You raise flowers in a field, but the game aims to make you "experience a field in a way you couldn't in real life," according to Thatgamecompany's Kellee Santiago. During the game's development cycle, the team constantly wondered what the emotion interaction would be with the field if you played as the wind, or the sun, or the "emotional impact of flying petals around" as well as the emotions felt when growing a flower.
The game originally had you controlling petals in the wind in an early prototype, but it's unclear whether or not that's still part of the game. Initially, there were even magical elements and special abilities in the game, but those were removed since they got in the way of your emotions. No matter what Flower ends up being, we know it's going to be an experience that will be difficult to explain to friends, but once we give them the controller, they'll understand. Maybe they'll shed a tear. Or not.
