Pot Growing Games
First I want to send out a thanks to the reddit community - my Pot Grower Tycoon post was submitted and got some great comments!
So I just wanted to use this time to post a couple links to pot-growing games some of the redditors posted. I'll be checking some of these out for fun. If any of the games are good I'll post a review later on.
First up is Highgrow. On first look, it appears to be a cheesy, but hopefully decent, gardening sim that focuses on the illegal nature of growing our favorite maligned plant. I'm going to download it and check it out, but sadly my expectations are not too terribly high (pun intended) given the lame nature of the advertising on the site. I mean, everyone know that "legal buds" are a rip-off, right? Well, if you didn't know that - don't get suckered into wasting your money.
The next link provided by the good reddit community is to a list of pot games at Concept 420. Some of these look pretty decent, and sadly it appears like there are some pretty dead links on the list also.
I noticed some of these games are also merely drug-dealer strategy games. I'm really not into the whole "gangster" GTA/Scarface genre so I can't say I will bother with these. I like pot - I like smoking it, I like pot artwork, I like reading about pot. I prefer to leave meth, cocaine, heroine or the other illegals out of the equation.
I also actually used to play Ganja Farmer several years ago and it is a pretty fun game if you are into the classic Galaxian-style arcade games. Definitely not a Sim or Tycoon game, though.
I downloaded Virtual Grow 2, which Concept 420 apparently hosts themselves. I haven't played it yet, but I wanted to mention that I scanned it and it appears to be virus/trojan-free. I think of all the games, though, this one sounds like it could be closest to being the sort of game I was describing in my original post.
I also found Dope Farmer through the reddit comments. It looks fairly promising as a pot-farming sim, but I don't know how I will react to it, as apparently one of the goals of setting up a successful grow operation is to then make your own meth lab.
Even though it seems innoccuous enough, this is one of the aspects of the failed Drug War that really gets my blood boiling. Why must drugs like meth-amphetamines always be lumped in with marijuana? Of course the ignorant drug "warriors" will tell you it is because pot is a gateway drug. But no, it is because pot has been lumped in with these dangerous substances and has to share its subculture with them.
It reminds me of stories I've heard from both friends and strangers of smart kids with problems like dyslexia getting forced into classes with the "slow" kids. They don't belong there, but because of the short-sighted and ignorant nature of the school administrators they are forced into it. Always a shame.
Anywho - apparently my Pot Grower Tycoon game doesn't exist or still has yet to be uncovered from the deep sands of the intertubes. I'm still thinking about it and I'll post more of my ideas later. Maybe I should start learning game design so I can make it myself! Settlers 7 - Rise of the Rastafarians LOL.
Pot Grower Tycoon 2: What if?
OK, picture it with me ...
Deep in the woods of Northern California you have just inherited a large plot of land from you aunt. So you do what any red-blooded American does: you immediately set out to make millions of dollars with a banned substance!
In Pot Grower Tycoon you must create the ultimate secret pot farm and build a black market distribution network to spread your green love throughout the land, all the while avoiding the government, armed thieves and international gangs. Manage your farm the way you want - focus on the growing the best bud and rely on secrecy and prayer to get you through, or build up an arsenal and gun down anyone who sets foot on your land. Buy off the local sheriff and grow acres of bud or set up entire fake houses to conceal indoor farms.
Are you a ruthless capitalist or a peace-loving hippy? Pot Grower Tycoon allows you to choose between indoor and outdoor farming with customizations like soil and hydroponics, chemical and organic fertilizers or green and dirty electricity. Leave no trace or rape the land - it's your decision.
So how does it sound? I so want to play this game - maybe I'll attempt to create it. It might work as a browser game. Maybe not. I'm not sure I would really want to play a themed Travian-like, let alone attempt to develop my own.
But I am enjoying the pvp-lite Nile Online - it just seems to me like at least the threat of violence would need to pervade the game. Lol, getting busted could send you to Prison Tycoon.
It would have to be more than just Plant Tycoon, but implementing some simplified elements similar to this game could make for an interesting minigame - crossbreeding varieties on your farm to achieve the perfect "pineapple express." And doing so, as with the original, to be able to fetch higher prices for your product.
UPDATE: Thanks reddit! I have seen a lot of comments about this post and I appreciate all of them. I just wrote a follow-up here.
