Ok this one is brilliant minimalism. I don't think I'll be playing it again cos it's Not Chill, but I feel like I would make people point to it just to show how much emergent cool stuff can blossom (pun intended) out of:

1) a small set of rules that's intelligible but balanced and self-interacting, and
2) the complementary role of interpretation, aesthetics, life experience, narrative imagination.

Even the blurb instructions is exactly the size they should be. "You can't lose" in bold: eases the desperation of the fast-paced gameplay. "It will grow bigger": the carrot, "a small amount of damage": the stick, sugared.

Here's what went through my mind as I played:

- I care about plants [irl]. I want to take good care of the plants [in the game].
- After a long time planting yellow and red flowers, I started getting some purples. Purples are rare. I want to make a purple patch. I should let the common ones die to have a purple space.
- I don't like this game, it's making me be a ruthless gardener.
- But if I get just a bit better I can control it better maybe.
- Rain makes everything grow but it's slippery, so it's also troublesome [in-game]. Heh, that's just like irl. [satisfaction at game being intelligible from world knowledge]
- The grass moves when I run by, neat! does that damage the plants tho [sense of exploration]
- It's all so urgent and messy that I can't control what goes where! but the organic look of the resulting garden ends up looking pretty actually, with dominant colours I'm aiming for interspesed by the accidental plants in pleasing ways. even the differing flower heights add to the effect [partial control = unpredictability = sense of exploration balanced with sense of craftsgirlship]
- The growing flower mounds are pretty [aesthetic pleasure]. They're really getting bigger aren't they [sense of progress]. I want to find out how they look when they're very big [sense of exploration.] I've worked so hard to make it to this height [accomplishment].

Also it makes me feel like I'm playing the atari. A lot of games look retro; this one feels retro.