Farmerama does not pretend to be a serious agricultural simulator. It is a bright, friendly farmyard where you plough, sow, water, harvest and fill your pens with animals, and it is perfectly comfortable being a pleasant way to spend an evening. Where some of our shelf feels like a ledger, Farmerama feels like a summer fete, and we mean that as a compliment.
It comes from Bigpoint, the Hamburg studio that was one of the big names of browser gaming, and it plays in a desktop browser with no download. The official site describes a farm that grows in every direction at once: flowers, vegetables and grains, trees, animals, crafts and decorations, plus new events and stories arriving on a regular basis.
Ploughing, sowing and watering in technicolour
The basics are classic farm game: plough a field, sow your seeds, water them and harvest through the day. Farmerama offers flowers, vegetables and grains, as well as trees to cultivate, so your fields have plenty of variety. The harvest goes to market or into the city to sell, and you spend the proceeds on seeds, animals, equipment and supplies.
None of this is complex, and it is not meant to be. The pleasure is in the colour and the feel: tidy rows of bright crops, an animated farmyard and a sense that everything is cheerfully busy. We found it the most relaxing of the farm games for winding down, precisely because it asked so little planning of us. You can drift through a session and still feel you have achieved something.
Goldie the sheep and the rest of the menagerie
The animal list is long and lively. Chickens, rabbits, goats, sheep and cattle, then pigs, turkeys, bees and horses, all looked after on your farm. On top of those come special species with names, such as Goldie the sheep and Rainbow the chicken, which give collectors something to chase and add a dash of whimsy to the pens.
We grew unreasonably fond of our rainbow chicken. These special animals are a big part of Farmerama's charm: they make the farmyard feel personal and give you small goals beyond the next harvest. If you are the sort of player who likes to complete a set, the menagerie will keep you coming back. It is the most animal-crowded of the pure farm games on our shelf.
A bakery in the barn and a market in town
Farmerama adds a light crafting layer that we enjoyed. You can learn trades like baking and confectioning and turn your produce into farm products, which gives your harvest somewhere more interesting to go than straight to market. It is not as intricate as My Free Farm's production chains, but it adds texture to the daily round.
Trading and bartering at the market lets you swap produce, and the social side is gentle: you can send messages and gifts to friends, and visitors can rate your decorated farm. That last feature turns decoration into a quiet bit of showing off, and our reviewer admits to rearranging her fences three times before letting anyone look. Farmhouses, mills and barns all give you something to arrange.
From Bahamarama to the Magical Glade
Farmerama's world goes beyond your home farm. The official site promises locations from Bahamarama to the Magical Glade, and new events and stories keep arriving through the year. These give the game its seasonal feel, with fresh places to farm and themed challenges to complete when the main farm has settled into a rhythm.
The events are where Farmerama is at its most engaging and also where the shop becomes most visible. A free player can enjoy them perfectly well, but you will notice offers to speed things along. It is never aggressive, and the game's good humour softens it, but it is there. Overall, Farmerama is less deep than our top two and more charming than almost anything else on the shelf.
Your first seven days in Farmerama
- Plough and sow a few fields straight away, and water everything before you log off each evening.
- Start with the simplest farm animals and add more pens as your earnings allow.
- Learn baking once it opens up, so some of your harvest becomes products rather than raw sales.
- Spend a little on decoration; visitors can rate your farm, and it makes the place feel yours.
- Peek at the current event or seasonal story, but keep your home farm ticking over first.
What we love
- The brightest, friendliest look of any game on our shelf.
- Named special animals like Goldie the sheep make collecting genuinely fun.
- Baking and confectioning give the harvest a pleasant second life.
- Seasonal events and new locations keep the farm feeling fresh.
What grates
- The economy is lighter and less rewarding for dedicated planners.
- Event offers make the shop more visible than we would like.
- So many systems open at once that the first days feel busy.
Who Farmerama suits
Players who want a happy, colourful farm to relax in, with lots of animals to collect and things to decorate. It suits younger-at-heart players, collectors and anyone who wants a cheerful evening rather than a planning exercise.
Where we land on Farmerama
Farmerama is the sunniest farm on our shelf, and it wears that proudly. Its crops are simple, its animals delightful and its crafts and decorations give it real warmth. It will not satisfy the planner who wants a deep economy, and its events lean on the shop a little, but as a cheerful place to unwind it is hard to beat. Come for the rainbow chicken, stay for the bakery.
