Grow Up

Grow Up is the sequel to Grow Home and it builds largely on the mechanics of the first game as a vertically oriented platform game focused on exploration. The protagonist is once again the little robot called B.U.D. (Botanical Utility Droid). He is aboard his space ship M.O.M. on a botanical expedition to discover and recover interesting bioforms. After being reunited with M.O.M. at the end of the first game, the ship gets into trouble in a meteor storm, crashing down on a planet below. The main goal to complete the game is locating the nine ship parts spread all over the game world to restore the space ship. The game is however played in an open world environment where different objectives can be tackled in any order, by any means, and there are also lots of activities involving physics and exploration not tied to direct progression.

Compared to the first game there is now a much larger world with more variety in climate and vegetation, spanning a globe, instead of a single area largely with vertical progress. The player can now visit many different parts either linked together, or floating in the air or water. Just like in the first game there are many vertical parts where star plants can be grown by riding their buds to reach higher surfaces, but also deep caves, volcanoes and islands on different locations. Vegetation can be pulled from the ground and many friendly animals can be discovered, usually following B.U.D. around. He can be moved in any direction and is able to jump. The movement of his limbs is procedurally animated, bringing a ragdoll-like element to the physics that give his movement a clumsy look. He also cannot always be stopped instantly and often needs some space to regain his composure. The most important mechanic to reach higher areas is through climbing. Through two separate buttons or keys, his left and right hand can grab onto a surface and combined with minor swinging movement the player has to alternate between the two hands and motions to climb. If both are released, he falls down, but it is still possible to attach. When he crashes or drowns in water he respawns at a tele-router, a checkpoint and teleportation system that can be used to travel between parts of the planet when a new one has been discovered and activated.

P.O.D. (Planetary Observation Droid) is a new element to the game. This robot allows the player to zoom out and access a world map where locations can be tracked and a waypoint can be set, visible as a light beam in the game world. This is also used to track P.O.D. challenges, short, optional challenges in the game world that can be completed to unlock different types of suits for B.U.D. Different abilities can be unlocked, such as rolling into a ball and boosting away, or deploying a flower parachute or a glider. As in the first game there are 24 unique plants to discover. Next to scanning them for the Floradex 3000 they can be spawned by selecting one and throwing a seed. Each plant offers different types of physics based effects, such as trampolines (through a champoline), boost launches, glowing plants, fireworks-like boosters, stalks that can be climbed and so on.

Once again 150 crystals can be found in the game world, adding to B.U.D.'s power level and making his jet pack last longer. These additional powers bars are also used to throw seeds. Het jet pack is also the most important means to get around quickly. The power is drained when used, but then regenerates gradually.