Alchemy Garden
Alchemy Garden
Game
Game2024
Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator
Developer stillalive studios
Garden Life is a relaxing gardening game in which you create your dream garden in a peaceful, colourful world. Plant and add ornaments at your own pace, transforming an overgrown forgotten plot into a flourishing community garden. From the Steam store page
226 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 27, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
70
Fresh
137 positive · 60 negative
95% range 63–76%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 137 | 60 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 14 | 2 | 13 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
704 of 944 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
68% recommend · 127 yes, 59 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 186 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (1,309 of 1,724 positive).
Many players find the game relaxing and visually beautiful, but a low plant limit frustrates them. [1][2][3] Some reviewers report technical issues like crashes and glitches that ruin the experience. [4][5][6] A few players criticize the use of AI-generated art and poor UI design. [7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
I love how colourful the game is, and the storyline is sweet enough. There is simple gameplay with a satisfying loop for someone like me that loves gardening and needed something a little mind-numbing to play. However the whole thing is ruined by AI art and poor UI decisions. If you don't care about AI art, fine, but I certainly do and it's upsetting. There is no search facility within the seed/plant/bouquet storage …
- [4]
While this game looks and appears cozy, I would not recommend this game to a friend. I completed this game for the platinum, and had to re-do an entire playthrough of it (which I wasn't happy about). Below are the reasons why: Pros: - quests keep you on track towards your goal - the amount of different flowers give an appealing look when you have your garden more full. - There are cats you can pet. Cons: - constant …
- [1]
Overall, this one’s a mixed bag for me. The gardening space is just way too small, so after a while you start feeling boxed in. Once you figure out how the mechanics work, it’s clear you could easily handle a much bigger area. It’s relaxing for sure, just not a lot to actually do once things get going. Visually it’s really nice, and the calm atmosphere makes it easy to zone out and just enjoy planting and …
- [9]
Overall, if you are looking for a beautiful, cozy, creative game, this is a great one. I've seen some surprisingly harsh reviews, and I'm sorry for those who did not get a good experience, but I personally have not had any issues with crashes and have gotten a lot of joy out of the game. It is one of the most beautiful games I've played with both free creative play as well as meaningful story. What you get out of …
- [2]
I do want to love this game entirely. I love it but there are things that would make me love it from start to finish. Yes, loads of things to keep you busy with the orders and pavillion as well as finished the big checklist. What it lacks is the allowance to grow ALL of the flowers and fill this enormous garden you have to work with. The plant limit seems unreasonably low for the amount of room there is to work …
Summarised from 34 of the 215 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
68% of the 186 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator. The complaint that keeps coming up: plant limit is too low for the garden size. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 226 · most liked firsti've been having a great time playing Garden Life and i'm having an even better time reading all the negative reviews that are calling it inaccurate because it's fun and not just miserable like actual gardening
positive · AI labelView post →I love how colourful the game is, and the storyline is sweet enough. There is simple gameplay with a satisfying loop for someone like me that loves gardening and needed something a little mind-numbing to play. However the whole thing is ruined by AI art and poor UI decisions. If you don't care about AI art, fine, but I certainly do and it's upsetting. There is no search facility within the seed/plant/bouquet storage boxes which makes this game, after a while, a tedious game of searching…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enjoyed the game till I couldent plant anymore plants. Remove the cap on plants please! I dont have enything to do in the game anymore
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is, unfortunately, going to be a scathing review. I have big feelings about this. I had really high hopes for the game and it was so incredibly disappointing in every possible way, I feel insulted. For me, this definitely falls in the "Cozy Slop" category. They charged an obscene amount for a game that is maybe worth $5-$8 and the artwork being AI generated is just the cherry on top. That is not the reason for this review however, so let's get into the gameplay. The flower limit is an…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I found this game to be just disappointing and I will get into why. The main thing I didn’t enjoyed is the gameplay itself. Now I gotta say, the game is cozy, when you start off in the first zone the game was enjoyable, but the more and more I got into it, leaks started to form. The main issue is on how tedious the game gets. One of the first things I run into was trimming/cutting plants. This mechanic allows you to harvest only the flowers so you can sell or fulfill request as cuttings or…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While this game looks and appears cozy, I would not recommend this game to a friend. I completed this game for the platinum, and had to re-do an entire playthrough of it (which I wasn't happy about). Below are the reasons why: Pros: - quests keep you on track towards your goal - the amount of different flowers give an appealing look when you have your garden more full. - There are cats you can pet. Cons: - constant crashes while doing something as simple as picking up weeds in your garden.