Retail Mage

This is a demo, not really a fleshed out game. Weak character customisation options. There is a pretty annoying loading time after each action while the AI calculates a response for you. You will play for about 30 mins and experience most of the things this demo has to offer. No progression. Every time you have to create a new character. I think the concept is super nice, if the loading times can be removed and a progression system added this would be a decent game. As things are now I can't really recommend it. Edit: Most of the positive reviews seemed suspicious, either low level accounts, low playing time, all private etc. so looked into it They're all employees of the company that developed this game and most are friends with the CEO (a quick Google/LinkedIn search will prove this) I would not trust the positive rating you see now. If you're curious, buy the game, try it out and remember you can refund if your playtime is under 2h.

After ~30 minutes I'm like "oh, that's it?" The text generation is (understandably) delayed while processing, and whatever you say, you'll get a sanitized version back, so you can't really entertain yourself just saying wacky crap to the AI and be a terrible employee either (which would add another 15 minutes of entertainment value). There's no progression, no permanence to your character, the store... Other review saying "this is a demo, not a game" is accurate. It's a fun idea, but there's barely any game at all here, it's a demo with suspiciously positive reviews.

This is a fun party game. I like what the devs have tried to do: apply generative LLM in a way that adds to gameplay. In short, you're a worker at a market trying to satisfy customers. Sometimes it's easy - you already have the item, you just need to find it (whew, that's actually hard if you don't know where the item is). Then sometimes it's hard. I could not find a fricken oven to save my life, and the customer's timer was running out. I had to use linguistic skills to convince the customer that they don't need an oven if all they need is something to cook with. Would a cauldron do? But wait - there's more! A cauldron by itself won't do - it needs to cook super fast. So the generative LLM aspect has almost unlimited flexibility here - I can pick up a cauldron and enchant it myself. "Make this cook really fast" was my input, and the engine understood that enough to apply an "Enchantment of fast cooking" to the cauldron. This, the customer accepted. I think there's a LOT going on under the hood and the game functions as a pretty chill/quirky proof of concept for how generative LLMs can be leveraged in gaming. Of course, it's not a perfect game. I wish there was more progression - as it is right now, you effectively play 1 day of the retail experience then the game ends and gives you your score. There's also no difficulty settings. I'm sure the devs will add things over time. I look forward to how the devs add more to the game, and their next projects.

Very interesting concept that could be really awesome with the right updates. I received a copy of the game for free to play and review. I didn't see until after my short time playing that the game is retailing at $12?! This game COULD be worth that eventually, but I can't recommend in it's current state. Here's some pros and cons for anyone considering this game. Pro: - MAGIC WOO - You can combine pretty much any object with another object to make the perfect item for each customer - Dialogue options gave me the giggles - FIRE :D - Multiplayer (personally didn't use this feature but it exists) Cons: - Combining objects can have frustrating/unpredictable results. For example, a customer wanted a potted plant, BUT NOT THAT ONE OVER THERE NO IT HAS TO BE A MAGIC PLANT. I enchanted a plant, combined with a pot, then had to add ANOTHER plant and the customer was still like "What the actual f*** is this???". - The tutorial doesn't teach you how to handle the actual store and customers, just how to make things and extinguish fires. - FIRE?! D: Seriously it's such a pain to put out and I don't feel like it actually adds to the game other than to frustrate the player. Oh also you have to type/say the word "extinguish" EVERY time you want to extinguish a fire. I found that I'd extinguish something and while prepping to extinguish another thing, the fire would spread back to where I put it out in the first place. - No progression system at all. It's just endless helping whiny customers with no reward for your suffering ; _ ;

It's a really unique concept but i closed the game after 15 minutes. I'm going to have to agree with most of the negative reviews on this; the game doesn't feel finished. As someone who loves messing about in character creation I was highly disappointed by the selection, it's minimal. The tutorial does not prepare you for actually managing the store at ALL. I've had the displeasure of the game crashing and that way I found out the that every single time you load up the game, you have to create a new save file - your character and progress don't get saved.

