Growing Things Up Review

There are two kinds of Ren'Py games: the ones that use the format and the ones that just happen to be built in it. Growing Things Up is firmly in the first camp — here is why that matters.

What is Growing Things Up?

Mechanically Growing Things Up is an adult dating simulator on Ren'Py, which tells you the shape but not the substance. The substance is a story that treats its adult scenes as consequences — you reach them by getting somewhere with a character, and you can absolutely fail to get there. That constraint is what gives the scenes their weight.

The build reviewed here is v1.05b. Growing Things Up is developed episodically, so the chapter count moves; the systems described below have been stable across the last several releases.

Story and setting

The story leans on a small cast and a single location, and that constraint works in its favour. Instead of a sprawling roster you half-remember, you get a handful of characters the writing has time to develop. By the third chapter you can predict how each will react to a given choice — which is exactly when the game starts subverting it.

Pacing is the recurring complaint and it is a fair one. Growing Things Up takes its time establishing everyone before it lets anything happen, and if you are the kind of player who skips dialogue you will find the first two hours interminable and the rest incoherent. Read it or do not play it — there is no middle setting where the game works.

Gameplay and progression

The moment-to-moment loop is simple to describe and harder to master. Choices are weighted rather than binary. A single decision rarely closes a route, but three consistent ones will, and the game does not surface a meter telling you where you stand. That is a deliberate design choice and it splits players: some find it tense, others find it opaque. A route guide exists for a reason.

• Engine: Ren'Py
• Format: adult dating simulator
• Typical route length: around 12 hours
• Saves: cloud-synced across devices

Visuals, art style and sound

The art direction favours mood over resolution. Interiors are lit warm and low, exteriors are washed out, and the effect is a game that looks composed rather than merely rendered. Where it stumbles is in crowd scenes, where the asset reuse becomes visible, but those are rare.

The soundtrack does real work in the quieter scenes and disappears in the busy ones, which is the correct arrangement.

What content does Growing Things Up include?

Here is what Growing Things Up actually contains, tag by tag.

Also worth a look: Passion Industry

Growing Things Up covers Anal, Anime, BDSM, Big Ass, Big Tits, Cheating, Creampie, Cuckold, Dating Sim, Exhibitionism, Femdom, Footjob, Group Sex, Handjob, Harem, Impregnation, Lesbian, Masturbation, MILF, NTR, Oral, Pregnancy, Romance, Sex Simulator, Spanking, Stripping, Titfuck, Vaginal, Virgin, Voyeurism.

Tag breadth is not the same as depth — some of these get a full route, others get a single scene. The verdict below accounts for that.

Platforms — how to play Growing Things Up

Platform support is broader than most of the shelf, and here is how each option behaves.

• Interactive Porn Games — Branching routes, real fail states, endings you can miss.
• Realistic Porn Games — Photoreal rendering, live-action footage, or both.
• Ren'Py Porn Games — The engine behind most of the genre's best writing.
• Adult Visual Novels — Branching stories where the writing carries the game.
• Cloud Save Games — Start on desktop, finish on your phone.
• 3D Porn Games — Rendered scenes, posed lighting, real depth.

Who should play Growing Things Up?

The right audience here is the patient one. Growing Things Up rewards a slow read and punishes a fast one — the choices that matter are buried in ordinary conversations, and clicking through them will lock routes you did not know were open. If you play with the skip key held down, this is not your game.

Before you start

Some setup advice, because a bad first run is hard to recover from.

• Saving: progress syncs to the cloud, so a device swap mid-route is safe.
• Route planning: keep a save before each major choice. Growing Things Up branches early and converges late, which is the arrangement that punishes a single overwrite slot the most.
• Version: start on v1.05b or later — earlier builds are missing route content the review above describes.
• Best platform: the Browser build is the one to use; the others trail it by a release or two.
• Content check: read the tag list above before starting. Several of these are route-locked and not signalled in-game before you are already in.

Our verdict on Growing Things Up

Growing Things Up is a solid recommendation for anyone already in this genre and a reasonable entry point for anyone who is not. The pacing asks patience in the first act and repays it in the second. If you bounce off the opening, that is a real signal — the game does not change shape later.

Scores below are editorial and comparative — they rank this title against the rest of the Ren'Py Porn Games catalogue on four axes, not against games in general.

• Story and writing: 9.6 / 10
• Visuals and art: 8.2 / 10
• Gameplay and progression: 8.6 / 10
• Content breadth: 9.6 / 10

Growing Things Up FAQ

What platforms does Growing Things Up run on?

Growing Things Up runs on Browser, Android and iOS. The browser build is the fastest way in — no download, no install, and progress carries over if you sign in.

What kind of game is Growing Things Up?

It is best described as adult dating simulator, and it sits in our Ren'Py Porn Games category. If you liked other games on that shelf, this is a safe next pick.

Do I need an account to play Growing Things Up?

No account is required to start. You will only need one if you want cloud saves or want to sync progress between devices.

What engine is Growing Things Up built on?

Ren'Py. That matters in practice: it determines how saves behave across updates, whether rollback is available, and how well the game holds up on lower-end hardware.