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0 Ever wanted to run your own 90s thrift store? Spellgarden Games is here to help with their new launch, Thrifty Business. Buy products, expand your store, and meet a cast of amazing NPCs. The world is your oyster as you expand floor by floor, railing by railing. You can get Thrifty Business on Steam right now for £12.99.
An entire business? What a steal!
Gameplay
Opening up your own thrift shop is surprisingly easy. After a quick tutorial taking you through the basics, Thrifty Business throws you right into it. It allows you to learn at your own pace through expansion and shopping. All in all the gameplay is laid back and allows players to sink into the gradually. Anyone with any level of experience playing games could quite easily pick up Thrifty Business and get right into it.
Arranging your store is one of the most customisable things I’ve ever experienced. Not only is there plenty of furniture to choose from, but there are multiple styles. From Polly’s Dream House to Witches Attic, the more styles you unlock the more furniture at your disposal to turn your shop into the Thrifty Business of your dreams. It doesn’t stop there. You also need to expand your store so you have enough space for all your preloved finds. Expansion in Thrifty Business consists of buying additional floors for your shop until you have a sprawling tower. It’s a really unique set up allowing you to see all rooms at once. You expand your shop using money earned through selling products and collecting trash. It’s important to keep in mind how much stock you have when you’re looking to expand as you don’t want to have a day in the shop but nothing to sell!
In true Spellgarden Games fashion, Thrifty Business emphasises the importance of NPCs by crafting backstories for a range of characters. These aren’t just different assets, they’re different little beings that have their own lives and stories. Everyone that you interact with feels fleshed out. It’s very obvious that a lot of thought and care when into the creation of every part of this game.
Graphics & Audio
Spellgarden Games has one of the most distinctive art styles in cosy games. As soon as I saw the key art for Thrifty Business I just knew who the dev was. Once again, Spellgarden didn’t disappoint. This game is one of the most perfect examples of cosy art design. You can really tell that every item sprite was lovingly designed and a lot of thought went into every element of the game. Even the NPCs are unique enough to be memorable. Nothing in the game feels overdone or overused and that is to the games credit. I was a little apprehensive of just how much the graphics would stand out when there was less customisation gameplay in comparison to Sticky Business. However, there are so many different choices that you can make around how your shop looks that there’s nothing to worry about.
Longevity
Like with many cosy games, sinking hours into Thrifty Business is an easy enough task. Organising new products in your shop can take no time at all or you can really go hard on making sure everything has a designated shelf. As mentioned, there are so many customisation options that you can curate the perfect business. A lot of this game is just sitting and waiting for the day to pass so you can buy more boxes and arrange your store. For some that might be a bit too monotonous. I didn’t hate this element of the game but I can see why it would turn people off. Sometimes I found myself getting distracted as the day went on and then hurriedly picking up all my rubbish as the day ended and it didn’t seem to have a massive effect on anything.
Final Thoughts
After loving Spellgarden Games’ ‘Sticky Business‘, I had very high hopes for Thrifty Business. Maybe I went in with too high expectations as Sticky Business was a game that sucked me in for hours on end and constantly had me engaged. By all means, Thrifty Business is a wonderful game and Spellgarden have done an amazing job at expanding their exceptional game catalogue. It offers so much as a game and has plenty for a player to do but the waiting for the day to finish took me out of the game a little bit. Other than that this is a really good game and is very much deserving of the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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