Real neat idea, just doesn't do enough with it. This isn't a 'game' and more of an 'experience', as there's no real map, no saved progress of any kind, and while it's fun to make your character's backstory there isn't even a point to it except non-existent roleplay purposes. The game is WAY too small, and it relies too heavily on the GenAI that runs it to do all the heavy lifting - and the AI isn't even that good! You HAVE to use the GenAI to do ANYTHING in the game, and so many times does it just... not understand what you're wanting. And if you do get it to work it'll heavily 'water-down' whatever thing you're trying to do - whatever you type in gets put into the GenAi and 3 sanitized options are provided back to you for you to choose to re-phrase the action you're doing. So much of what you want to do is lost in this translation since you're forced to use THEIR solution! My experience can be boiled down to: Customer wants a backpack with strong rope - I find 'Strong Rope' - I find a backpack - I use the rope and type "attach rope to backpack" - GenAI attaches BACKPACK to Rope (it doesn't actually do anything to any item, it just 'says' it does, customer refuses item because it's missing a rope) - I try to put rope INSIDE backpack - GenAi instead gets me to take out a Tinderbox from inside backpack?? - I ask to put Tinderbox back inside backpack - GenAI makes me pull out another Tinderbox from the backpack - I try to put rope inside backpack again - GenAi makes me put rope inside a wooden crate?? (no wooden crates around) I am just so baffled by this experience. The game is super dependent on the GenAI to do all the work, yet it doesn't even work right in the first place. It's odd because the tutorial has you multiple times combining items in your inventory, but I just cannot seem to do anything like that inside the main game. The concept is such a neat idea, but it just doesn't work. It's fun for a literal 1 hour session to experience it, but afterwards it's just not worth doing at all; you'd get more entertainment paying for a standard text based Ai subscription and messing with that then this game. Also, The Co-op exists. I don't know why, I'm usually not against co-op in any game, but it serves zero purpose here. All interactions between you and other players are managed by GenAi as well, leading to everything feeling... dull. While I had so many problems like the above, my brother that I played with didn't really have the same issues - infact, he was able to constantly just 'tell' the GenAi he had the stuff and that it was already suitable, allowing him to use mundane objects and pawn them off as what the customer wanted, even if it wasn't want they wanted. I can appreciate allowing a bit of silliness to be allowed through - convincing a customer that the newspaper article you found in the bathroom is actually a cookbook, and they only realize that it is not a cookbook once they get home to leave a review is funny - but you cannot actually attempt to roleplay or do anything 'properly'.

it's fun but hard to recommend at this point as it feels more like a demo, or even just a proof of concept. If Jam & Tea add a creative mode or even multiple playable days I would be happy to change my review, but this is unfinished content.

It's neat, sure, but very basic IMO. It's one of those games that the Devs deserve our support because they tried to do something new, and less "This is everything I thought it would be and more". It's a tall order, what they're trying to do here, and not something easily achieved. I'd say what they did achieve, is worthwhile, and furthermore that you'd probably get some fun out of it. But the couple of hours I have right now, that's probably about all I'm going to get from this. Worth $10, hope to see it grow.

As hardcore League of Legends player and someone who rarely plays games outside of the moba/shooter genre, Retail Mage is a refreshing and very fun game. At first I didn't fully understand how retail simulation was going to standout compared to other games out there, however the AI elements in the interactions quickly changed that. Interacting with all the various things and customers is what truly sets this game apart from its counter parts. The game truly makes you think and unlock all the new ways you can server the customers. I highly recommend Retail Mage to anyone wanting to try a new game and group of friends wanting to have a fun and chaotic game to play.

This game is pretty cute, and very interesting, however, I do agree after playing for about an hour, that Character saves, and more than just one shift would make this game better, I also personally feel like Character races shouldn't be barred behind a paywall, special cosmetics, or accessories sure, but that's just my personal opinion, either way, its pretty fun, I recommend at least trying the game. Hopefully development continues, I'd love to see where it goes.