Flower is a video game developed by Thatgamecompany and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3.

Approaching flowers may also have side-effects on the game world, such as bringing vibrant color to previously dead fields or activating stationary wind turbines.

The game features no text or dialogue, forming a narrative arc primarily through visual representation and emotional cues.

The team viewed their efforts as creating a work of art, removing gameplay elements and mechanics that were not provoking the desired response in the players.

The music, composed by Vincent Diamante, dynamically responds to the player's actions and corresponds with the emotional cues in the game.

Reviewers praised the game's music, visuals, and gameplay, calling it a unique and compelling emotional experience.

[4] Although no speech or text is used anywhere in the game aside from credits and interaction hints in the main menu, the six flower dreams follow a narrative arc.

After activating a series of windmills, the player flies through a nighttime field, illuminating darkened strings of lights until they reach the city.

[5] If the player triggers three secret flowers in each level, the cityscape is replaced with a bright field with mountains in the background.

The music changes in scope as the game progresses, growing in scale and complexity and adding to the narrative arc.

[4] Flower was developed as a spiritual successor to Flow, a 2006 Flash game created by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark while the two were students at the University of Southern California.

[9] He decided on the "nature" theme early in the development process, saying that he "had this concept that every PlayStation is like a portal in your living room, it leads you to somewhere else.

[13] Before beginning work, the development team commissioned two pieces of music that they felt would inspire the right emotional tone for the game to guide their efforts.

[8] They created a number of prototypes, including concepts focused on growing flowers and based around human consciousness.

The team decided that a prototype centered on petals floating in the wind best captured the emotions they wanted to evoke.

Chen described the process as "almost like we wanted to throw away the traditional game design, but we end up picking up all the pieces we threw away and putting them back because we know those are actually needed to deliver a good guided experience".

The team specifically cut out deeper gameplay elements because these would have added "challenge" to the game, which, while fun, would not have been relaxing.

He worked directly with the development team to integrate the music into the game by adjusting the placements of flowers and the tones that each type played when they were reached.

The music is composed of multiple layers of acoustic instrument tracks that rise and fall in correlation with the player's actions.

[2] Ryan Clements of IGN agreed with Liang's opinion, saying that it provided "more enjoyment, emotion and enlightenment than any game" he had played in years.

[32] Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell had similar praise, describing it as "pleasantly innocent and uplifting", though he awarded it a lower score than other reviewers as he felt the US$9.99 price was too high for the game's length.

[28] This criticism was not universal, as reviewers such as Jason Hill of The Age called the Australian price of A$13 "reasonable" and described the length as not "overstay[ing] its welcome".