I wasn't actively seeking a social game that combines cultivating a garden with puzzle adventure progression, but I'm not unhappy I stumbled upon it in Playdom's Full Bloom.
Last night, after an incredibly long work day, I went poking about the Facebook App Center (you knew they had one of those, right?), where Full Bloom was waiting, with its pleasant font and calming rose motif. In the mood for something relaxing, I popped into the game to see what was what.
Let me just say that I love that we live in a time where I can see the name of a game on a web page and be playing it within seconds. I know the more hardcore gamers out there detest this sort of thing, but playing in seconds (for free, no less) is one of the greatest things about browser-based social gaming.
Anyway, Full Bloom. Like King.com's Candy Crush or Puzzle Witch Sagas, the meat of this flora-focused little gem is match puzzles, laid out in levels along a set path, so you can see how far ahead of you your friends are. The puzzles are actually quite Candy Crush-ish, giving the player a number of moves to collect a number of flowers, tasking them with eliminating object from the board (though in this case it's bees instead of candy, which is never a good substitution) or clearing soil from a board by matching flowers above it.
Instead of simply earning a score and stars through these puzzles, the player also gathers resources—coin and supplies—used to cultivate the second part of the game, the garden.
As you can plainly see, I have leveled up my flowers considerably. I had to, after all, because areas of the puzzle progression board are unlocked through garden maintenance.
Garden Party is actually quite clever, combining two popular social game genres into a one-stop building and matching shop.
Full Bloom [Facebook]