Here at Game Informer, we get pitches for games all day long, and unfortunately, we only have so many hours in the day to research and cover games. Every day, I get pitches for games I’d love to share with our audience that I just simply can’t find the time to cover – there are so many games, y’all. But when I am able to bring attention to something people probably haven’t heard of, it’s always exciting, which is why I’m stoked to bring to your attention an upcoming horror game called The Florist.
It comes from Wellington, New Zealand-based developer Unclear Games, and when The Florist launches next year on consoles and PC, it will be the studio’s first release. If what I’ve seen from the reveal trailer, which you can view below, and learned from talking with Unclear Games founder and CEO Phil Larsen is any indication, The Florist is a game fans of horror – particularly classic Resident Evil – should keep an eye on.
Check out The Florist reveal trailer below:
“The Florist tells the story of Jessica Park, who arrives in the lakeside town of Joycliffe to make a last-minute delivery,” a press release reads. “Her timing sparks disaster as the town quickly descends into a deadly game of survival against omnipresent floral overgrowth. Players must solve ingenious puzzles, defeat horrifying enemies, and uncover a mysterious plan to create new life in the most inhuman way imaginable.”
Larsen tells me Unclear Games is inspired by all types of horror, but especially the 2002 Resident Evil Remake, and The Florist makes that very clear with a fixed camera, a terrifying locale to explore, plenty of puzzles that require creativity and deduction skills, and more.
“I started off thinking about the game I would most like to play, mostly by sitting down with a coffee and sketchpad, drawing maps and thinking about cool locations, puzzles, and routes between areas,” Larsen tells me over email. “I still replay the classics constantly, so settling on an experience taking inspiration from those felt like a good direction. Not to mention, fixed cameras solve a lot of production hurdles from the outset, which is always a huge benefit.”
Larsen says when he thinks about the horror genre in games he loves so much, games like Sweet Home, Alone in the Dark, and the original Resident Evil trilogy of games (RE1 through RE3 on PlayStation) come to mind. But for him, the 2002 Resident Evil remake changed how he thinks about games. “It just fired on all cylinders and hit every mark,” he says. “[Remake] launched, crushed it, dropped the mic. To this day, it’s considered the gold standard. So The Florist team is working hard to deliver an experience that does justice to that standard.”
It’s one thing to be inspired by your favorite games, and the fixed camera work in The Florist looks great so far, but it’s important for games to stand on their own as well. Larsen says the game’s floral theme should provide something fresh in horror.
“The floral theme lets us experiment with color and growth, which is rare in horror,” he says. “The game takes place in the very early stages of a catastrophic event, rather than days or weeks later. So flowers, enemies, and the levels themselves grow and change throughout the course of the game, which we’re very excited to continue exploring. As a benefit of these environmental changes, that’s how we can design fresh gameplay moments.”
On the topic of the fixed camera, Larsen says it allows the team to really control what is included in a scene, what can be shown and hidden, and that ultimately, “it leads to a natural feeling world without extra markers or guides required in more open spaces.” There are entire levels designed around a single camera idea, he adds.
Visually, Unclear Games is aware that flowers aren’t particularly scary in the grand scheme of what terrifies, but Larsen says lighting and a desire to create something unsettling within an otherwise natural space, like a garden, have pushed the team to explore fresh ideas. “The types of flowers, how they move, their size, and placement are all designed by hand,” he tells me. “A lot of work, and still plenty to go with feedback and testing, but we’re having so much fun putting it all together.”
The final piece of any horror package is the sound, and I really enjoyed the soundscape that the first look at The Florist Unclear Games offered. Larsen says the team is focusing on using “a lot of earthy tones from woodwind and brass, and coupling them with occasional surprising elements from synth and electronic music.” He adds that Unclear Games isn’t consciously avoiding strings and piano, but notes those are instruments more attuned to supernatural or undead horror themes, “which The Florist is not.”
Closing out our quick email chat about The Florist, Larsen tells me that before working on this game, he’d never met a florist in his life, except when buying flowers. By pure coincidence, two developers at Unclear Games have worked as florists before, giving The Florist some real-life edge and inspiration with what it’s trying to accomplish.
“My entire team is immensely talented among their many other surprising abilities, and I’m very grateful to be working with them,” Larsen says.
The Florist is due out sometime in 2026 on unspecified consoles and PC. You can wishlist it on Steam here.
What do you think of this first look at The Florist? Let us know in the comments below!