Book Bound

A nice cosy game made by a solo dev. Run your little bookstore, make money, buy new furniture and decorations, and buy tools and upgrades. I found the gameplay slightly boring, it would have been nice if the customer mini game had a few variations so there were a few more mechanics in the game. I would have also liked to have unlocked perks somehow: faster run speed, discount off books, extra customers etc. The game is very simple, it feels a little bare bones, but it was still enjoyable. I really liked the customer stories, that was a really nice touch and they were my favourite thing about the game. Recommended for a relaxed and chilled session to switch your brain off.

It's a cute little cozy game, but it's very basic. There are NPCs with little story lines, but you are basically spoon-fed them because you do not have to work towards any rep with them, you just talk to them before opening your shop for the day. Because there was nothing in game to prevent me from rushing through it, I finished them all before learning a crucial bit of info from Stefan the book and well before he told me to try talking to people on benches. I've just upgraded my store to one side so I have more room, but since I accidentally rushed the side storylines, I'm wondering if there is anything left for me other than just achievement hunting. Time goes by way pretty fast once you open the shop so each day flies by and at the end of the day, customers just drop whatever book they have on the floor, even if they are heading to the register. There is no grace period to allow you to finish sales. You cannot hire anyone to help you. That makes it a little difficult to help customers find books, cash people out, sell coffee, AND go outside to bring more people in. There are achievements for selling different books in a category (20 each) but I still have books on my shelves no one has bought and ones for selling a number of books up to 500, which seeing as I had only just hit 200 in about 4 hours of play time means I have work ahead of me. So if you just want to zone out or be a little mind-numbed or you do not want a difficult simulator game, I'd recommend buying it. If you are looking for a really good store simulator, I can't say this would scratch that itch.