owtopia is a massively multiplayer online sandbox video game where players can

chat, farm, add friends, trade, build worlds, and engage in player versus player
combat.[4] The game was initally released on Android in November 2012, and has been
released for iOS, Microsoft Windows, and MacOS since then. In 2019, it was released
on Nintendo Switch,[5] PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, these console versions were shut
down on July 30th, 2020.

On February 28, 2017, an Ubisoft acquirement of Growtopia was announced and was
completed during Ubisoft's 2016-17 fourth quarter, with the original developers
being design and general advisors to the game's continued development.[6] Growtopia
utilizes the freemium model.[7]

Contents
1 Gameplay
2 Development
3 Release
4 Reception
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
Gameplay
Growtopia is a 2D massively multiplayer online sandbox video game based around the
idea that most of the in-game items can be grown from seeds of trees.[8] The game
has no end goals or 100% completion, however, there is an achievement system and
quests to complete from non-player characters.

A new player is sent to a private world called Tutorial, which teaches the basics
of the game through reading tips with an item called the Growpedia. The player
starts out with two basic tools: a fist for punching and breaking blocks, and a
wrench for wrenching items and edit items' properties. After a player finished
Tutorial, they are sent to Start for learning more about the game.

Players can visit other people's worlds or create their own worlds. When a player
creates a new world, the world will be procedurally generated. Worlds in Growtopia
have the same size, with the exception special worlds created by the original
developers (such as the world Tiny). Players can break and build blocks, get seeds
or gems from blocks, plant seeds, and harvest trees. Players cannot do these
activities if the world or the area they are punching is locked by someone else.

Players can lock areas they want by using different sizes of locks: Small Lock, Big
Lock, Huge Lock, and World Lock (there are also other types of locks such as
Diamond Locks, which have the same function as World Locks). The game also contains
some special types of locks which changes certain aspects of how the world
functions. When a player has locked an area with a lock, the player can access
other people to the lock or edit properties by wrenching the lock. World Locks are
the main form of tradable currency.[8]

Development
Production of Growtopia started in 2012, when designer Seth Robinson made six
mockup screenshots outlining the premise of the game of which he originally called
Buildo, and sent it to Mike Hommel to entice him into helping with the project. The
game user interface started to take shape with Hommel's mockups.[7] On October 22,
2012, Hommel uploaded a video on his YouTube channel showing the development of the
game before its release.[9]

During initial development, Robinson and Hommel brought in the help of composer
Cory Mollenhour to produce Growtopia's soundtrack.[citation needed]
After three months of development, the game was released on Android as a free beta
on November 30, 2012, under the name Growtopia. They moved the game out of beta and
release the full version on January 9, 2013.[7] The game has been updated since the
release. On February 28, 2017, Ubisoft announced an acquisition of Growtopia. The
transaction was completed during Ubisoft's 2016-17 fourth quarter, under the terms
that the original developers would continue being both design and general advisors
to the game's continued development.[6] A North American community management and
moderation team was set up after Ubisoft's acquisition. They handed responsibility
of the game's future development over to their Ubisoft Abu Dhabi team.[10] The team
has been working continuously on Growtopia ever since.

Release
The game can be played on multiple operating systems, including Microsoft Windows,
macOS, iOS, and Android. The iOS version was released on January 11, 2013, after
the initial release for Android on November 30, 2012. Following these mobile
releases, the game was brought to computers; a Windows beta version was released on
July 9, 2013, and a macOS version was released on July 27, 2013.

Growtopia was available for a period of time on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4,
and Xbox Onefrom July 18, 2019, to July 30, 2020, before being discontinued in
order to "allocate all resources back to support the Mobile and PC version".[11]
[12][13][14] The decision to discontinue all console support was declared on April
27, 2020, and had followed from a previous announcement on January 19, 2020, which
had notified the community there would no longer be major updates or annual events
for the consoles platforms, as their team only had "limited resources available".
An Ubisoft Abu Dhabi team member stated that since there were "many, many more
players playing on Android, iOS, and PC", they were going to focus their resources
back towards those platforms.[15]

Reception
Reception
Aggregate score
Aggregator Score
GameRankings iOS: 70%[16]
Review scores
Publication Score
148Apps iOS: 4/5 stars[17]
Pocket Gamer iOS/Android: 6/10[18]
Growtopia received "mixed or average" reviews from critics according to review
aggregator GameRankings.[16]

Jay Is Games described the game as "simple and easy enough to work on the mobile
platform (and be fun for kids), but with enough room for customization and
socialization".[14] 148Apps gave the game a 4/5, saying "the crafting mechanic is
unique".[17] Pocket Gamer's Peter Willington scored the game 6 out of 10, said he
dislikes the crude menus, the UI is bland and cramped and hates the character
design.[18] TouchArcade wrote "With online games like this that take place in
persistent worlds where everyone can interact, you’ll no doubt get some people
trying to destroy things and generally make life tough for everyone else".[19]