Games like Growing Up
If Growing Up is your kind of game, the closest matches are Notes of the Young Lady: In Turbulent Times, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist and When I'm Not Drawing — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its chill, cozy and nostalgic. Each pick is ranked by what players of this game also play, shared genres and tags, and review-mined similarity — not a generic popularity list.
Get personalized picks →Growing Up is a life simulation and visual novel developed by Vile Monarch that follows a character from birth through graduation, with the entire experience set in the 1990s. Players navigate brain-map mini-games that force meaningful trade-offs between different developmental paths, while stat-raising and a parental approval system track progress across childhood and adolescence. The game features relationship-building mechanics that allow players to pursue friendships and romances, including LGBTQ representation among romancable characters, with choices that unlock different career trajectories and shape multiple possible endings. Reviewers describe the experience as cozy, nostalgic, and whimsical, praising how meaningfully choices influence the character's future. The game supports dialogue-skipping for returning players and maintains a chill difficulty suitable for relaxed sessions. Currently priced at $14.99 and marked as playable on Steam Deck, it holds an 87% positive rating from over 2,200 Steam reviews.
About Growing Up: 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?
Players who liked Growing Up also play
Steam players who put hours into Growing Up also tend to own these titles — a signal called collaborative filtering. imho.run cross-references millions of library ownership patterns to surface games whose real audiences overlap, regardless of whether their genre tags match.
Notes of the Young Lady: In Turbulent Times
WHY THIS
Shares relationship building, time management and a cozy mood with Growing Up.
Top pick for Growing Up fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Growing Up.
격동의 파란 속에서 한 소녀를 멋지게 성장시키자! 6년 간의 성장 대장정을 그리는 일정관리형 육성시뮬레이션!
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
WHY THIS
Shares time management and a whimsical mood with Growing Up.
Second-strongest match for Growing Up fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
Spend your teenage years on an alien planet in this narrative RPG with card-based battles. Explore, grow up, and fall in love. The choices you make and skills you master over ten years will determine the course of your life and the survival of your colony.
When I'm Not Drawing
WHY THIS
Third-strongest match for Growing Up fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Growing Up.
In this cozy life-simulation RPG, you play as a young artist who moves to a new city to pursue your dreams. Plan your schedule, balance life and career, explore the city, and meet new friends! Live a fulfilling year on your own, at your own pace.
K-pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut
WHY THIS
Ranked #4 for Growing Up fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
The ultimate crossover between K-pop and Life Simulation! Step into the role of manager and build your dream idol group by scouting talent, managing schedules, choosing outfits, planning social media, and organizing the perfect album. Can you make it to debut?
Mr.DomusMundi
WHY THIS
Ranked #5 for Growing Up fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Indie with Growing Up.
Prince Mundi solves only global issues on the scale of the kingdom.
Emily is Away <3
WHY THIS
Shares a nostalgic mood with Growing Up.
Ranked #6 for Growing Up fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with Growing Up.
Emily <3 is a brand new story set on an old-new social media. Customize your facenook profile, send some friend requests and determine the outcome of your senior year.
Choice of Life: Samosbor
WHY THIS
Shares a whimsical mood with Growing Up.
Ranked #7 for Growing Up fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Indie and Adventure with Growing Up.
You're just a simple inhabitant of the endless Gigastructure. The best you'll get is seven shifts at a machine and a bowl of feed concentrate, and that for good service to the party.... Is that it? Or do you have a choice?
The Horrorscope: Fatal Awakening
WHY THIS
Ranked #8 for Growing Up fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Simulation and RPG with Growing Up.
You will answer a series of questions that will reveal your potential fate. These questions may make you uncomfortable, but with great knowledge comes great sacrifice. Can you make it all the way through The Horrorscope, and if you do, are you sure you want the answers you seek?
Reviewers mention these as similar to Growing Up
Surfaced from review text: when other players write 'if you liked X, try Y', we catch the name and resolve it back to a Steam game.
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
WHY THIS
Shares time management and a whimsical mood with Growing Up.
Reviewers of Growing Up cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
Spend your teenage years on an alien planet in this narrative RPG with card-based battles. Explore, grow up, and fall in love. The choices you make and skills you master over ten years will determine the course of your life and the survival of your colony.