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Some of the assets in this game are clearly AI generated and the devs are being entirely dishonest about it. They argue that no AI was used in the making of this game, yet fail to provide anything to truly dispute the claim with anything other than "trust me bro" and a progress video that doesn't provide proof about the actual assets people are suspecting to be AI. Aside from the AI usage in the game's assets and the dishonesty surrounding it, this game is just overall janky and very poorly…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall, this one’s a mixed bag for me. The gardening space is just way too small, so after a while you start feeling boxed in. Once you figure out how the mechanics work, it’s clear you could easily handle a much bigger area. It’s relaxing for sure, just not a lot to actually do once things get going. Visually it’s really nice, and the calm atmosphere makes it easy to zone out and just enjoy planting and decorating, it’s cozy, no time limits, no pressure, just chill gardening. Watching your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I do want to love this game entirely. I love it but there are things that would make me love it from start to finish. Yes, loads of things to keep you busy with the orders and pavillion as well as finished the big checklist. What it lacks is the allowance to grow ALL of the flowers and fill this enormous garden you have to work with. The plant limit seems unreasonably low for the amount of room there is to work with. Sure, bigger decorations would fill things in and there's plenty of climbing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very chill, very relaxing game with no punishment. Seriously. If your flower dies, dig it up and get the seeds, replant it, fertilize it/, and then within minutes it's back to its full glory. I quite enjoyed the story, it was very lovely and sweet! And all the flowers were beautiful. Some things that would have really helped me out early game are: - If something isn't growing, cut it all the way down, then it will come back fully grown - Do not use trimmers on roses or lilacs, use…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →bought this on a whim for 75% off and played way too much of it before realizing they use AI art (and probably AI voices too now that I think about it). wish I could take back my money so I’m giving a bad review instead. booooooo!! hire artists!!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I started Garden Life thinking, “Finally, a peaceful game. No running, no explosions, no enemies. Just vibes.” Two minutes later I’m arguing with a virtual flower because it refuses to grow straight and the game politely suggests I “try watering it.” Thanks, Garden Life. Real subtle. This game basically says: “Relax… …but also, here’s a plant that will absolutely die if you even look at it wrong.” Planting? Cute. Decorating? Calming. Watering? Therapeutic. Me? Accidentally drowning my tulips…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really want to love this game, and I would if it weren't so glitchy. My very expensive clippers got stuck in the air and would not come down no matter what I did or tried. In fact everything I picked up couldn't be picked up anymore and I couldn't pick up seeds anymore either. There hasn't been an update since February 2025 at the time of this review and I don't foresee any bug fixes or such happening. But it's kind of ruined the game for me now and although I want to continue playing, I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoyed it until after 6 hours it kept crashing and I lost saved data multiple times.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →adding a LIMIT of plants in a damn gardening simulator is diabolical. isn't that literally the main idea of the game? literally what you sell it for? a warning about possible fps drop would be more than enough, but instead I have to worry about bald spots in my fkn garden, while playing on a literal space station that SOMEHOW can crash because of 2 extra dandelions
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall, if you are looking for a beautiful, cozy, creative game, this is a great one. I've seen some surprisingly harsh reviews, and I'm sorry for those who did not get a good experience, but I personally have not had any issues with crashes and have gotten a lot of joy out of the game. It is one of the most beautiful games I've played with both free creative play as well as meaningful story. What you get out of this game, I think, depends a lot on your initial expectations. I think it is most…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'd fun playing this but it very poorly optimised for steam deck. For reference, I was playing while keeping my graphics on lowest setting and fps capped at 30. After around 3.5hr of gameplay, it started freezing and crashing every time I tried to even look in the area where most of my roses were planted. I can see myself playing this to completion but sadly not on the deck.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked it at first, but then I stumbled upon plant limit you can have in garden when I have most of my garden basically empty still. Also getting speciffic variations that are actually needed for quest and further advancement are random and slow process, could have added an option to buy variation seeds even if for extra expensive price or do quest to get them. Also bug houses for deterring pests and sprinklers not quite work. I don't expect no pests at all, but at least less pests, not on…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator delivers a calm and creative gardening experience where you can design your own lush paradise. However, its tight building restrictions often limit your freedom, forcing you to rein in some of your grander ideas.