Summary
- Subnautica features alien flora in a survival setting, where understanding plants is crucial for gameplay.
- Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator offers a detailed, peaceful gardening experience without combat or timers.
- Strange Horticulture is a unique game where players run a plant shop, solving botanical puzzles through plant identification.
There’s something inherently satisfying about tending to plants in video games. Maybe it’s the meditative rhythm of it, or the fact that digital leaves can’t die from overwatering. Whether it’s about nurturing succulents on a quiet afternoon or growing alien flora in a hostile world, these games know how to put green thumbs to work.
6 Best Gardening Games
Gardening is a relaxing and rewarding hobby, and thankfully there are some games that allow fans to do it in their own home
But not all botanical adventures are created equal. Some just give players a few plants in pots, while others turn gardening into a science, a mystery, or even an economy. From cozy window gardens to dangerous underwater jungles, here are the best botany games that blossom in their unique way.
7 Subnautica
The Plants Want You To Stay… Forever
Subnautica
- Released
- January 23, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E10+ for Everyone 10+: Fantasy Violence, Mild Language
- Developer(s)
- Unknown Worlds Entertainment
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Survival games usually focus on food, water, and not dying horribly. Subnautica asks players to do all that while surrounded by alien vegetation that glows, pulses, and sometimes tries to kill them. Set on the ocean planet 4546B, the game is all about deep-sea exploration, base building, and dodging sea monsters—but it’s the flora that makes the world feel alive.
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Every biome is teeming with strange plant life that isn't just decoration. Brain Coral supplies oxygen, Acid Mushrooms are essential for early batteries, and the Bulbo Tree might be the best hydration source players can farm. It’s a survival sim where understanding the ecosystem becomes the difference between living and respawning again at a lifepod.
Later in the game, growing crops like Lantern Fruit or Marblemelon becomes vital for self-sustaining underwater bases, and that’s where the botany really kicks in. Creating underwater farms with growbeds and bioreactors turns the player from desperate survivor to full-on sea botanist. And while the alien fish might get more attention, it’s the plants that quietly support everything.
6 Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator
No Deadlines, No Weeds, Just Vibes
Garden Life
- Released
- February 22, 2024
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
Players looking for a game where time stands still and the biggest threat is choosing the wrong flower pot will find Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator deeply relaxing. Released in 2024, this gardening sim is about curating a personal slice of nature, one petal at a time. There’s no combat, no survival mechanics, and no timer—just a trowel, a plot of land, and a growing list of plants.
The botany here is surprisingly detailed. Each flower has its own growth habits, preferences, and spacing needs. Players can breed hybrids by planting compatible species near each other, and the result isn’t random—traits like petal color and shape can be inherited. It’s like The Sims, but with soil pH.
There’s also a social element, lightly sprinkled in. Townspeople occasionally request arrangements or specific plants, adding a gentle layer of purpose without turning it into a checklist simulator. But the real beauty lies in watching carefully placed seeds sprout into colorful chaos. It’s slow, peaceful, and deeply satisfying—like watching Bob Ross paint with flowers.
5 Strange Horticulture
Plant Identification And Occult Activity? Yes, Please
Strange Horticulture
- Released
- January 21, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- e
- Developer(s)
- Bad Viking
- Genre(s)
- Adventure, Puzzle
- Platform(s)
- PC, Switch, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One
Here’s a game that makes botany feel like detective work. In Strange Horticulture, players run a mysterious plant shop in the rainy town of Undermere, where every leaf could be the cure to a deadly curse—or the cause of it. It’s not about growing plants but knowing them. And knowing them well enough not to accidentally poison a customer.
Players receive cryptic notes, old maps, and customer clues to identify dozens of fictional plants, each with unique leaves, textures, and effects. Some glow under a special lens. Others release scents or react to touch. Mixing up St. John’s Poppy with Widow’s Woe can lead to unintended consequences. It’s like a botany-themed Sherlock Holmes story, told through foliage.
There’s a narrative, of course. Cults, disappearances, secret histories—all unfolding through the customers that enter the shop and the choices the player makes. But the real challenge (and joy) lies in flipping through the in-game plant encyclopedia, cross-referencing descriptions, and slowly becoming the town’s unofficial (and very spooky) herbalist.
