What is the best way to escape your dead-end 9-5 job? Why, you open up your very own plant nursery, of course! There’s nothing like going back to your roots and growing a business from a tiny seed given to you by your uncle Joe. Prepare yourself for a grand old time in what’s shaping up to be one of this year’s coziest sim games.
Plant Nursery Simulator is a management sim game developed and published by Robot Assembly. The game revolves around growing and maintaining a “budding” (pun intended) plant nursery business you got from your uncle. Like in many storefront simulator games, you will spend your days growing your business for as long as you have plants and gardening equipment to unlock. The biggest difference you’ll notice is that, compared to your average Supermarket Simulator game, this is way more chill.
This Early Access Review includes all content and gameplay as of the release of v0.6.0, including all the new licenses, trinkets, floor signs, and furniture updates. A full review of the game is planned for after the game exits Early Access.
The Daily Life of a Plant Nursery Owner
At the request of your Uncle Joe, you take over a humble plant nursery and transform it into a place where your character can connect with plants and other people. And looking at the desk job our character had at the start of the game, I’d say we made the right move. The modest building we start with appears to be incapable of holding more than four or so shelves. In this case, it is appropriate since you only have access to a minimal selection of flowers to begin with. But don’t worry, you’ll be leveling up very quickly in this game, at least at the start.
From what I’ve experienced so far in this version of the Early Access game, it seems like the game suffers from uneven pacing issues. You’ll start red hot, quickly leveling up before the day even ends. It is so fast that you’ll potentially miss potential licenses, as you won’t have enough money to buy them. The mid-game, however, tells a very different story. By the time you reach level 25 or so, the game begins to move at a much slower pace. You’ll often find yourself flush with cash, but leveling up will start to feel like a grind. Suddenly, trinkets begin to look more appealing, regardless of whether they’ll actually be helpful or not.
Another unique aspect of this game is its Trinket Feature. Think of thinkets as boosters that affect gameplay in a positive manner. Some trinkets offer an outright boost in movement speed, while other trinkets make it so that customers are more likely to pay in exact change. The neat thing about trinkets is that they are a physical presence in the world, and some of them even look nice as a storefront decoration. Well, it’s not like you have much choice beyond that, considering that we don’t have much in the way of store decorations. Not unless you count fruit and vegetable stands as something that breaks the monotony of endless shelves.
All in all, the gameplay loop is adequate for a game that’s in the middle of Early Access. Though I must admit that I wish there were more buffers in the early to mid-game to even out the pacing a bit. Or even tinker around with EXP gains versus money earned. Aside from that, the game is in a good place, so far. That can change closer to full release, so I might still check in every once in a while.
A lot of Greenhouse Real Estate
The greenhouses in Plant Nursery Simulator are what set it apart from most games in the genre. Usually, in other sim games, it’s only a small pot with some dirt in it, and you can practically have an entire plot’s worth of produce from one plant. But Plant Nursery Simulator goes the extra mile to include its own shelving system and water irrigation system. The latter is a much-appreciated addition post demo, since watering from the watering can quickly gets tedious if you have more than a few tables of potted plants.
As seen in the picture above, the idea is to have one whole table dedicated to one kind of crop. There are a couple of pots and soil types to choose from, depending on your level, but everything you need to know is laid out neatly, starting with the basic small pot and regular soil. Eventually, you’ll be able to hire gardeners to do all the gardening for you.
The gardeners are the biggest question marks in the game currently. I honestly don’t know what to make of them. In the current version, the gardeners’ AI is very much specialized. They are very effective when it comes to harvesting and reseeding plots, but they don’t do anything else besides that. That means in the 4-5 days it takes to grow the crops, they stand in the sun all day doing nothing. Moreover, when they harvest crops and put them in whatever containers are available, they just leave the containers scattered around the greenhouse entrances.
Look, you have to understand one thing. The storerooms can only hold so many racks before it gets too uncomfortable to move around. It’s already hard enough to store pallets of regular plants and other gardening implements. The stockers don’t mind, of course. Heck, before this current patch, they were going through the storeroom walls as if they were ghosts. All I’m saying is that it might be a good idea for the developers to add some sort of building dedicated to storing produce. Something to consider.
It’s a Quirky, Cozy Game
One of the things I really like about this game is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. You can unlock the garbage grabber, pick up all loose objects on the floor, and send them to the Shadow Realm. The trolley can pick up a load of boxes as tall as a skyscraper, and physics won’t apply until you let go of the trolley. The cleanup was messy and chaotic, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Something I didn’t mention earlier about the grow pots was how janky they were at the start. The game had this weird way of classifying objects outside of boxes. The seed boxes are a prime example of this. Once outside the box, the game no longer considers that particular box of seeds an item you can sell on shelves. The plant pots work somewhat the same way. If you move the pots in any way, the game somehow allows them to overlap with other pots in the same placement. It’s weird, nonsensical, and I am glad they made changes since I first noticed it in the demo.
Update v0.6.0 Changes
As of the writing of this Early Access review, the current version of the game is v0.6.1. This latest content drop introduces the Lush Leaves and Flashy Florals licenses, two new trinkets, and various furniture updates.
The Buddha Thinket calms customers so they never complain and only purchase what’s in stock. It unlocks at Lvl 70 for $2,000. The Angel Statue allows players to purchase crops directly from the Shop app. This one unlocks at Lvl 80 for $2,000. These two are clearly geared towards end-game players, which is fine since the previous cap was somewhere around Lvl 66. If anything, it’s a good sign that the game is getting content updates. My only concern is that the gap between updates has been fairly long since launching into Early Access.
Plant Nursery Simulator: Roadmap to 1.0
Around August 2025, the developers laid out their vision of what they want the game to be like in its full release. Roadmap to 1.0, as it is being called, focuses on a few core pillars: relaxing gameplay, growing and investing in your shop, deeper personalization, and stable, smooth performance.
AI changes and game performance improvements aside, what I am looking forward to the most is the addition of flower bouquets and the separate flower arrangement system they have in the works. If they can make it so that you get more money, the more creative a piece is, that would be awesome. I’m also looking forward to seeing more expressive customers and the special event that’s said to unlock at Lvl 100. At that point, I’d have sold a whole mountain’s worth of flowers.
Plant Nursery Simulator is definitely a work-in-progress game that’s still missing a few key features. Actually, I can’t help but root for this cozy game. I may not be the biggest fan of cozy games, but even I can see that there’s potential here, especially when the customers look like characters from a game that passes for Disney Dreamlight. Plant Nursery Simulator might not light up across the board when it comes to wide appeal, but it doesn’t need to. All it needs to do is stay the course and be the best cozy game it can be for the rest of its time in Early Access. Check back here for my full review of the game when it fully releases.