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →INCREDIBLE but... With 5 hrs of gameplay as I type this, this game is beautiful to wind down and play as a cozy game. I really wish the plant limit would increase given the amount of space we have, we are stopped from fully developing our gardens. Additionally, we neeeeed more plant variants. PLEASE update! Just adding in these two would encourage more cozy gamers to fully immerse and enjoy this game to the potential that it has. The cozy genre is growing and this gardening game could…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has so much potential, yet it is wasted. It looks really good, the idea is fantastic but.. It's VERY repetitive, with grinding and repeating or very similar requests. There's also no tutorial.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL;DR: Don't let the cozy flower-farming aesthetic fool you; past the initial hour of gameplay is a repetitive grind with long waits for "new" seed respawns and achievements designed to pad playtime. There's so many small things that annoy you, all it tells me is that the developers did not play their own game. My biggest gripes: - There's no bulk-transfer option for items, and you're forced to flip through book and storage pages one by one. - A search bar and a way to identify what flowers…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This could have been a gem but it feels like slop. There is almost no quality of life in this game and very limited content. - You have a handful (20) different plants that are available from the beginning. You need to find different colour variants of them by sheer luck after growing these plants in your garden and collecting seeds. - There might be different seasons, but they have no impact. You can grow all plants all year, in every soil. - There is a plant limit of 400 flowers (1000…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →45.2 hours in at time of review. Cosy sim lover without heaps of time? Then its a solid yes! Deliciously quaint, blooming beautiful, splendidly relaxed, the vintage vibes and colour palettes are top tier, there's nothing not to like really. If I was going to be super critical I think the plant limit is too low considering the vast space there is to fill, combined with the sheer quantity of variants needed to complete the pavilion and orders for the collectables. I certainly wouldn't expect…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought it after one of my mates bought, played for 2 hours in two modes and it felt empty. Very empty and sketchy feeling aboui ai imagery. This game i wanted my mother to play, but after i tried everything... no, too empty and too simple - seed then water and leave home, back - trim - water - trim And thats the whole game. I know that's hard to make something from nothing but it's too empty and god.. only flowers for now i refunded
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game needs to be better optimized. The number of quests that require planting large amounts of plants, combined with the variety of flowers and the available space, demands higher threshold. It shouldn't compromise performance or force me to lower my settings from high to low. I cannot finish this game running like that, I haven't even reached usuable greenhouse yet.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →wanted to really like this game and it has great potential but its so poorly optimised and crashes at least every 2-5 minutes, you have to manually save all the time or your data gets lost when it freezes - unfortunately until this is fixed id avoid it completely.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If there was a one word I could use to describe this game, it would be "confusion". Don't get me wrong, the game is not bad or unplayable. I think it does its job well as a cozy garden simulator. And at the same time for me, there were so many tiny issues or odd choices that it made the game confusing. * I remove plant and try to plan literally the same plant -> not enough space for plants. I don't understand why there's even a limit to how many plants you can plant. There's still soooo…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →cozy.... yeah right up until all progression is locked behind one flower color you dont have and praying to the rng gods to get it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoy this game, I love the idea of organizing a garden, making it pretty, etc. But there are so many things that have made it hard to enjoy at times. It's so difficult on controller to cut, even with the snips, certain flowers. If they're too close, I can't even cut them. Also when I try to fix it by shoveling certain plants, I can't because of the same reason. It just won't stop going to the plant I don't want. Another thing is how there's so many different plants and I wish there…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is beautiful, but much too short and the limit is stifling I love gardening, I really do. So I love flowers and gardens and I thought "Hey, this is nice!". And I wanted to like the game. I spent the hours finishing it (almost), too. But it got boring quick, I am afraid. And long before the garden looks even half full, let alone beautiful, the plant cap stifles your creativity. There are also just a few flowers where you can get X variations. There should be a lot more. For 5-10…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very fun and cozy, I 100%'d it in roughly 23 hours without trying too much. The only downside is the annoyingly small plant limit, I frequently had to uproot sections of the garden to progress, and I never had enough of a limit to enjoy using the greenhouse that you unlock later. I wish there was an option above High. RNG might also drive you mad, I had to wait 35 days for a specific flower to unlock to progress (Pink Tulips I will always dislike you now).
