TCG Card Shop Simulator

[Paingod]

I picked this title up on Steam while I was waiting for Factorio: Space Age to drop. $12.99, Early Access - with a (currently) 96% approval rating on over 16,000 reviews.

It's cute and hard to go wrong for the price. I played long enough to reach "Level 15" (about 5 hours) and wasn't having any issues keeping up with rent, restocking materials, or unlocking new things to put on the shelves. I liked having a little boardgame section with dice separated from my card packs and boxes with enough space for 6 "people" to play in the store. The absolutely highlight of the game is spraying smelly customers with deodorant when they walk in and having them get all annoyed at you for doing that.

There's a lot of stuff to unlock (by buying licenses) and stock. Cards in many flavors, boxes of cards, premade decks, card sleeves, card boxes, plushies, dice, boardgames, deodorant ... with enough shelves and stuff on them, your store starts to feel pretty cozy.

One interesting mechanic is the ability to open card packs. The card game isn't one you can play, but by opening packs you can sell individual cards for a set price. In the second pack I opened I found a card that could sell for $375 at a minimum. I put it out for $400 and someone snapped it up, and it was a nice little cash infusion to get me going. Prices you set for each card are remembered for the next time, but there could be hundreds of cards and lots of prices to set. Setting out cards for $1 each seems pointless, but it does keep random customers happy who were only coming in to buy an individual card.

The better your store, the happier your customers, the better the reviews, the more foot traffic you get, the more money you make. Spraying stinky customers becomes essential to avoid a 1-star "This place stinks, literally" review. There's maybe 12 "customer" models, and my favorite is Walter White. He seems to buy in bulk every time he comes in. It's a nice feeling when someone walks up to the counter and dumps out $200 worth of sales for you to scan.

The only 'complaint' I might have is the sheer volume of "stuff" you have to keep up with. You can hire an employee, but that cuts into the bottom line. I'm often restocking the store throughout the day and then again at 9pm when it closes. Then I kick back in the dark with the last customer that refused to leave and unseal a dozen packs hoping for a few good cards to sell the next day.

[GreenGoo]

That looks pretty cool, and maybe a fun time waster. I always think I'm interested in money based games, but then I play them and maybe I'm not as interested as I thought.

I may pick this up on a future sale. Thanks for the write-up!