Developer: Neoludic Games
Publisher: Skystone Games, 2P Games
Get Tiny Bookshop Here
“”An Interesting Store Management Game”
About The Game
Leave everything behind and open a tiny bookshop by the sea in this cozy narrative management game. Stock your tiny bookshop with different books and items, set up shop in scenic locations, and run your cozy second-hand bookshop while getting to know the locals.
Gameplay
Tiny Bookshop is a store management game at heart however they do things a little differently here and to be honest I actually quite like what they have done. Instead of your standard run of the mill make a shop and people come and buy things here you actually have to think about stats and percentages of sales.
The standard day without anything overly complicated looks like this, you choose a location to sell from, you haul your book shop trailer there via in-game cinematic, open shop and people come and buy things. (Stats discussed in the next part).
Now its not just selling things you will get quests to do along your travels to one of which is sell 20 books to a certain type of customer, or you might have to help someone choose a book. The quests are not too out there but there is a little quest system involved which adds a little layer to the game that I can totally get behind, we love anything that adds replayablity to the game.
Money / Stats
Now here where the game opens up a little and becomes a bit more than just a sell this type of game. After each purchase you will get some money this adds up in a little coin pouch in which you will be using for practically everything in the game. Travelling to location will cost you coins, buying new books will cost you coins and even buying items will cost you money.
Before travelling to each location you will get the chance to restock and organise your bookshelf, the more books of one genre you bring the more chance you have of potentially selling them. Now, remember the word potentially because it really is just that you might think that the beach town loves fact books but when you get there with all your fact books no one buys a single thing even though your potential of selling them is 60 percent. I found its wise to take a diverse range of stock along to each location while prioritising the ones that sell best at them locations.
Items can also be found within each locations and brought from the local newspaper, these items all come with different stats, displaying them in your book shop will boost the chance of selling a specific genre for example you have a 10 percent chance to sell crime books at a location and you display a skull well this will now be increased to 14 percent. It is these little things that make the game so much more than just a game about selling books.
Customisation
Tiny Bookshops customisation takes place in the form of decorating the book shop and its outdoor spaces with items that you find or purchase along your travels.
Now while this concept seems a little lackluster I wanted to bring it up because the sheer amount of cool little customisations you can do with just a few collected items is actually quite cute for a game like this.
We can customise the roof, floors and walls of the shop, then we have the ability to add shelves, plants, chairs tables etc. so you really can adapt this little space to how you see fit.
Our Thoughts / Verdict
Tiny bookshop is a very addictive cosy shop owner game now while I’m not normally one to get into these games it was the financial side of this game and numbers game that really had me hooked. There is something about figuring out why I am not selling these books at this location, then adapting my selection on offer to try and maximise profits from the location at hand.
The pacing of the game and story is actually really good and I feel there is something for everyone here, unless you’re into die hard first person shooters then you won’t find that here.
Customisation of the shop itself is pretty decent and allows the player to really customise the store how they want it.
TLDR
Cute shop sim with a twist, puzzle solving and customisation backed with a cute little story.
