A Cozy Game with a Personal Twist
We all need a cozy game in our lives right about now, don’t we? True, there are a lot of chill games to choose from. And it goes without saying that the ‘cozy’ category is pretty wide open, spanning everything from semi-hectic farming sims to calm city builders that are closer to digital toys than actual games with specific rules.
Fortunately, there’s a new meditative, saccharine sheriff in town and it’s all about books: Tiny Bookshop. And, folks, Tiny Bookshop is absolutely perfect except for one very small issue: It has none of the books that I, Mike Drucker, have written.
Hey, I Wrote Some Books! Please Buy Them!
Allow me to explain. Tiny Bookshop is a new game in which you own and run a, and you’re not going to believe this, very small bookshop. You’ve just moved to a small town called Bookstonbury-by-the-Sea, a magical place where everyone actually likes buying books and reading. Even better, people don’t just buy the type of management books that you find amassed in your uncle’s closet after he dies and you’re like, “Man, what a sad life barely led.”
Instead, these friendly folks will open up new locations for you to sell books – from the parking lot of a coffee shop to the parking lot of a big box department store. The reason you mostly do it in parking lots is because it’s somewhat less of a ‘shop’ and more of a U-Haul out of which you sell books you bought off someone who put a personal ad in a newspaper.
Books, that is, except for mine and I’ve written three that you can buy right now! But not here. Nowhere to be found. Not even Good Game, No Rematch, which Booklist described as, “Entertaining and filled with video game minutia,” which I believe is a compliment.
Tiny Bookshop Works Because It Feels Real, But Not Too Real
You might be wondering why I’d expect my books to be in a fictional bookstore in a fictional city in a game that’s not real life. I’m getting to that. But back to this bookshop. Okay. So, you start off with a little trailer attached to your car featuring one bookshelf. Over time, you can expand the number of books you sell as well as improve sales with different decorations and themes.
As in real stores, books are sorted by genre and different locations often have different clienteles with different tastes, meaning you can’t just stack books all willy-nilly on the shelves. Customers can demand various genres such as children’s books and non-fiction, which is interesting because my Boss Fight Books study of Silent Hill 2 fits perfectly into that category but no dice.
Tiny Bookshop does an incredible job of unfurling itself over the first couple hours and then letting you explore the space at your leisure. You really do feel like you’re moving into a small, comfortable town where people are a tad too forward. It makes sense: you’re a stranger who’s coming to their lil village and trying to get people to buy used poetry textbooks from the back of a wooden caravan.
You’ve Played A Cozy Game Before, Right? It’s That
Folks are going to wonder why you’ve set up shop outside of a fictional version of Wal-Mart. Especially if you don’t carry the parody novelization of Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties that I wrote for Limited Run games and make, like, a dollar off each copy sold which could really help right now.
As with many cozy games, you build friendships with shoppers and other business owners. You’ll receive little challenges and quests that can include visiting a new place and talking to a resident as you learn their story. Between that and selling books – none of which are mine, by the way – you earn money and the aforementioned decorations and furniture. The more money and stuff you got, the more customers you can bring in, and may the circle be unbroken.
It’s a familiar gameplay loop, but Tiny Bookshop makes it surprisingly efficient, with business days lasting just a few minutes. It’s an easy game to play during a coffee break and feel like you accomplished a lot. Except if you want people in Bookstonbury-by-the-Sea to read ol’ Mike Drucker’s work that he typed with his own two goddamn hands.
Tiny Bookshop Has Real Books! Just Not Mine!
Because here’s the thing: there are real books in Tiny Bookshop and sometimes you’ll need to recommend them to people. Well, at least real book titles. Not like the actual full books. While most customers will walk into your store and buy something based on personal preference, a few will sometimes ask for help. They will tell you what they like and ask for something similar. Sometimes this is easy if you’re well stocked. Sometimes this is impossible if your shelves are bare or you screwed up and just have a bunch of copies of Hamlet.
Oftentimes the way they ask will be intentionally confusing – a puzzle to figure out exactly what they think they want, even though what they would probably most benefit from is Good Game, No Rematch, a book by Mike Drucker that Gail Simone called “a goddamn riot,” which you have to admit is pretty cool.
It’s this recommendation feature that really makes the world of Tiny Bookshop pop. The fact that there are real books by real authors makes the game feel more substantial. The whole game feels a little more firm when people know about Stephen King. Most games would’ve just come up with a few fake titles and called it a day. Here, knowing about books actually helps you do better in this game about books.
Don’t worry: each title you sell has a synopsis. But there’s a certain pleasure to being able to recommend Stories Of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, which is one of my favorite books of all time. There’s a certain sorrow to not being able to recommend Good Game, No Rematch, which of the three, that’s the one I’m pushing hardest on you.
Again, I know there are so many cozy games out there. And I know that a lot of them can look the same or sort of blend together after a while. Tiny Bookshop is actually a really great, relaxing game in a genre that I don’t always click with. Don’t miss this one. Switch, Steam, whatever.
This is the type of cozy game I want. One that’s both relaxing and feels like it has a driving purpose. Even if it doesn’t have any of my books, which are theoretically available wherever books are sold – including in the UK now, by the way, my editors who are British. I forgive the game. I forgive the developers. But will I ever forgive myself? No.
But seriously, Tiny Bookshop is pretty great and not expensive and lord, it’s nice to have a relaxing game about books that feels like it’s actually about the books.
