First of all, a little backstory. You play as Miriel, a young witch who has decided to open her own shop, selling various items to the populace like eggs, buckets of water, and the like. There is a storyline having to do with a family tragedy, and why Miriel needs to work so hard, and it unfolds nicely between levels. Moreover, the game's palette features rich hues without being overwhelming, the sound is engaging without being intrusive, and features the kind of One Button gameplay that many designers feel is key to creating a hit that will last the ages. But how do you play?

The screen is divided up between three horizontal levels, not explicitly, but functionally: the playing field is Miriel's shop, with the top third being where customers arrive and place their orders at the counter. The middle third is where Miriel runs around grabbing the items she needs to bring to her customers. The bottom third is where you choose the shop items that the customers desire. Here's how it works: customers enter the shop -- a motley assortment of characters -- and via speech balloons, display the icons of the items they want. Miriel must then pick up the items from the table in the bottom third, and deliver them to the customer who ordered them. Doing so causes the customer to leave behind a pile of coins for Miriel to pick up.

The number of items at first is small: a bag of flour, a bucket of water, and an egg. Directly below the item table is each item's icon. Clicking on that icon will generate the item, a process that takes about three seconds, after which the items fly to the table, ready for pick-up. Clicking on an item on the table lets Miriel pick it up, and clicking on a customer delivers the contents of Miriel's grasp to the customer.

At first, the table can only hold six items, and Miriel can only carry two items. Later levels lets you upgrade the table to hold more items, and Miriel will be able to carry more items as you progress through the levels. It's important to note that items once picked up cannot be put back down, they can only be tossed into the trash, so it's important to keep track of what you're picking up, and to whom the items go. Equally important is remembering to pick up the cash the customers leave behind; it is the purpose of doing the work, after all -- but when multiple customers are demanding items all at the same time, it's easy to forget to wait the one- to two-second pause between delivering an order to a customer, and the customer's dropping their payment.

So good so far. What makes this game so frenetic? Read on for the answer.