Spellgarden Games have quickly grown to be one of my favourite indie developers out there. From their debut game Sticky Business, where you run an online sticker store, to the wonderful Ritual of Raven, which saw you become an apprentice witch, I just adore the whimsical nature of their games. It helps that they’ve created a striking visual style that I also adore and that they seem to embody the same values, like inclusivity, throughout their games. So when Thrifty Business was announced, you can bet I was excited.
This kind of follow-up to their debut combines that game’s community building with the isometric viewpoint presented in Ritual of Raven and sees you take over a thrift shop from its previous owner, rebuilding it from the ground up. You start out with one empty room, a small budget to buy furniture and an app that allows you to buy second-hand items. These items come in different categories, from kitchenware to toys, from clothes to books, but all of them seem to be very inspired by nostalgia for the late nineties and early 2000s.
At the start of each day, you get unlimited time to set up your store for the day. Buy furniture and wares to sell, organise it all in a way that seems perfect to you, and only when you feel ready can you open up the shop. You can’t just buy single items to sell, though: you’ll buy boxes with wares, with only an indication of what might be inside. This becomes important when you consider that some of your customers will message you with requests for certain items: you might have to buy multiple boxes within the right categories before you actually get the item(s) you’re looking for. This never gets frustrating, though; you might just have to wait a couple of in-game days before getting what you need.
Buying boxes of wares can also trigger story progression, as some of your most loyal customers don’t just buy stuff at your shop but will also donate or sell some of their own goods. It’s through these interactions, both when people buy and sell, that the community building of the game really comes to life. We get to know the people who frequent our shop and the lives they lead outside of it, which in itself leads to another aspect of the game: events. Your thrift shop can become the heart of your community by helping organise events like book clubs or queer dating nights in one of your spare rooms.
Sadly, you can’t really do anything during these events. You’re limited to organising them and maybe putting wares in your store that will appeal to the customers who take part in them, but otherwise the events just happen while you tend to the store. But once again, these events will continue story progression, helping some of your customers find love or heal from grief.
The world of Thrifty Business is as alive as the one in Sticky Business was, and you get to be at the centre of it. Whether it’s a father helping his son move to university or aiding a transgender woman in finding her own style, you get to witness it all from behind your register. There’s such beauty in the simple, human stories you get to witness, and Spellgarden Games really know how important finding community can be to our experiences.
Luckily, Thrifty Business avoids the pitfalls of retail life. There aren’t any impatient or rude customers; you don’t have to set your own prices. There’s no pressure in this game. Just like in the developer’s previous games, you get to just simply vibe out – special shoutout to Marie Havemann for once again creating a highly enjoyable soundtrack that might repeat quite a bit but never gets annoying.
Aside from the story progression, you also get to expand and decorate your store. There are multiple extra rooms to unlock, and through a system of community points – which you can earn by stocking items of certain categories, picking up litter left behind by customers and getting to know your regulars – you can also save up for extra decorations that you can unlock through a system of stamp cards, with each card going for a different vibe. So you can make your store look like a 90s arcade, go for a witchy aesthetic or even just keep it simple, or you can even switch the style up from room to room!
And while the gameplay loop in Thrifty Business might be a fraction less satisfying than the one in Sticky Business – there were too many times where I’d just be sitting there waiting for customers to show up at my register, and creativity just feels slightly pushed aside with no option to design your own wares – there is still so much to love here. It helps that putting your wares in your store feels a lot like a reverse Unpacking (it even reminds me of that gem of a game on a visual level), with everything having this satisfying pop whenever you find a place for your item.
The stories are once again very heartfelt, and they will appeal to fans of Spellgarden Games’ previous work with their cores of inclusivity, empathy and passion. The game is colourful, cosy and just a fun time, even if it can be a little addicting at times. It’s something I mention often in reviews, but just like in a lot of roguelike games, there’s a very active ‘just one more day’ feeling to Thrifty Business. Basically, what I’m saying is Spellgarden Games have done it again!