Stardew Valley
WHY THIS
Shares a cozy mood with Growing Up.
Reviewers of Growing Up cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
You've inherited your grandfather's old farm plot in Stardew Valley. Armed with hand-me-down tools and a few coins, you set out to begin your new life. Can you learn to live off the land and turn these overgrown fields into a thriving home?
The Sims™ Legacy Collection
WHY THIS
Shares a cozy mood with Growing Up.
Reviewers of Growing Up cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Simulation and Casual with Growing Up.
The original game you know and love. For Windows 10/11. Create a neighborhood of Sims and guide their lives through careers and romance. Or create chaos with open-ended gameplay that lets you shape their destinies.
Life is Strange Remastered
WHY THIS
Shares a nostalgic mood with Growing Up.
Reviewers of Growing Up cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Adventure with Growing Up.
Experience the BAFTA award-winning story of Life is Strange now beautifully remastered with enhanced visuals and vastly improved animation using mocap technology.
Class of '09
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Growing Up cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
This is the anti-visual novel. Instead of playing as some guy magically able to score with beautiful anime girls, YOU play the anime girl and create mass chaos in the lives of your potential "suitors". Earnest comedy, social accuracy, and late 2000's aesthetic await you in Class of '09!
Chinese Parents
WHY THIS
Shares a nostalgic mood with Growing Up.
Reviewers of Growing Up cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
In this casual sim set in China, you step into the shoes of an average kid from birth towards the end of your high school. Study hard, have fun, make friends and face your ultimate challenge, the “Gaokao”. What will your life be after that? And when you have a child, will you be a Tiger Parent?
Princess Maker 5
WHY THIS
Shares relationship building and a nostalgic mood with Growing Up.
Reviewers of Growing Up cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Simulation with Growing Up.
Discover magic in our world with Princess Maker 5! A lone princess needs your care in a realm where fantasy meets reality. Guide her growth and shape her destiny. Create unforgettable memories as you raise her.
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Growing Up cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Indie with Growing Up.
A narrative-driven hardcore RPG set in a gritty world ruled by real but unrelenting gods. Set out on a challenging lifetime journey, where every choice has a price and entails consequences. Will you become an inquisitor, a judge, or conspire against the old order? Dare to decide!
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Growing Up at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Growing Up on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
Garry's Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren't any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.
Vampire Survivors
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Growing Up on Steam right now. Shares Indie and RPG with Growing Up.
Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. Be the bullet hell!
PEAK
WHY THIS
Priced ~47% under Growing Up on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Adventure with Growing Up.
PEAK is a co-op climbing game where the slightest mistake can spell your doom. Either solo or as a group of lost nature scouts, your only hope of rescue from a mysterious island is to scale the mountain at its center. Do you have what it takes to reach the PEAK?
Sid Meier's Civilization® V
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Growing Up on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Growing Up.
Create, discover, and download new player-created maps, scenarios, interfaces, and more!
Slay the Spire
WHY THIS
Priced ~58% under Growing Up on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Growing Up.
We fused card games and roguelikes together to make the best single player deckbuilder we could. Craft a unique deck, encounter bizarre creatures, discover relics of immense power, and Slay the Spire!
Inscryption
WHY THIS
Priced ~47% under Growing Up on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Growing Up.
Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards...
Cookie Clicker
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Growing Up on Steam right now. Shares Strategy and Indie with Growing Up.
An idle game about making cookies! Originally released in 2013 on the web, and actively developed since then. This is the official version for Steam.
WEBFISHING
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Growing Up on Steam right now. Shares Indie and Casual with Growing Up.
WEBFISHING a multiplayer chatroom-focused fishing game! Relax and fish (on the web!)
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Doki Doki Literature Club!
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Casual with Growing Up.
The Literature Club is full of cute girls! Will you write the way into their heart? This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.
Life is Strange - Episode 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Adventure with Growing Up.
Episode 1 now FREE! Life is Strange is an award-winning and critically acclaimed episodic adventure game that allows the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.
Bongo Cat
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
Bongo cat needs your help. Bongo cat needz more hatz!!! Every time you press a key, Bongo cat will punch your taskbar. Type, click, play, work to collect more points. Which hats will you find?
