Hey shop owners!
Two weeks of open playtest flew by like nothing, and now it's time to sum things up and share our next steps. Actually, it's been longer than two weeks, but you're seeing this post today because we've been glued to our screens with mugs of VERY… and I mean VERY strong tea. We've been going through your surveys (almost 2.5k of them!), collecting and analyzing your messages on socials, discussing all the feedback, checking in-game stats… and just couldn't believe our eyes.
You know, one comment in the questionnaire literally melted our hearts:
"…I could feel how much passion and love the dev is putting into this project. I don't know you, but I already love you and your game so much."
We don't know you personally either, but the whole team already loves YOU! Not only did you find time to play Tiny Shop, you also left a ton of super useful info. Thank you for this incredible response. You gave us so much warmth, we could probably heat a small village with it.
Over 11,000+ people got to play, and the game got 7,000+ new wishlists! The total number is looking pretty impressive and beautiful. Can't wait to beat it and finally spill the beans.
We saw that our core mechanics (setting up the shop, buying goods, putting them on shelves, selling, etc.) work exactly as we intended. You got that relaxing, therapeutic cozy effect we were going for.
But like in any good story, there's a "but." The playtest highlighted quite a few small but important issues – from minor UX annoyances to softlocks on some builds. We know they messed with your vibe. So we decided to honestly and openly go through what we need to fix, rebuild, and improve based on your feedback.
We want you to see that we hear you, and the work on the game is buzzing!
First up, we need to polish the tutorial. Some mechanics weren't obvious enough. For example, that you need to close the shop door at the end of the day to finish your workday. For the next build, we want to make the learning process more step-by-step and clear, so you don't have to read walls of text. And some mechanics won't stay "hidden" just because we assumed they were self-explanatory.
No more rushing! Right now we're working on several ways to reduce the hustle, so your workday doesn't turn into a constant back-and-forth sprint from dawn to dusk.
Yeah, most daily tasks aren't mandatory. But we didn't account for players' desire to do everything in the time given. So we're going to lighten the load with activities. The simplest way is to make the day longer, but that's also the most boring. So first we'll test some more interesting ideas internally.
Goal: let you spend your day doing what you enjoy, without stressing over lost profit or slowed progress.
Ability to change prices? Yes! Not lose customers while no one's at the register? Yes! Not cry over every single coin? Yes!
But we're not gonna shower you with riches either, otherwise what's the point?
Placing items and checking them out will become easier. We'll work on the UI, icons, and how objects display during decorating. It'll be much simpler and more comfortable to place and view stuff in decorate mode. Register and rugs are first in line.
Originally we planned to make our red panda a bit of a troublemaker, he gives you tips but has his own agenda. But the stealing mechanic made people dislike him. So we want to turn the mascot more into a helper buddy than a little rascal.
Maybe put him at the register to handle sales while you peacefully stroll outside?
Packing goods wasn't supposed to be a main mechanic. Just a way to earn extra coins along with cleaning the area. But we agree that vague color hints can get annoying over time. This is a relaxing game, not a puzzle. So hints in dialogues will become more obvious.
And the residents themselves will start acting more lively soon. We're already working on new animations and interaction options with townsfolk. That part is going according to plan, no big changes.
More product types
New pets and interactions
Areas around the shop and new maps
More storylines and characters
Now we're diving into a busy work period, but we'll try to share news about the project as often as we can.
Oh! By the way, we looked at all your amazing shops you shared on socials and picked the contest winners:
Léna – 25$;
Silvia – 20$;
jen – 20$;
juni.and.her.cats – 20$;
Neivy – 20$.
We'll reach out to each winner a bit later to collect info and send the prizes, so please make sure you can be contacted on the platform you posted from!
Come join our community – we've got lots of cool stuff in store for you. Stay in touch! ✨