Floristry – Design Diary

A game for two that uses your phone as a core component.

Bid for pallets of flowers at the Aalsmeer Market — the largest flower market in the world — for your flower shop display.

Designed by David Gordon & TAM

2 players | 15 mins | 14+ years

Sell Sheet: We are looking for a publisher. View Sell Sheet
Game Rules: View Game Rules

Design Diary

David and I came up with the idea for Floristry on the drive to Gathering of Friends in Apr of 2023. We bought some dominos at a Target store along the way so that we can test it at the Gathering of Friends.

The game will use a simple web app to run a Dutch Auction where players complete to bid for pallets of flowers. I felt that it was important to to have a low barrier-to-entry, so an app that runs inside the web browser and accessible via a QR code printed on the box made a lot of sense — no app to install! In the beginning, we just used a stop watch to run the auctions.

The original game started as a 4-player game, but during testing, we discovered that the game plays best at 2. Being able to assess what your rival is doing makes the tile-drafting more meaningful.

I love doing product design, something I started doing with my earliest games when I was a teen. With Floristry, I designed the game to fit perfectly inside an iPhone box because the phone was a crucial component. It’ll also fit very nicely into my jacket pocket.

Floristry took exactly 4 weeks to make, from initial conception in the car ride with David, to a fully-realized product.