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was expecting to restore and upkeep a peaceful and relaxing community garden and was instead greeted by a community grieving the loss of a character leaving you to pick up the pieces they've left behind. I'm not sure when the new trailer was added, but I missed it seeing it and even that would not have prepared me for this experience. The story is much darker than anticipated and not relaxing. It's weird, awkward, and uncomfortable. Plus, all the tiptoeing around pronouns adds another level…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has a bittersweet place in my heart; I've been really enjoying the progression,mechanics and overall creative freedom this game gives, however, 12 hours into playing, my save failed. Trying to sort this out using backups and such was impossible, and to my surprise, the devs have posted about fixing this, but unfortunately seems not to have happened. Again, a really nice cozy game, but having 12 hours of progress gone has killed my love for it. I really hope the devs look into this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a lovely relaxing game. My only problem is the plant limit for the garden. It took me four hours of playing to max it out. The art style and graphics are stunning. The story is beautiful. And the design opportunity for the garden is truly lovely.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't think this game is cosy, but this comes down to how you play the game. If you really just log in to do a bit of gardening here and there, it can be cosy. If you buy this with the intention of getting all achievements, oh, boy. You're going to hate yourself. Here is what I think this game needs an overhaul: Plant type indicators - Why is there no toggle to turn on the plant names once they have been planted? I don't know which colour variant or type of plant I'm looking at. I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played this game for 6 minutes and I'm dizzy and nauseous. It's gorgeous and looks like a lot of fun, but if you are a motion sick gamer, beware. Even turning down graphics quality and sensitivity I still couldn't play it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cozy and family friendly game that I can enjoy with my daughter.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Danm! It sucked me in. I usually don't like chore sims, but this one is just so nice I couldn't stop playing. However, some QoL improvement would be nice, like pop-up what flower I see, because it gets harder to know which variant you already planted or not. Or running? I'm not sure if it was a bug or if I toggled crouch accidentally. But the game slowed me down, but when I restarted, it was ok again. Wierd.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's cute, but crashes constantly and not worth the money paid. I'm perpetually stuck in limbo on my games and i do not want to keep making a new save every single time this happens. Unfortunately judging by all the discussions and posts, this issues has been happening for 2 years with no fixes. So if you are interested in this game, i would wait a while longer before purchasing and definitely look over reviews to see if the issue has been resolved. I have not been able to find any way to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game had every chance of becoming the coziest and the most adorable one, where you create the garden of your dreams with as many flowers as you want. However, it ended up being a MASSIVE flop. Here's why: 1. There is practically no story whatsoever, so at one point it just becomes tedious, "harvest - make a bouquet - get money". 2. THE STUPID PLANT LIMIT. You cannot plant as many flowers as you like - at some point you reach a limit and you have to remove plants. Sooo, instead of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Today Dan and Carrie check out the chill gardening sim, Garden Life! Many thanks to the folks at Nacon and Dare Drop for sponsoring this video. Try the game yourself! l.daredrop.com/GardenLifePl...
