A speedy little two-player tile-placing game with cat player tokens? Sign me up! Floristry is a wonderfully easy-to-learn and easy-to-replay game with very cute and elegant theming. It also includes a unique auctioning gimmick that uses a mobile phone and requires the players to be quick on the draw to get the tiles they want.
A Neat Floral Arrangement – Components and Artwork
The game components in Floristry are actually quite robust. The tiles and player tokens are neatly painted little wooden pieces, and it includes a scoring reminder board made of pieces that fit together to look like an a-frame shop sign.
The only drawback to the game setup itself is that, while the phone gimmick is very fit-for-purpose (more on that later), it is a slight shame that the currency is confined to the web app, rather than have any physical money pieces.
A speedy little two-player tile-placing game with cat player tokens? Sign me up! Floristry is a wonderfully easy-to-learn and easy-to-replay game with very cute and elegant theming. It also includes a unique auctioning gimmick that uses a mobile phone and requires the players to be quick on the draw to get the tiles they want.
A Neat Floral Arrangement – Components and Artwork
The game components in Floristry are actually quite robust. The tiles and player tokens are neatly painted little wooden pieces, and it includes a scoring reminder board made of pieces that fit together to look like an a-frame shop sign.
The only drawback to the game setup itself is that, while the phone gimmick is very fit-for-purpose (more on that later), it is a slight shame that the currency is confined to the web app, rather than have any physical money pieces.
However, the overall aesthetic is very on point. It is as elegant, neat, and wholesome as the name Floristry would suggest! Its hand-drawn style art is simple yet vibrant, and the floral arrangements you make in this game are all the better for it.
A Florist’s Business As Usual – Gameplay
The fact that Floristry is two-player and is not turn-based makes for a speedy gameplay loop of looking at the tiles on the market, using your reflexes to auction, and placing tiles to form groups of different coloured flowers. And so, it splits down nicely into those two steps: auctioning and placing.
The auctioning is quite nifty in how it uses a web app to have both players touch the phone screen at the ready, then release and set the auction timer going. As the timer goes down, the amount you have to pay to have your choice of three out of the four available tiles, so it’s a lot about hedging your bets and guessing if/when your opponent might go for it.
The main way this falls short is in the milliseconds after the players both release, just due to reflex time. If you or your opponent want to try to win the auction the moment the timer is set off, there’s a not insignificant chance that the other player may not have let go yet. Unless you both make sure you let go at the exact same time, the timings can get quite finicky, and you might just miss your shot. Really, the web app would benefit from just a small buffer countdown between when the players let go and the auction timer starts to prevent this.
As for the placing stage of the game, this is simple but well-done. The tiles are domino-like pieces with two flowers each, some containing a matching pair. This means it’s not too brain intensive to figure out where tiles can and should go compared to a lot of tile-placing games, which works in Floristry’s favour, in its bid to be a quick grab-and-go style of game. The other gameplay element that aids this is the player’s ability to move the frame that encompasses their flower tiles. This gives a nice little bit of flexibility and adaptability without compromising on the space limitation the players have to abide by.
Scores on the Shop Doors – Scoring and Balance
The scoring is simple to follow, especially as the web app runs the players through it step-by-step at the end of the game. For each connected group of a particular colour of flowers, the players get points, which scale for the size of flower group. There are also points up for grabs for the difference between how much money the players have left, meaning that, if you decided to hold back on the auctions, there’s some compensation for you. In terms of game balance, I have found that the points for money difference doesn’t really make up for lack of tiles at all, as it’s only a couple points you get for it. Where the auction can sometimes be an almost pure test of reflexes, this can make it feel like less of a choice, making the pitiful amount of points you get for “holding back” a bit unfair.
The cat player pieces are what you use to count your score at the end. So they do unfortunately have to sit around a fair bit until then, but hey – at least they can fits and sits and look cute while doing it! I, for one, certainly won’t complain about a cute cat sitting on my board, even if it’s a little shoehorned into the game.
Should you give this game a try?
Floristry is a lovely little filler game for friends, family, and couples alike. What it lacks in some finesse, it definitely makes up for in quick setup and in replayability – I can easily play several rounds of this in a row in a short space of time without getting bored in any way. It’s delightfully snappy and adaptable, while providing just the right level of puzzle to figure out how to put the pieces together in a way that’ll snag you the most points and declare your little Floristry flower shop the best in town!
