Review: Weedcraft Inc.

It's only natural for the growth of "cannabusinesses" to inspire a management simulation game like Weedcraft Inc. This marijuana manufacturing game by Devolver Digital challenges you to start with an illegal basement grow and build up a small empire.

It's no simple feat. Players research and develop strains, manage the temperature and humidity, experiment with soil quality, appeal to different types of customers, investigate the competition, figure out how to keep the police at bay, supervise employees, and even ultimately go legit with fully permitted medical marijuana operations.

While Weedcraft Inc. is not terribly realistic, it does help the casually curious grasp that growing marijuana as a commercial product is not something you can just stumble your way through. It's probably not a game you'd want to play stoned. It even has a storyline that delves into the diverse politics surrounding the drug war and marijuana legalization. Your customers are the expected frat boys and metalheads but also cancer patients and veterans struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The game doesn't actually teach you how to grow weed, yet when it was initially released, YouTube and Facebook blocked ads for it as violations of their "illegal drug" policies.

Comments

[TripK]

Is this a review or a paid advertisement?

[Yellow Tony]

It’s lazy, regardless.

[damikesc]

Not even a mention of platform? How well the game actually runs?

What, precisely, was the point of this?

[Scott Shackford]

These are short capsule reviews from the magazine. Y’all should check it out sometime!

[TripK]

Ah, okay I appreciate you clarifying that. As someone who played the game and beat it, this article had me scratching my head… there’s so much more to say.

You all should consider stating that this is a partial article and that readers should pick up the magazine to read more. All I noticed was the “FROM THE JULY 2019 ISSUE” at the top and I assumed that this was the entire article.

You all should consider that this could be a way to advertise the magazine by saying “read the rest in our July 2019 issue, click here to subscribe”. The way you publish these right now… well… I’ve been reading these for years thinking they were entire articles from the magazine and, as a result, thinking that the magazine sure does do a lackluster job of reporting.

[TripK]

Now that I re-read your comment, I think you were just stating that yes, the article really is this short, but its also in the magazine in case we want to pay for it. Doesn’t seem like a review to me, but okay.