Yase Plays: The Tiny Bookshop
- Yase Fuyunori
- Jun 29
- 4 min read
As an avid reader of stories in all their forms and someone who melts at the thought of that good, new book smell, it's easy to say that „The Tiny Bookshop“ immediately captured my heart.
I was lucky to be invited to a meeting with the amazing team during Gamescom 2024 and am now even luckier to review the game itself.
Starting the Demo I was immediately greeted by a soft and calming guitar as the menu invites you to start your journey. I played the game on a windy, quiet Friday afternoon and it seemed to perfectly fit the atmosphere and mood.
Making your way into a beautiful, town by the sea wrapped in soft pastel colors, you leave everything behind to open your tiny bookshop, which is an adorable little wagon pulled by nothing but your car and your wish to sell great books to even greater people.
I found myself absolutely enarmored with the people who then soon enough greeted me and the tutorial led me through stocking up inventor, selling the correct books and genres to the correct customers and customizing my bookshop perfectly.
Not only are all the customers more than diverse, presenting customers of many backgrounds and with and without disability, they all also feel alive and like actual people.
One of my favorite features must have been the one, where you can click on each customer as they come and go, and tell them „Hello“ or „Goodbye“ and they would greet me back or wave a farewell to come another day.
Another absolute favorite of mine would be when on my third day managing the shop the tutorial suddenly presented me the option to help out customers who were looking for book recommendations.
You get to choose between the genres of
Travel, Classics, Crime, Kids books, Facts and Drama.
So between stacking your shelves daily, calculating how to make the best out of your inventory for sales and also customizing your store with accessories and furniture and paint jobs that further your visitors' purchases.
I was absolutely delighted when I managed to sell a customer, who was looking for a classic title for a school project „The Great Gatsby“, as they told me that they were looking for a classic but hated war. Specifically having to comb through the shelves, discovering that all the titles were real book titles AND having to find a book that would fulfill the requirements of the person asking was thrilling and excited my book-loving heart.
So as I met more and more customers and people integral to the game's story, painted my bookshop in tones of blue as it is my favorite color and placed furniture in- and outside to get more potential visitors for my shop and discovered new locations in town to set up my traveling store at, the demo sadly came to an end and left me wanting so much more.
Why was the old lady who owned the previous bookstore helping me? Who was the adorable writer of the daily newspaper?
What other characters would I meet on my journey?
What would the Beach look like?
The Demo doesn't present too much of the narrative yet – which I wholeheartedly welcome, because these days trailers and demos just reveal too much for my taste. The locations are gorgeous and deliver a great sense of serenity, while you just take it all in and watch people come and go.
There is a location with a dog – and yes you CAN pet the dog! You can scroll sideways to look around and you can watch the sun go up and down and the weather change.
Lastly I want to mention that sales are important, as you will need funds to set up shop in different locations, purchase new books from the daily newspaper advertisements as your inventory shrinks with each sale and of course purchase more furniture to make your bookstore look appealing and neat.
All in all „The Tiny Bookshop“ is the perfect cozy management and narrative game, that in my opinion will win over the hearts of every book lover and people who need to just flee the daily escapades of life.
I sincerely thank the „Film- und Medienstiftung NRW“ and Neoludic for inviting me at GamesCom and letting me experience their hard worked on game in the making on the scene and to have met some of the creators.
I genuinely hope my review has made you want to check the Demo of the game out and maybe even wishlist it on Steam, so you can fully fall in love with it, when the full experience is available on August 7th, 2025. Yase out!
The Tiny Bookshop - Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2133760/Tiny_Bookshop/
The Tiny Bookshop - Homepage:
Neoludic Games Homepage:
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