Adventure Corner ~ Tiny Bookshop

Welcome to Adventure Corner, a column where members of the RPGamer staff can give their thoughts, impressions, and pseudo-reviews for various adventure titles that don’t come under our usual coverage. Adventure Corner is aimed at delivering opinions on a wide range of titles including visual novels, point-and-click adventures, investigative mysteries, and so forth.

In this edition of the column we take a look at neoludic games’s cozy narrative management game, Tiny Bookshop on Nintendo Switch.

Tiny Bookshop

As a librarian, a significant component of my job is performing reader’s advisory — a fancy way of saying that I assist customers in finding new books based on provided criteria. The goal in reader’s advisory is to listen to the patron’s needs and attempt to match a book title to what they are looking for. Sometimes the criteria can be very detailed and direct, while at other times, they can be very vague, meaning that I often have to ask follow-up questions. Being a voracious reader myself, it’s easily one of my favourite parts of the job. I love finding out if the patron enjoyed or disliked the recommendation, and the nice part is that if you’re successful in a transaction, the patron will likely select more items or come back wanting more recommendations. In neoludic games’ Tiny Bookshop, I found myself playing “my job” the video game, and I say that with much sincerity, as it gets a lot right in a tiny package.

The game begins with players driving into the town of Bookstonbury, a place where the pervasiveness of reading is apparent. They then meet Tilde, the former bookseller in town who has decided to close down her shop and begin her retirement. Tilde explains that without a bookstore, the residents have been restless and struggling to find books that connect them. As the player sets up shop, they begin to meet some special regulars who come to the shop, each with their own story to tell. The game plays out in four seasons, during which the player can move to different locations to sell items, meet townsfolk, or participate in special events such as a weekly flea market, or even assist in the funding of a concert area for residents to enjoy outdoor theatre and live music. Even on days when there isn’t a larger event, the game offers a lot of character requests and location quests, so there is always something or someone to check in on.

You get a recommendation! And you get a recommendation! And you!

The characters’ stories are straightforward, but fit the overall coziness that the game wants players to feel. Every character has a questline, each involving other residents of Bookstonbury, and a lot of them intertwine in unique ways. The stories are simple, yet effective, invoking a lot of emotion, such as Klaus’ desire to leave town with his band and go on tour, but unsure how to accomplish that, or Walt the sailor wanting to open up his own shop near the waterfront while being frustrated by its current state of repair and the influx of crusie ship tourists every month. Elsewhere, Fern struggles to connect with others due to their shyness, while Harper wants the bookseller to go on crazy adventures or assist in building the largest sandcastle possible. These characters truly stick with the player, who gets to know them inside and out, and wanting to solve their problems comes easily. Tiny Bookshop‘s writing is excellent, and each storyline is quite memorable.

At the beginning of each workday, the players have the option to buy decorations for their bookshop or buy stock from the classifieds. Decorations offer bonuses to specific genre sales, as well as offer unique effects, such as plants having a calming characteristic or the coffee machine being a distraction. These characteristics can play into the book sales, as if patrons feel overwhelmed, they may not buy as many items, or if they are distracted, they may leave empty-handed. It’s very easy to want to fill every inch of space in the book wagon, and while the bonuses are nice, it’s much more fun to decorate based on one’s personal aesthetic. After making any purchases, players can select a location where they want to sell items, with information logged in their journal as to the types of items that do well in that location. It’s important to find a balance when figuring out what stock to bring to each location; for example, the sailors at the waterfront only like classics, travel books, and fact books, which the player will want to fill the majority of their shelves with, but they’ll still need to bring other genres to satisfy other patrons. With ten different locations to visit, the player becomes more familiar with each area’s favourite genres.

Harper’s love of sandcastles and fantasy holds no bounds.

While selling books at a location, there is often a chance for the player to help recommend books to a customer. With the request comes a level of difficulty, with some parts saying something as simple as “I want a fact book” to something more complicated, such as “I want non-fiction, specifically about nature, but I do not want it to be pop-sci, and it needs to read as dry as possible.” Players will need to scour their shelves for as close to a perfect item as the request states, so in that example provided, a book about distinguishing fungi would fit this request, as it’s non-fiction, about nature, and it’s a fact book focusing on how to distinguish fungi, not why fungi matter in the grand scheme of the world. Sometimes requests can be challenging, asking for multiple genres at once, so reading the shelves and book descriptions becomes essential in order to provide the best recommendation. If a recommendation is successful, customers will keep purchasing items until they have decided they no longer see anything else they want. A failed recommendation often leads to the patron walking out with nothing or whatever item they had on hand before the recommendation process began.

There’s not a lot of music in Tiny Bookshop, but what is there is very calming and serene. Visually, the game sports a beautiful pastoral vibe, with each location boasting both a unique design and tons of colour. It’s also worth noting that something the developers thoughtfully included was wheelchair-bound patrons, as the bookseller’s shop has a ramp for these patrons to access the collection. It’s an important, inclusive addition, and adds to the diverse designs that frequent the bookshop. The facial designs make each patron stand out from one another with a lot of character and personality as soon as they walk through the shop’s door. A ton of thought has gone into the game’s presentation, and being able to outfit the wagon with all kinds of crazy accessories adds to the fun.

Tiny Bookshop has such an infectious gameloop that it’s very easy to lose hours to garner just one more sale. Between the game’s excellent writing and its effective gameplay, it’s a game that does so much in such a simple and meaningful way. Tiny Bookshop is a game about building and fostering community, while reminding us that kindness and empathy are how we can make the world a better place.

Disclosure: This article is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.