Window Garden is a casual Idle Game developed by Camilla Santiago of CLOVER-FI Studios during the COVID-19 Pandemic and was released on Android and iOS in February 2024. It stars you as a female bean-shaped humanoid called Pink, whom Oli leaves his plants with because he can't take care of them himself. You tend to his plants and decorate your windows with them, and also earn money by catching butterflies and birds to buy more plants, pots, and decorations. The game also has a sleep timer for work, studying, and bedtime, which lets you simply listen to its lo-fi soundtrack until it fades out when the game closes by itself.
Tropes
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Every hour, you can spin the gachapon for free, then additional spins increasingly cost money followed by watching an ad to keep rolling.
- Ad Reward: You can watch an ad to double the daily rewards, claim seasonal items for free, and get an extra roll at the gachapon.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: While it's possible to collect everything for free, you can purchase bundles of in-game coins, water, and sunlight and upgrade your watering can and sun jar with real money, especially since you need 10,000 coins to go on vacation and let Oli tend to the plants for you.
- But Thou Must!: When Oli asks you if you like plants, you can only say either yes or "Plants like me".
- Creator Provincialism: The Summer Fiesta Seasonal Event has plants and items related to Philippine festivals such as the MassKara Festival
and the Higantes Festival. - Do Well, But Not Perfect: A plant becomes Parched if given too little water, Drowning if given too much, but Happy if given just the right amount. If you can water it just right and provide it just enough sunlight, it'll become Healthy.
- Excuse Plot: Oli leaves you with his plants because he can't take care of them himself (although you can call him back for 10,000 coins to let him tend them for you while you're out). The main game involves tending the plants and decorating your windows with them.
- Guilt-Based Gaming: Plants will die if you don't water them regularly, even while stored in your inventory, and reviving them requires watching an ad.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The game gives your plant a random name when you're about to place it by the window, but you can change it anytime.
- Hint System: Your Plant Journal contains tips for the game which you can view anytime.
- An Interior Designer Is You: You can adorn the windows with plants and household decor, and then take a picture of your setup and save it to your device.
- In-Universe Game Clock: The game follows your device's internal clock, while the seasons cycle every month, so January is spring, February is summer, March is fall, while April is winter, and so on. There's also a daily weather forecast that determines whether or not you can open the window to gather sunlight, or whether or not you can gather rainwater.
- Item Compendium: Your Plant Journal tracks all the plants you've collected so far and lists how much water and sunlight they need and how frequently they need to be watered. There are 121 plants in all.
- Memory Match Mini-Game: One of the minigames is "Floral Match", where you can match items hidden inside flowers to gain them.
- Minigame Zone: You can play minigames in the in-game Game Boy hourly to easily earn money, sunlight, and water.
- Minimalist Cast: The only characters are Pink and Oli, who leaves his plants with her because he can't take care of them himself, kickstarting the game's premise of tending to them.
- Notice This: During Frenzy, Golden Butterflies are bigger than regular ones, shine bright gold, and make a shimmering sound when they appear. Collecting them gives you a random plant or decor.
- Photo Mode: You can take pictures of your garden with the in-game camera and add them to your journal, which you can save to your device. Your journal can store up to 20 photos.
- Play Every Day: The game encourages you to check on your plants daily by giving you a daily check-in reward. Maintaining your streak gives you a special reward on the 7th day such as decorations.
- Shout-Out:
- The title screen is a parody of ChilledCow's Lo-Fi Girl stream.
- Pokémon:
- The plant level-up sequence plays out like a Pokémon evolution, with the cue for the plant's growth being "What? is growing!".
- Two pots you can use to put your plants in look like Bulbasaur and Oddish.
- There are two pots that look like they come from Super Mario Bros., the Mystery Pot (which looks like a ? Block) and the Pipe Pot (which is green).
- Sidequest: Besides the permanent quests, there are daily and seasonal sidequests you can do to earn rewards. Completing a certain number of quests rewards you with a gem, which unlocks rarer plants and decor.
- Sound Test: You can change the lo-fi music anytime with the Record Player.
- Whack-a-Monster: One of the minigames is "Tap a Worm", where you have to hit the worms for money, water, and sunlight and avoid hitting Oli.
