Last week, the ANZ-based studio Unclear Games announced its debut title, The Florist, a classic survival horror experience with fixed cameras and killer, beautiful flowers.
The plot sees florist Jessica Park arrive in the town of Joycliffe to deliver a flower order. However, when a deadly disease spreads throughout the town, merging flora and folk into dangerous monsters, Jessica must use her expertise and survival instincts to make it out of Joycliffe alive.
Phil Larsen, the New Zealand-based founder of Unclear Games and creator of The Florist, tells me that the game has been in development for about two and a half years. Currently, there’s a team of six working on the game, including Alex Goss, who worked on the critically acclaimed Skyrim mod-turned-full game The Forgotten City (including a 10/10 from us).
As a longtime fan of survival horror games, Larsen, whose career in game development spans 20 years, has always wanted to develop his own. The biggest inspiration for The Florist is Resident Evil Remake, though Larsen also lists External Darkness and Alien: Isolation as two titles that have also influenced his foray into the horror genre.
But what influenced the design of The Florist is Larsen’s interest in using colour and brightness in horror.
“Can we have some areas take place during broad daylight, while still creating unease and tension? Different areas can use natural light and colour to evoke different themes and prompt the player to prepare differently for what may be coming.”
While Larsen is keeping his cards close to his chest about what players can expect in The Florist, he did share some details about how the game will feature modern sensibilities but also appeal to survival horror veterans. For starters, there won’t be a limited inventory – if an item can be picked up, the player can do so. There are obvious modern design choices, like being able to move and shoot at once, and managing resources and equipping weapons in a safe menu, but the game will still include genre staples like puzzles, locked doors, and satisfying combat.
The world of The Florist is being built as a dense and surprising environment, explains Larsen.
“The idea of foliage growth will be used a lot to make the world feel alive and change throughout the game. An area you passed through earlier may be blocked later. Is the blockage dangerous? Can it be cleared? Does it present new enemy challenges?”
But what about the general difficulty challenge that survival horror usually presents? The Florist will have multiple difficulty options, but upping or lowering the difficulty won’t simply mean adjusting an enemy’s HP. Right now, Larsen and Unclear Games are playing with how mechanics like save points, healing and ammo resources, and enemy behaviour can be tweaked to make it more or less challenging, but nothing is set in stone yet.
As for game length, Larsen says that they’re “interested in perfecting the challenges we have rather than adding a ton of length,” so don’t expect The Florist to be a 15+ hour journey. Which, for a lot people will be music to the ears.
When it comes to the platforms The Florist is coming to in 2026, Unclear Games is “exploring a launch on more than just PC.” There’s no confirmation on what consoles the studio is targeting, that will come down to “performance, quality of life and console-specific requirements.”
Everything Larsen has shared about The Florist is making us really excited to get our hands on it. We’ll be eagerly following the game’s development from now until launch.
Are you excited for The Florist? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
