Ive always wondered about the appeal of workplace simulators. Would a truck driver really want to go home and boot up American Truck Simulator? Would a gas station clerk really wanna fill up tanks in Gas Station Simulator? But then I checked out the demo for Tiny Bookshop and, well, I get it now. Theres something calming about the rituals of a profession we enjoy when presented via a relaxing video game, and thats exactly what Tiny Bookshop and its 30-minute demo offered me.
When most people think of a bookseller, they likely think of a young liberal arts grad chilling on a stool and reading a book in between ringing up the occasional customer. While thats certainly true for many shops, my experience as a bookseller was certifiably not that. Working at and then managing a store in one of the busier parts of Manhattan, I hustled, often ringing out dozens of customers an hour and receiving hundreds, sometimes thousands, of books and merchandise items a day.
My life as a bookseller was not cozy, and that exhausting bookselling life is exactly what drew me to Neoludic Games Tiny Bookshop. It offered a relaxed, stress-free version of something that can actually be really fun at times — putting your favorite books in readers hands.
Image: neoludic games/Skystone GamesTiny Bookshop casts you as a beginner bookseller and sends you to the small town of Bookstonbury — a coastal hamlet with a lighthouse straight out of Maine — to set up your mobile bookshop. Its extremely idyllic and immediately cozy; the pastel color palette is easy on the eyes. A local resident, Tilde, introduces herself and then acts as something of a guide to help you get started bookselling.
Youll sell books over three days in the demo, and people will buy them up (more so than in real life, in my experience). Various citizens of Bookstonbury wandered into my tiny bookshop, and Im pretty sure they all bought a new book to bring home; I sold ten tomes my first day and 12 the next. Im rich! Except — not really. Any revenue you accrue goes right back into the business for new stock or for decorations to make your Tiny Bookshop truly yours.
Image: Neoludic Games/Skystone GamesSome customers will grow antsy if you dont help them right away. Thankfully, they cant actually get snippy with me like tourists would in real life. Instead, theyre eager for a recommendation, and these scenarios present a dialogue-based puzzle. Youll listen to what the customer wants and dislikes, and then offer them a suggestion, matching a title from your stock with their interests to ensure a sale. Theyre simply solved, and, with a good recommendation, the customer will gleefully walk away with a new title to enjoy (and not leave it randomly on a table in a different section of the store).
Tiny Bookshops demo made me eager to get my hands on the full game, and its almost here. On Thursday, May 29, Neoludic Games announced Tiny Bookshop is out August 7 for Windows PC.
