!
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