ENA: Dream BBQ
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Adventure with Growing Up.
Experience surreal environments and inexplicable characters as ENA in a new wild world.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
Sonic the Hedgehog...was murdered!? Get to the bottom of the mystery in this brand-new adventure!
Indigo Park: Chapter 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Adventure with Growing Up.
Explore the abandoned childhood wonder of Indigo Park! Guided by Rambley the Raccoon, help restore power to the destroyed amusement park while you run from the reason it shut down.
Our Life: Beginnings & Always
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie and Casual with Growing Up.
A twenty-dollar bill, four summers, fifteen years, and a one of a kind life. Create an experience that’s all your own in this near-fully customizable visual novel where you grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door.
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
More from Vile Monarch
Other recommendable Steam games by Vile Monarch, ranked by review count so the studio's hits land first.
Oh...Sir!! The Insult Simulator
WHY THIS
Another title from Vile Monarch, the studio behind Growing Up. Shares Indie and Simulation with Growing Up.
A Hilarious Insult-‘em up in which players must verbally take-out their friends and family in different game modes. Assemble witty insults using different word strings, and employ combos, criticals, continuations and more to battle your opponents both offline and online across multiple devices.
Weedcraft Inc
WHY THIS
Shares a chill mood with Growing Up.
Another title from Vile Monarch, the studio behind Growing Up. Shares Strategy and Indie with Growing Up.
Weedcraft Inc explores the business of producing, breeding and selling weed in America, delving deep into the financial, political and cultural aspects of the country's complex relationship with this troublesome and promising plant.
Floodland
WHY THIS
Another title from Vile Monarch, the studio behind Growing Up. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Growing Up.
A society survival game set in a world destroyed by climate change. Explore, scavenge and build a city to unite the clans. Conflicting cultures and limited resources mean you need to make tough choices; have you got what it takes to lead your people into a new era of humanity?
Crush Your Enemies
WHY THIS
Another title from Vile Monarch, the studio behind Growing Up. Shares Strategy and Indie with Growing Up.
Go back to the awesome glory days of Real-Time Strategy games. Crush Your Enemies has everything you love of the genre: Planning, choosing different types of units, managing resources, taking enemy territory and outwitting your opponent with the ingenious formations of your men.
Oh...Sir! The Hollywood Roast
WHY THIS
Another title from Vile Monarch, the studio behind Growing Up. Shares Indie and Adventure with Growing Up.
The boys are back , and they look better than ever! Oh…Sir! The Hollywood roast is a brand new spinoff to the surprise indie hit 0f 2016, Oh…Sir!! The Insult Simulator. This time around we’re taking tinsel town down a few notches, whilst classing up the joint.
The Last Alchemist
WHY THIS
Shares a cozy mood with Growing Up.
Another title from Vile Monarch, the studio behind Growing Up. Shares Adventure and Simulation with Growing Up.
Master the wonders of alchemy! Solve alchemical puzzles by transforming and combining Essences. Craft items, tools and machines. Explore the enchanting world, gather peculiar resources, and befriend the Agari, adorable mushroom folk who will help you find the cure for your mysterious disease.
Oh...Sir! Prototype
WHY THIS
Another title from Vile Monarch, the studio behind Growing Up. Shares Indie with Growing Up.
A Ridiculous local 1v1muliplayer Insult Simulator for two!
Frequently asked about Growing Up
- Does Growing Up run on Steam Deck?
- Growing Up is rated Playable on Steam Deck — it runs, but expect some manual adjustments (control remapping, text size, or graphics settings) for the best experience.
- How much does Growing Up cost?
- Growing Up is listed on Steam at 14.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to Growing Up?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Growing Up are Notes of the Young Lady: In Turbulent Times, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, When I'm Not Drawing.
- Who developed Growing Up?
- Growing Up was developed by Vile Monarch and published by Vile Monarch, Spiral Up Games.
imho.run ranks Steam game alternatives using a mix of collaborative filtering (ALS / iALS / EASE / LightGCN), content scoring over genres, categories, Steam tags, developers, and publishers, plus AI-extracted vibes mined from review text. The page above is generated in seed mode anchored on Growing Up.
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