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The Population Must Grow

The Population Must Grow Game Cover
65%Game Brain Score
gameplay
graphics, optimization
79% User Score Based on 33 reviews

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LinuxPCWindows
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The Population Must Grow Game Cover

About

The Population Must Grow is a single player simulation game. It was developed by Helmi Blub and was released on July 4, 2025. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

This is a very simple city builder game with the main purpose of scaling up your population. You can place build orders for your citizens to build new homes, plant food or plant new trees. The more citizens you have the faster the city can grow.  For me as the developer of this game, the purpose was to try to write efficient code to see how much a PC can handle before it begins to slow down. S…

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The Population Must Grow screenshot
The Population Must Grow screenshot
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79%
Audience ScoreBased on 33 reviews
gameplay3 positive mentions
graphics3 negative mentions
  • The game is free to play, making it accessible to a wide audience.
  • It offers a unique experience as a CPU stress tester, showcasing impressive technical capabilities.
  • The simplistic art style and gameplay loop have a certain charm, and there is potential for future development.
  • The game is incredibly shallow and lacks depth, making it feel more like a software experiment than a proper game.
  • Optimization issues lead to significant lag and crashes when the population reaches higher levels, making it frustrating to play.
  • The visuals are poorly executed, resembling amateur work, which detracts from the overall experience.
  • graphics
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics in this game have been widely criticized for their low-quality, resembling amateur MS Paint art rather than polished visuals, which detracts significantly from the overall experience. Many reviewers feel that the art style gives off a tech demo vibe, lacking the depth and polish expected from a finished product. While the graphics are deemed subpar, there is a suggestion that players can replace them with custom PNG files if desired.

    • “The art style gives it that tech demo or prototype feel to it with a simple gameplay loop, but I could imagine that with more polish and features it could become a full-fledged game.”
    • “In terms of visuals, this features really godawful MS Paint tier 'art' instead of real graphics.”
    • “It's hard to say if this was because the developer didn't have the skill to create 3D visuals, or couldn't afford to hire someone who does, but it also doesn't matter.”
    • “The deplorably bad visuals here come across as an insult to gamers.”
  • optimization
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's optimization is severely lacking, leading to significant performance issues, especially when the population exceeds 10 million, resulting in crashes and excessive CPU and RAM usage. While the gameplay is enjoyable initially, the poor optimization hampers long-term playability, even on high-end PCs.

    • “The game is fun for a couple of hours - for me, the fun comes from thinking about all the cool optimizations the developer had to make to handle millions of agents.”
    • “While the premise of the game is fun, its optimization (or lack thereof) is abysmal. Once the population reaches the level of 10+ million, it becomes prone to crashes, hogs CPU and RAM, thus reaching the final achievements becomes nigh impossible, even with a fairly strong PC setup.”
    • “I might play around with an entire drive mounted as a page file... I don't know how this game works or why it's so unoptimized.”
    • “The performance issues are frustrating; it feels like the game was never properly optimized for any hardware.”
    • “Even with the latest updates, the optimization is still lacking, making it hard to enjoy the game.”
  • gameplay
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay is characterized by a simple loop that feels reminiscent of a tech demo or prototype, with users noting its potential for growth with more polish and features. While some appreciate the enjoyable mechanics in this free-to-play title, many feel it lacks content and depth, indicating that it could benefit from further development to reach its full potential.

    • “The art style gives it that tech demo or prototype feel to it with a simple gameplay loop, but I can imagine that with more polish and features it could become a full-fledged game.”
    • “Free-to-play copy-paste game with great gameplay; I can't complain.”
    • “It needs a lot more content and a gameplay loop, but there is so much potential.”
    • “The art style gives it that tech demo or prototype feel to it with a simple gameplay loop, but I could imagine that with more polish and features it could become a full-fledged game.”
    • “Needs a lot more content and a gameplay loop, but there is so much potential.”
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Frequently Asked Questions

The Population Must Grow is a simulation game.

The Population Must Grow is available on PC, Windows and Linux.

The Population Must Grow was released on July 4, 2025.

The Population Must Grow was developed by Helmi Blub.

The Population Must Grow has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its graphics.

The Population Must Grow is a single player game.

Similar games include Upload Labs, Songs of Syx, Factory Town, Idle Colony, Foundation and others.