neutral · AI labelView post →Honestly I thought I would like this game as it looked cozy and I like plants. However the technical issues and structure of the game really bothered me so I had to refund it. The keybinding was not possible unless you were on the main screen. Half the time I could not place items unless I pressed the button multiple times and I could hardly use the placement tab. There wasn't a lot to do at least early game except prune flowers and wait for them to grow and money was not obtained very fast, I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Becomes absolutely unplayable after you’ve put a couple of hours in. It crashes and freezes non-stop at some point and there is not easy fixing it. The developers blame the user and doesn’t seem to intent to fix the issue. Waste of money considering I can’t refund it anymore. Really too bad, the game is fun if it wasn’t so buggy
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was so torn on which direction to go with this. I love the idea of the game. It's very cozy and easy to follow. BUT, I've "finished" it in 36 hours. Yes, orders still come in every day. There's just no real tasks to do other than daily orders once you finish the story quests. There's also a PLANT LIMIT? On a gardening game. That's just crazy to me. If it didn't have the plant limit and maybe had more bigger tasks to do, I'd 100% recommend. It just feels lacking.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the game in cute,kinda but it is repetitive as hell.the rng systems is exhausting.i play it to kill some time and only for this reason.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As the name suggests, this game is indeed cozy. There's no time pressure to complete tasks which means you can get as distracted as your heart desires. My cats chirp in response to the cats in the game so that is an added bonus :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hokay. So. I am a avid lover of plants. A plant addict- so you could say. And I have finished this storyline to the point where every day for now gets me the same order so I figure its mostly complete (Save for the last couple achievments, I will most likely get when I want to go in again) What I love- All of it. The pavilion- Was a wonderful touch. The look of all the flowers are indeed what they are. The sandbox play that comes with the game and the ability to buid and rebuild your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If i cant finish a game due to a broken achievement its not worth it to me
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is top tier gardening porn. Since I didn’t have time to plant my own garden last year, this game filled that void and made me feel blissfully unaware of time spent on going ham on a garden that was every bit as pretty as the game promised. CONS: The biggest con I will give this game is on the limitation on the number of flowers you can plant in the garden. Come on now, don’t be stingy with me Devs. Another con, was that all of the items needed to complete projects back in the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"That flower is cute, i want more. That flower is also cute, I want more of that one too. Oh, I need to remove the weed and... WHY ARE THERE BUGS ON MY PEONIES?!" the game is adorable, beautiful and really, really good for your mental health. Except when there are to many insects and you can't figure out how to refill the spraybottle. Still 10/10, will recommend.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like this game better than I anticipated!! It's cute, charming, and got lots of flavour. Both the garden and the village has this unique "lived in" feeling that reminds me fondly of vacationing around in Europe. The feedback that I DO have feels a little nitpicking (things feel a little repetitive sometimes, it's hard to keep flower icons apart, my hands is starting to get sore from paging through books/watering/using pesticide) but all on all I have had a good time and fondly recommend this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →☆ I don’t think I’ll buy anything, but there are a few games on my wishlist on sale, including: Fae Farm (50% off), Garden Life (40% off), Mika and the Witch’s Mountain (30% off), Fields of Mistria (20% off), Yaoling: Mythical Journey (10% off), and Call of Boba (10% off)
neutral · AI labelView post →Welp, I just found my next new hyperfocus game. And of course it's Garden Life, because me and the Growing of the Things. I'm going to be entirely lost when Out and About (really neat herbalism / foraging sim) finally gets released.
positive · AI labelView post →Between Rusty’s Retirement and Garden Life, I think I’m falling into a cozy game unlock fest lately. It’s like my brain just wants me to unlock things and make the numbers go up.
positive · AI labelView post →✨🌺Happy release day Garden Life🌺✨ I had the pleasure of voicing several characters in this beautiful gardening sandbox game. ‘Garden Life’ is super relaxing and every cozy gamers dream. Cups of tea, big blankets and green fingers at the ready! 😊🪴
neutral · AI labelView post →🔴LIVE NOW🔴 LETS GO DAY 3!! Here's our list for today: Hymble Ventures Matchmaker Agency Leaf Blower Man: This Game Blows Froggonit @fuzgames.bsky.social Garden Life www.twitch.tv/sesurescue and find my demo list here: tinyurl.com/SesuOctDemos
neutral · AI labelView post →Not a bad game, but annoying in that there is no easy way to grow the flowers in the colors you need. A lot of it is up to luck rather than anything else.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →10/10 best game i have ever played in my entire life
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I haven't played this game for many hours but it is really enjoyable and cosy. Definitely recommend!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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