Prune vs hocus.
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Prune
Cultivate a digital tree in a hostile world by guiding its growth towards sunlight. Uncover a hidden story and bring life to a forgotten landscape with this meditative and beautiful game.
- Grow and shape trees
- Minimalist art and interface
- Meditative music and sound
- No in-app purchases or monetization
- Share tree creations
- iCloud progress synchronization
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~ Apple Game of the Year 2015 ~ ~ TIME Magazine Game of the Year 2015 ~ Prune is a love letter to trees. A game about the beauty and joy of cultivation. With a swipe of a finger, grow and shape your tree into the sunlight while avoiding the dangers of a hostile world. Bring life to a forgotten landscape and uncover a story hidden deep beneath the soil. • A unique digital plant for your pocket • Beautiful, minimalist art and a super clean interface—it's just you and the trees • Meditative music and sound design for you to zen out to • No IAP, no monetization strategy, no currencies • Share screenshots of your unique tree creations with friends • Synchronize progress across all your devices using iCloud ----- RECEPTION ----- "Unlike anything I've played before... the kind of experience I want to pull out to show my friends." - The Verge "Wildly creative, totally addictive, and oddly soothing" - Entertainment Weekly "Prune is a gorgeous and unique experience." - 5/5 TouchArcade "Prune is an awe-inspiring work of digital poetry that transcends its initial subject material to explore a much larger, much more complex theme, in an articulate and powerfully moving manner" - 10/10 Pocket Gamer "A collaboration that feels more like a dance than puzzle-solving." - Kill Screen ----- AWARDS ----- • Winner - Best Upcoming Game - 11th International Mobile Gaming Awards • Finalist - IndieCade Festival 2015 • Official Selection - Brazil's FILE Festival • Runner-Up - IndiePlus "Make Something Great" Contest • Official Selection - Out of Index Experimental Games Festival
hocus.
Engage with a collection of mind-bending puzzles featuring impossible shapes. Create and share your own levels, or get assistance from AI when you're stuck. Explore both handcrafted challenges and an endless mode.
- 120 mind-bending handcrafted levels
- Create and share custom levels
- Load levels from pictures
- Endless mode
- AI-assisted gameplay
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hocus. is celebrating 10th year; Let artificial intelligence design new levels for you. You can even get help from her if you get stuck. Best Games on iPhone; Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Middle East New, polished, mind-bending, impossible shapes. Features: • 120 mind-bending hand-craft levels • Create/share your own levels • Load / take picture of levels cards • Endless mode • Shortest path algorithm
Screenshots
Verdict
Prune and hocus. both sit at 4.3 stars, but that hides the real split: 87% of hocus.'s written reviews are positive against 66% of Prune's. hocus. also leads on price ($1.99 vs $4.99). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Prune costs $4.99 and hocus. $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Prune against 4.3 for hocus.. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 568 and 234 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 66% of Prune's written reviews are positive against 87% of hocus.'s.
Prune ships an update every 6 weeks, hocus. every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Prune | hocus. |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.3 (568 ratings) | 4.3 (234 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 66.1% of reviews | 87.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 568 — better | 234 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #61 | #38 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 123 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Joel McDonald LLC | GAMEBRAIN YAZILIM TEKNOLOJILERI ANONIM SIRKETI |
Customer experience
Prune
hocus.
Bugs and requests
Prune
Reported bugs
2 issues- Progress reset after updates
- Unresponsive controls at times
Requested features
4 requests- More levels and content updates
- Zen mode with no time constraints
- Level editor and sharing capabilities
- Improved tutorials and explanations
hocus.
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Prune
No in-app purchases
hocus.
No in-app purchases