4 Botany Manor
A Garden Of Puzzles And Memories
Botany Manor
- Released
- April 9, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E For Everyone
- Developer(s)
- Balloon Studios
- Genre(s)
- Puzzle, Immersive Sim, Exploration
- Platform(s)
- Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4
Botany Manor is set in a sprawling English estate in the 19th century, but this isn’t your standard period drama. Instead of Downton Abbey politics, players are solving botanical puzzles to grow rare, often fantastical plants that require very specific care, like growing in total darkness or needing sound to bloom.
The player takes on the role of Arabella Greene, a retired botanist cataloging her life's work. And while there’s plenty of planting, the core of the gameplay is figuring out how to grow each plant. That means exploring the manor, collecting historical documents, reading between the lines of old letters and journal entries, and uncovering what makes each seed sprout.
Every room of the manor is part greenhouse, part escape room. There’s no real-time growth here; instead, each plant becomes a small mystery to solve, blending botany with environmental storytelling. The result is a game where gardening feels like time travel—one rooted in both science and memory.
3 Viridi
Succulent Therapy, In Your Pocket
- Platform(s): PC, Mobile
- Released: August 20, 2015
- Developer(s): Ice Water Games, Isa Hutchinson, Zoe Vartanian, Badru, Michael Wentworth-Bell
- Genre(s): Simulator
Some games want players to farm. Viridi just wants them to breathe. This ultra-minimalist mobile and PC app offers a single flower pot, a handful of succulents, and a snail named “Dot.” And that’s it. No quests, no pressure. Just ambient music and the gentle joy of watching plants slowly grow in real time.
The appeal lies in its simplicity. Players can pick which plants to grow, water them, and pluck weeds. That’s about all the interaction there is. But Viridi isn’t trying to gamify gardening—it’s trying to create a space of calm. The plants don’t die if forgotten for a while. They’ll just keep doing their thing, patiently waiting.
The app pulls inspiration from real succulent varieties, each modeled and named after actual plants. And while it might not offer the complexity of breeding or harvesting, Viridi delivers a kind of meditative realism few other games attempt. It’s less about tending to a garden and more about tending to a moment of peace.
2 Voodoo Garden
Grow Mandrakes, Harvest Souls, Pet A Floating Ghost Chicken
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: August 4, 2016
- Developer(s): M. Hanka
- Genre(s): Simulator
Few games can say they let players grow poisonous herbs and turn them into spiritual currency, but Voodoo Garden leans into its dark side. This clicker-style idle game might look cute, but behind the charming pixel art is a surprisingly rich system of plant harvesting, spirit summoning, and crafting items for the Loa.
Players cultivate herbs like mandrake, devil’s trumpet, and ghost mushrooms in a swampy backyard that slowly evolves into a full-blown occult nursery. Crops grow automatically over time, and players can harvest them with a click to brew potions, feed spirits, or trade with mysterious visitors.
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The botany here isn’t grounded in realism, but it’s weirdly captivating. Each plant has its own upgrade tree and ritual purpose. Animals and spirits become garden helpers, and there's a strange joy in turning your spooky swamp into an efficient soul-gathering ecosystem. It’s the kind of game that starts with “oh this is silly” and ends five hours later with a fully optimized ghost garden.
1 Plant Tycoon
Crossbreeding Capitalism At Its Most Addictive
- Platform(s): PC, Mobile
- Released: November 8, 2003
- Developer(s): Last Day of Work
- Genre(s): Simulator
Plant Tycoon is the kind of game that quietly takes over a week of your life. Originally released in 2003 by Last Day of Work, it’s a plant-breeding simulation that starts small—just a couple of seeds and some basic pots—and evolves into a full-blown obsession with genetics and rare plant discovery.
The core loop is about finding six "Magic Plants" through cross-pollination of over 500 different species. Every plant has traits for color, foliage, speed, and price. Some combinations result in sickly messes, while others sell for a fortune in the in-game nursery. And since everything grows in real time, it encourages short, meaningful sessions across days or weeks.
What sets Plant Tycoon apart is how hands-on it is with botany. Pollination isn’t random. Players have to study dominant and recessive traits, manage soil and water, and treat sick plants with chemicals. There’s even a mutation mechanic for ultra-rare specimens. For players who like their gardening with a bit of strategy, it’s a quietly brilliant business sim disguised as a greenhouse.
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