Grow your own worlds in Grow: Song of the Evertree

The indie developers at Prideful Sloth say their next game "follows the cozy gaming movement", and its pastel, pastoral vibe sure seems to fit the bill. Grow: Song of the Evertree is a world-building sandbox where you're an alchemist caring for a gigantic tree that grows miniature worlds on its outstretched branches.

Alchemy lets you nurture floating islands and build towns to house the characters who live on the Evertree, but it's also got caves to explore, puzzles to solve, flowers and minerals to collect, and bugs to catch. If you were betting on Grow having a fishing minigame as well, then collect your winnings at the door because it sure does.

Australian studio Prideful Sloth previously made Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles, a gorgeous-looking and extremely chill game about restoring a lush fantasy landscape, though that time it was with the help of floating sprites. They've got form when it comes to relaxing games is what I'm saying.

Grow: Song of the Evertree will be out this year, and has a wishlist campaign on Steam. The more wishlists it gets, the steeper its launch discount will be and the more trees get planted via the Arbor Day Foundation around the world.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.