Books Upon Books - Bookshop Simulator

I bought this game because I liked the premise and I saw there weren't any reviews... so I wanted to be the first! However, I cannot recommend this game as it currently is. The regular game play option is very broken and the game does not progress. When you are prompted to work the till and open it, none of the buttons work and the only way to exit is to quit the game. If you make the mistake of clicking on the books on the shelves you will be stuck looking at them without a way to exit aside from quitting the game. Until fixes are made, you can't actually play this game.

I love the premise of having a bookshop since I can't afford one in reality. In this game, there are a variety of mini-games to play in order to successfully create an inviting bookshop. There's a shelf restocking mini game where you have to click on empty areas on the shelf, a till game where you have to check expiration dates of library cards and stamp a book as a loan or sale, and a mini-game where you clean up the coffee maker (if you buy a coffee maker) because of those messy people coming in here and getting coffee and then leaving without even browsing shelves :( I played the normal version, instead of the franchise version, and I would love it if I were able to save progress so I don't have to start from scratch every time I load the game. Pros: mostly relaxing (why it possibly isn't is in the con list below) simple game mechanics makes for a easy experience learning how to play shop is pretty customizable (can change colors, walls, windows, decor, upgrades) love to see what "useable" product will be in the store for the next day Cons: This issue is random but is enough I thought I would mention it: the mini-game where you check people out does not work sometimes. I just circle through and stamp and stamp and stamp the books out but the people are not actually being checked out, so they just get mad and leave. The first time I played this, when the till game didn't work, I had to force quit the entire game. The second time, it just cycled through and didn't let me actually check anyone out, but once the day had finished, it went (mostly) smoothly from there. The third time, I went multiple, multiple days and didn't get the issue. It is intermittent, but a game-stopping flaw. When I bought a cat bed (I got so excited for that), I tried petting the cat in the middle of the day. My character got frozen doing this sort of handshake motion, and I could not for the life of me, get out of doing that motion and check people out. Luckily I was able to force quit the day and it didn't count the people starting to get angry at me for ignoring them and petting the cat. I also hate how the camera follows you. It's just more movement my eyes have to see and it would save me a headache if there was an option where it can be still. You can change the speed, but I'd rather there be a completely still option. Some minor cons: the days are very very short and you don't get a lot of money. I think one day I only got $18. Upgrades can cost a bit of money. It's a bit quick-paced when the days are just over a minute long (I timed it). Would also love to see a character customization in the future (doesn't have to be fancy). Overall: there's some bugs that need fixing. The biggest issue is the till mini-game crapping out randomly. Other than that (and the cat issue), it's not bad.