Quiet Bloom | You Made This. I Played It. | Episode 1

I’m trying something new with You Made This. I Played It., a series for the games people send me and demos I find along the way. First up is Quiet Bloom, a cozy idle incremental game about restoring a desert. I received a Steam demo key by email, and the music had already gotten me before I even started playing. I had it running while I answered work emails, and I was pretty happy just leaving it on.

The actual game starts with clicking trees for leaves and buying upgrades. Then I get wind moving through the trees, start messing with prestige resets, and spend a surprising amount of time wondering why I can’t collect stone. Eventually I find the upgrade. Not a bug. That one’s on me. Once I understand that the wind is actually moving around and shaking resources loose, I like that idea quite a bit. I still want to click everything myself, though. I want to actively idle here.

By the end I’ve worked through wells, rain, and more upgrades until I create a lake and reach the demo’s ending. I give it a solid B, or roughly a seven, for this first look. It also takes the number-one spot in the series, which is very impressive until you remember I’ve only played one game. There’s a lot of skill tree I haven’t seen yet, so we’ll see where it goes.