We Love It's Guide to…
Raise a child through school in a 1990s life sim, balancing studies, skills, friendships, and family expectations to shape their future.
Released 13 Oct 2021
Build Skills, Balance Mood
Solve Matching Exams
Meet Friends, Find Romance
This is the story of your life. Experience the entire journey from toddler to adulthood. Go to schools, learn new things, meet new friends, and have wild adventures! Every choice you make will influence your future career, and decide who your romantic partner will be. Who will you become?
Developed by Vile Monarch · Published by Vile Monarch, Spiral Up Games
Growing Up is a coming-of-age life sim set in a 1990s-inspired town. Guide a child from early life through high-school graduation, shaping their interests, relationships, and future as they grow.
Each year, spend limited time on school subjects, jobs, hobbies, and town activities. A brain-map minigame develops attributes, while scheduling means balancing skill growth and study with happiness and parental approval. Periodic exams use matching puzzles, and their results affect progression.
Meet a changing selection of friends and other characters, then make dialogue choices that shape friendships, possible romances, and story outcomes. Skills, stats, exams, and relationships inform the character’s ending. After graduation, the next generation can begin as their child, offering new paths to explore.
Players who enjoy Growing Up often describe it as relaxing and absorbing, and praise its character storylines, replayable life paths, and warm art and music. Some appreciate returning to see different outcomes and continuing with a character’s child. Recurring criticisms include repetitive later playthroughs, the story ending at graduation, and frustration with balancing parental approval and mental health or with the exam puzzles; some players also feel choices have less impact than expected.
| Platforms | Windows, macOS |
|---|---|
| Achievements | 62 |
| Age ratings |
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| Controller required | No |
