Dev diary 1 ·
How Bloom Hollery started
Welcome to the very first Bloom Hollery dev diary!
I've been a freelancer for years, and a veteran of the indie industry, mostly on games that don't fit the usual boxes.
For a long time I've also been working on a huge project of my own. The kind that never seems to end. Around it sits a pile of prototypes and stories I've made over the years, all waiting for their turn.
People around me kept telling me to try something simpler first. I kept going.
Then, suddenly, I had more time. And my big project was still nowhere near finished.
One day at the park, I said it out loud: why not try a smaller one?
They answered:
At last!
So I decided to start with one idea I could finish in a month or so.
I'm a big fan of puzzle games, and I wanted a puzzle I hadn't seen yet. I love both Terra Nil and Is This Seat Taken?, so I followed that direction.
I gave myself one day to design it.
It took two weeks.
And the month?
It took six months, and counting.
What Bloom Hollery is
Bloom Hollery is a cozy puzzle with no pressure and no fail state. Plant a flower, watch it spread, and cross it with others to discover new ones.
There are two Locations to restore, with 66 Fields between them. Three words guide everything: Vibrant Growth, Blissful Stillness and Wonder. And when you want something new, the Bottega lets you make your own fields.
Here is where the story starts
The next diary introduces the protagonists of this story: the flowers waiting to be discovered.
After that come the ideas behind the puzzle, sharing fields, and the world they grow in.
