As the month of March continues on, the snows of winter will melt and give way to the flowers of spring. The steadily increasing warmth and length of the days will signify the budding of plants, the returning of animals, and the inevitability of summer.
This rebirth of nature has inspired plenty of songs, poems, stories, and even video games. While there are likely a lot more summer and winter games, there's still plenty of great spring-focused video games that accurately convey the beauty and liveliness of the season.
Spring Falls
Released in 2019, Spring Falls is a relaxing puzzle game where the goal is to help wildflowers grow along a mountain side. To do this, players will have to manipulate the hexagonal pieces of the mountain so that the water flowing from the top of the mountain will reach the flowers.
While the gameplay is fairly simple, each of the 60 available levels in the game are challenging enough to keep the player engaged while still being a chill meditative experience. With the game's gorgeous visuals, calming music, and atmospheric sounds, it's perfect for people who need a break from a stressful day.
Flower
Before creating Journey, the well-known indie developer Thatgamecompany created the gorgeous award-winning 2009 game Flower, which is a spiritual successor to the studio's first title Flow. Originally released for the PS3 and later ported to several other consoles and devices, Flower has the player control the wind and bring back life to the barren world.
Each level takes place within the dreams of the potted flowers on the windowsill of a city apartment. In these dreams, the player begins with a singular flower petal that came from the potted flower. But, as the wind flows across the land, the player awakens other flowers, which leads to more petals being swept up by the player's wind.
Flower Shower
Created for the 2021 Great Spring Game Jam on Itch.io, Flower Shower is a simple in-browser game where the player controls a deer who is trying to collect a bouquet of flowers in their antlers. As flowers fall from the sky, the deer moves left and right across the screen to catch the flowers.
But, the deer has to avoid the branches and bugs that are also falling from the treetops because the branches hurt the player and the bugs eat the flowers. Similarly to the historic Orisinal Flash games, this chill art game continues until the player gets a game over.
Mini Island: Spring
Since 2019, the indie developer MACKINN7, also known as Taeyeon, has been creating a series of short casual boss rush cute 'em ups called Mini Island. Each of the titles in this franchise are beautifully vibrant neon experiences where players can choose how difficult the game is and which character works the best for them. Although players can complete everything in each game within a couple hours, the casual mini-game fun makes the games worth a playthrough.
Currently, there are 17 games in this franchise, and one of these games is the spring-themed installment titled Mini Island: Spring. After choosing one of 16 playable characters, players will fight against 26 bosses throughout seven stages. As the characters shoot at the bosses, the flower covered backgrounds will create a gorgeously colorful experience that will deliver mesmerizing eye-candy to all players.
Loverowind
Created by graphic designer and indie game developer Tonguç Bodur, Loverowind is a short walking sim released in mid-2021 as part of the Poetic Ones trilogy. While the other two games in the series, Pluviophile and Chionophile, focus on autumn and winter respectively, Loverowind has the player explore a spring-based environment.
As the player walks across the flower-covered world, they collect flowers that can be used at alters to reveal poems. To keep moving fast across the map, players have to also collect orbs of light. Overall, the main focus of this game is to soak in the peaceful spring atmosphere.
A Year of Springs
While LGBTQ+ representation has gotten better over the years, most video games still don't have LGBTQ+ stories, characters, and options. Luckily, developers have begun making many great visual novel games that focus on LGBTQ+ experiences. One excellent example of this is A Year of Springs, which is a compilation of three visual novels about three friends learning to navigate various types of relationships.
In the first story, one night, hot springs, the player follows a trans woman named Haru as she tries to have fun with her friend, Manami, at a hot spring while also worrying about how she will be perceived. The second story, last day of spring, focuses on Haru's new friend, Erika, as she tries to organize a spa day for Haru and realizes that she might be in love with her. Finally, the last story, spring leaves no flowers, centers on Manami discovering that she might be on the ace/aro spectrum.
Kinoko
Created as a student project, Kinoko is a short free-to-play game where the player controls the forest spirit Kinoko, who looks a bit similar to the popular Moomin character Snufkin. The goal of the game is to help Kinoko get rid of the snow of winter in order to bring back spring.
Since the game is only about 15 minutes long, there's no save feature because players are meant to play it all in one sitting. Despite the short length, Kinoko is a charming and relaxing game where players can truly become one with nature.
Lily's Well
From the creator of the Yume Nikki fan-game I Cannot Drown, Lily's Well is an RPG Maker point-and-click horror game that follows a young girl named Lily who lives in the middle of a forest with her father. During one rainy spring night in 2005, Lily's father tells her that he needs to go to work, and that she is not allowed to leave the house while he is gone.
While she is laying in bed, however, she hears someone crying out to her from the well in her yard, and Lily decides that she needs to rescue whoever is in the well by finding some rope. But, as the player navigates the DOS-inspired pixelated world and witnesses the various endings, they'll slowly realize that there's much more going on than there initially seems.
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
Created as a remake of the 2001 game of the same name, White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is an obscure 2015 South Korean survival horror game that follows a new high school transfer student named Hee-min Lee as he sneaks into his school at night so that he can leave a White Day gift for his crush, So-young Han. In several East Asian countries, White Day is a holiday celebrated on March 14th where men give gifts to women.
But, shortly after entering the school, Hee-min gets trapped in the school and learns that several other students are trapped along with him. As he avoids possessed janitors and evil ghosts, Hee-min must find a way to escape before the night ends.
Life Is Strange: True Colors
Released towards the end of 2021, Life Is Strange: True Colors is an adventure game and the latest installment in the Life Is Strange series. Like previous mainline installments in the series, the player controls a brand new protagonist who has a unique set of supernatural powers and encounters an entirely new cast. This game's protagonist, Alex Chen, is a young woman who has the ability to see, absorb, and manipulate the emotions of others.
In April 2019, Alex leaves her foster care group home to reunite with her brother Gabe in Haven Springs, Colorado. Shortly after meeting Gabe and the other townspeople, however, Gabe is killed in a mining explosion that is ruled to be an accident. As Alex tries to discover the truth behind what happened, she slowly uncovers a mystery that impacts the entire community.