Tidal Garden: Hidden Bloom

About Tidal Garden: Hidden Bloom

Below a desert observatory lies a sunken garden round an old stone well. It is the blue hour before dawn, the last stars are fading, and a huge moon hangs low. Succulents grow in the damp sand: an echeveria rosette, an aloe, a living stone, a prickly-pear pad, a ribbed barrel cactus and an agave, each with a shape of its own as well as a colour.

Here the moon is the pull. Every plant slides toward the side the moon stands on, and new ones drift in from the far side. The panel shows what the moon asks for, so many of one kind. Clear them and the moon swings across the sky to a new side: the water of the well leans after it, the palms bow, and from then on the garden falls that way. A line that lay across the bed becomes a fall, so a good gardener looks one swing ahead.

Moon lily seeds sleep in the mud under some plants. Clear above one and a bubble shows; clear over it again and a lily opens on its pad. Each lily fills the moonwell a little. A bed is won when the moon has had all it asked and every lily is open; the last one brims the well over, lilies open all across the water and the fireflies rise.

The beds follow the garden: the well’s rim, terraces stepping down to the water, a cross of channels, a crescent pool, the armillary sphere and a keyhole bed. The music is a slow lullaby in three on a thumb piano and a steel hand drum, and crickets and a moon bell join as the well fills. Every bed can be won: it is built together with a player that solves it first, and a hint is one press away. Settings offers more moves or no limit, and a switch for the fireflies and moving water. Stars and best scores stay in this browser and nothing is uploaded.