Posy for press

Posy is a flower shop on Harbor Lane in a small village by the sea. You arrive with a key in the mailbox and a letter from Tobin, the retired lighthouse keeper, and from then on the days are yours: water the beds, cut what opened overnight, cross two flowers and see what grows, wrap a bouquet at the workbench, and walk it over to whoever wrote.

Every flower has a genome: petal count, shape, rings, colour, a second colour at the tips, a glow, a scent. Crossing two mixes all of it, so what comes up is a variety nobody has grown before. With the pollen brush in hand you see the odds before you cross, Wren's notebook fills with what you have seen pass from parents to children, and the morning after a new variety first opens, you name it. Ten villagers write letters that ask for feelings, remember what you did for them, and open up over the seasons.

Four seasons of fourteen days bring their own wild flowers, festivals and special skies; a Flower Show comes round every week, and past the woods lie Saltmere and the railway to the city. Nothing goes badly, no timer asks for money, and up to three friends nearby can join your shop. There is no ending: renown climbs through fifteen ranks, the long goals run into the third year, and the game grows with each update.