Pixel Shopkeeper

I like management games like this, so I was excited to play this one when it came up in my queue. Unfortunately, it's simply very tedious and repetitive rather than any kind of fun. It has nice art and good aesthetic, but that won't save mindless and pointless constant click-click-click-click-clicking.

- Every day you set up to sell, you have to rechoose all of the items. There's no automation, no "choose best". When your shop expands, that's a lot of clicking.
- When you select a table space, the list of items you can choose from are not the ones the table uses. So you click on an Weapon table, and it shows you whatever items you had selected last (was it Armor? Misc? All? Who knows!) Which means yet another pointless, poorly designed need to click.
- When you're crafting (especially from a big list) there's no indicator of what you can actually make, so you just have to click down through the entire list to see which ones you can make... over and over and over.
- None of the equip screens (weapon, item, decoration, etc.) actually show you what you currently have, so there's no way to compare. If you want to buy or equip something, you're going back and forth between many different menus, just to see if that wallpaper is better than your current one.
- The shape of the items in the battle screen quickly become tedious to fit together, and the items disappear so fast that it feels more like mashing items into your bag mindless than any actual strategy.
- There's some kind of "hanging out in the park with potential customers" that has no explanation or seeming effect at all on the game
- Reorganizing the shop is hugely tedious because you can't move furniture unless the items are all off of them. WTF?! So you have to click on each item—hoping you clicked on the item and not the table—then remove the item on each space. Do this for every piece of furniture, rearrange.
- Speaking of rearranging, furniture only shows you the aura if you select *and then move it*. If you just select it, nope... no aura. Makes moving even more tedious.
- Once you've played the first part of the game, you've played the whole game. Nothing interesting happens. Oh but you can garden, which means more tedious clicking... ok.

Basically, the developer has a good idea but the game has really obnoxiously poor user experience design. If you like menu simulators and pointless clicking (not even the kind that give you a reward, just clicking in menus) this might be the game for you.

[Edit: The Dev has informed me that the game is missing a little bit of story, and that will be added later. So when it is added, i might change the recommendation]

I really liked this game. It is a easy to get in to, mouse only, puzzel/management, type of game. The first part of the game seems a bit unbalanced, and quite hard (Feels like a more unforgiving college debt, than the one i have in real life, geez). After the loan is payed back however, it becomes a enjoyable sandbox, chill, although sometimes repetitive, game.

The ideas are great, and everything is fast-pased. From the Adventure/loot collecting, puzzles. To the shop management, and sale days. Every step of the way, you have clickable people, birds, desert dust balls, and a ton af comical dialogue, if you pay attention.

But i have some issues with it.

[Edit: The gamebreaking bug have been fixed] - If you keep playing after you have 500.000 gold. It will open a cutscene that keeps crashing the game.

- The hired manager makes no sense. He earns you money without selling anything. Also you cannot go adventuring, and have a manager/managers work in the store, at the same time. It is one or the other.

- Notifications pop up i the middle of the screen, making it impossible to interact with people, while it is up.

- Not really a bug. But the only way to get ingredients for crafting, is donations from townspeople, The ocassional chest, if you get lucky, instead of collecting them on adventures. I feel like it should be the other way around. You find ingredients, then use them to craft the gear for sell.

[Edit: There is now a Easy mode, if you don't wish to go trough this. So it is no longer a big issue] - The first part of the game is a terrible mess of trying to pay back a loan in time, and reloading again and again. Not sure if i feel it is to hard. But it surely was a pain.

- The autosave saves just before you need to pay back the loan, and if you can't, you lose. So if you dont have a backup manual save, you are fked.

[Edit: This was fixed, you can now build the house a lot bigger!] - The house can only be upgraded to around double the size, but the lot you have it on is huge. This makes the game very grindy, since you cannot make money faster, lategame.

- You have to CONSTANTLY click the tables to clean them. This is probably the biggest annoyance in the game. There are so many other things you need to pay attention to during a sale day. And having to constantly having to click the tables, multiple time, to clean them, makes my heart bleed (At least the shelfes never get dirty. Phew).

- It is missing some story elements in the end, that i know the dev is working on at the moment.

As it is. I just can't recommend it.

I DO feel however, with some patchwork, and more storytelling from the very helpful Developer, this will become a great game.

This game is awesome! Its kinda like Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale where you manage a shop but for 1/3 the price. The music is great! The dungeon gameplay is addictive. You frantically try to place all the items to sell in your bag in a tetris-like minigame. I actualy preffer it over Recettar as the dungeons are quicker. Stratedgy is involved in order to make maximum profits like knowing an items sub type, your customers classes, events on the calendeer, and which things to upgrade. There's lots of items to craft as well. And lots of ways to improve your shop. I can tell I'm going to get 40+ hours on this game. Get this game! Especially if you like shopkeeping games, you won't regret it!