Bloom Haven for parents: what the game is like
Bloom Haven is a calm match 3 puzzle game in the browser for kids from about 8 to 12. The player swaps flowers on a board to finish short puzzles, earns leaves, and spends them to decorate a community garden. There is no fighting, no timer, no lives and no game over, and there are no ads. This page lists the facts a grown-up may want before their child plays.
What does the player do?
- Solves puzzles on an 8 by 8 board by swapping two neighbouring tiles to make lines of three or more.
- Works toward one simple goal per puzzle: collect a number of one flower, or clear the covered squares of the board.
- Earns one leaf for each new puzzle finished, and spends leaves on garden projects such as a path, a bench, a pond bridge or a glasshouse.
- Picks one of three colour styles for each project, and can change styles freely later.
There are 60 puzzles and 40 projects in three garden areas. The full lists are on all 60 puzzles and all 40 garden projects.
Content notes
- Gentle and friendly. Two friends, Mira and Bo, say a kind sentence after each project. A small hedgehog lives in the garden.
- No violence, no scares. There are no enemies, no fighting and nothing that jumps out.
- Failure is soft. Running out of moves shows "No lives lost. Your garden is safe." and offers a retry, five extra moves or a way to finish and carry on. Nothing is ever taken away.
- No pressure loops. There are no daily rewards, streaks, energy or waiting times.
How much reading is there?
Not much. Buttons and messages are short, everyday sentences, with no voice acting. A four-step guide on the first puzzle teaches by doing, with numbered tiles to tap. A younger child may need help reading the guide and the garden friends' lines.
How long is a session?
Each puzzle has 24 to 28 moves, and there is no timer, so a child can take as long as they like. Every finished puzzle, and every project built, is a natural stopping point. The game saves after every move, so closing the tab in the middle of a puzzle loses nothing.
Helpers for when it gets hard
Several free helpers keep frustration low; they are all on play at your own pace:
- Show a useful match highlights a good move, as often as needed.
- Try with 5 extra moves restarts the puzzle with more room.
- Finish and carry on completes a puzzle and still gives its leaf.
- Relaxed play, in Settings, removes the move limit altogether.
Hints change nothing. The other three only mean that try earns no optional medal, shown as a small star.
Where is progress saved?
The game saves by itself in the browser on the device being used, and shows Saved on this device. There are three separate save slots, so siblings can each have their own garden. Clearing the browser's data removes the saves. If the browser blocks saving, for example in some private windows, the game says so. Details are on saving, save slots and settings.
Ads, purchases and data
- There are no ads in the game.
- There is nothing to buy inside the game. Leaves are earned only by playing.
- The game sends a few play events to the Contenta Games portal's own statistics, for example that a game was started or that an error happened.
- The optional How did it feel? buttons after a puzzle (Too hard, Too slow, More decorating) are stored only in this browser and are not sent anywhere.
- The music and sound effects are made in code for the game, and the garden pictures are original drawings.
Devices, controls and languages
- Plays in a web browser on computers, tablets (including iPad and Android tablets) and phones, with no download.
- Touch, mouse, keyboard or controller. A move is two taps or clicks; no swiping, no hovering and no mouse wheel are needed. On phones and tablets the game is played in landscape.
- Nine languages: English, Swedish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
- Settings include volume, music, a sound on/off switch and Moving effects. Set Moving effects to Calm to turn off the flying petals, sliding tiles and other movement.
All controls are on the controls page.
How to get the game
Bloom Haven can be tried in a demo. The full game is part of the Contenta Games membership, which opens every game on the portal. See what a membership includes, or browse the guides to all our games.
See also
- The guide's front page: what the game is about.
- FAQ: quick answers to common questions.
- Your first ten minutes: what the start of the game looks like.
- Play Bloom Haven together.
