The Book Club is back!
Well, it has certainly been a few months since I last updated the book club. I guess you could say that an update is long overdue. For this latest edition of the Leekscosycorner book club, we will be diving into the demo for the upcoming cosy book game, Tiny Bookshop!
Forget everything you know and leave your 9-5 life behind and open a tiny bookshop by the seaside. Tiny Bookshop is described as a cosy narrative management game packed full of features. From decorating your Tiny Bookshops with items you collect on your travels, recommend books to your customers, get to know the characters and maybe even befriend one or two along the way, stock your shop, explore Bookstonbury-by-the-Sea and discover secrets hidden throughout the game!
Releasing on 7th August 2025, Tiny Bookshop has been developed by Neoludic Games and will be published by Skystone Games and 2P Games.
Interested? Take a sneak peek at the trailer!
A Cosy Narrative Delight
It goes without say that as someone who loves reading, that this would be the perfect addition to my to be read list, well my backlog would be more accurate. This is actually another of my eagerly anticipated cosy games of the year, and the demo is the perfect opening as to what we can expect!
The demo takes you through the first three in-game days and a variety of features that are in the game. In total, it took me about twenty minutes to play through. At no point was the demo overwhelming, it just flowed naturally and explained everything in a quick and straight forward way.
At first, you start off pitching your trailer down at the waterfront and soon enough your first customers arrive. You’ll also meet Tilde, who will give you some helpful knowledge on how to get started. Your customers will tend to know what kind of books and genres they are looking for, so it’s important to keep an eye on what you have in stock at the time. This isn’t too much of an issue in the demo, but something to keep in mind when the game launches properly in August.
Once a customer has found their book(s) they want to buy, this is all automatic, and you’ll see this happen in a small speech bubble above your trailer. You will find that you stock books from that span the likes of travel, classics, fantasy, kids, facts, drama and crime genres. So a real variety for people to explore.
As your first day as a travelling bookseller comes to an end, you are presented with a few new features to begin exploring. This is where we discover the local newspaper, packed full of handy information such as weather and upcoming events, as well as a place to purchase more books and items to decorate and expand your tiny bookshop.
When it comes to decorating your bookshop, it’s incredibly easy. You can change the colour of certain aspects of your bookshop internally and externally, as well as add various decor items too. I ended up changing the colour scheme of my little bookshop into a pastel pink and purple combination, which I thought looked good.
It’s important to note that some objects will add to your daily expenses, which are noted down at the bottom of the screen. It’s key to keep this in mind, especially when you take into consideration your daily location fees too!
But what about restocking books?
Well, once you’ve acquired more via the newspaper, you can pick and choose which books from which genres you want to restock. You can have up to forty books on hand to sell in the demo, I’m guessing this could increase in the full game too.
Now, when it comes to customers, from time to time they will also ask you for recommendations. They’ll give you an idea as to what they are looking for in a book, and a few clues to help you discover their perfect recommendation. Don’t worry if you don’t quite get it right, though, as the game won’t penalise you for it.
Tiny Bookshop also has a variety of different locations that you can explore and sell books at, as well as. Each attracts different types of customers of varying ages. So it’s important to pick up on hints and clues mentioned by other characters as to what your potential client base could be.
For example, the second location I visited in the demo took me to a beachfront where lots of families with children go. So, when restocking my books, I added a few extra Kids books just to make sure I had plenty,
While there is still plenty to learn and discover about Tiny Bookshop, the demo is the perfect introduction into such a charming and cosy game. A short and sweet play through, like a novella, that fills the gaps until you can read more!
It’s easy to see that the Tiny Bookshop has a lot of potential to be a hit in the cosy gaming and reading communities when it launches next month. I was pleasantly surprised by how relaxing it is to run and manage your own bookshop while exploring a variety of gorgeous places. The characters I have met so far have been lovely and the whole feel of the game is just cosy and wholesome. Everything just felt natural and
I’m certainly looking to jump back into the full game when it launches on Steam on 7th August 2025! Meanwhile, why not have a look at the demo yourself and add the game to your Steam Wishlist?
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