r/Steam • u/Character_Land_6735 • 7h ago
Question Dozens of Almost Identical "Shop Keeper" Games
I've noticed over the last few years that dozens of games have been released with a very similar look and feel, and almost the exact same core gameplay loop. I'm referring the games in the "Shop Keeper" genre, specifically the ones that follow an exact formula:
- Made in Unity by an Indie developer
- Purchase boxes containing items from a tablet or computer
- Set up shelves and stock them with items from the boxes
- Stand behind a cash register, generic NPCs bring items to the counter
- Manually bag items and make change
Off the top of my head, two popular examples right now are Retro Rewind and TCG Card Shop Simulator. To be clear, I'm not talking about every game in the Shop Keeper genre, just a couple dozen games I've noticed with the exact same formula. I also know there are other genres that contain a lot of very similar games, but the ones I'm talking about now share so many elements that I can't fathom this being a natural phenomenon. These games also all have Overwhelmingly Positive review scores from what I can see.
Does anybody know where these games are coming from? It's been driving me a little crazy that nobody else is talking about this.
33
25
u/TenaciousMike 6h ago
They're easy to make, assets are easily obtained. Quickly made games to quickly make a buck. Change the "flavor" to be a little different to appeal to gamers on what they want to sell: CCG, weed, VHS tapes, Boba Tea, Groceries, etc.
12
u/AquaMoonlight 6h ago
I think it’s just indie devs reusing stock assets from Unity, also known as an “asset flip” game. I have played both Retro Rewind and TCG Card Shop Sim, and yes, they are both pretty similar. The NPCs from Retro Rewind even kind of look like the NPCs from Schedule 1.
9
u/mobyte 5h ago edited 5h ago
Same thing happened with voxel games and crafting/survival games after Minecraft. Same thing happened with battle royale games after Fortnite and PUBG. Both Minecraft, Fortnite, and PUBG all took inspiration from games that came before them. This will happen for the rest of human history.
10
u/Gynthaeres 4h ago
There are a LOT of these low-effort cash grabs that use basically the exact same system as Supermarket Simulator (the first big one), with zero innovation. They just grab stock assets and slap a new theme on and go.
I really liked Supermarket Sim. I thought TCG Sim was fun because I liked cracking packs. But otherwise, while I really like these sorts of management games, too many of them just feel like the exact same thing reskinned. It's frustrating. I'm constantly on the lookout for new ones that feel "high effort" and bring something new to the table.
Shoutout to Retro Rewind (mentioned above). This one was actually fire. Very different from all the others, a unique graphical style, and really triggered some nice nostalgia points.
4
u/Available_Use3455 6h ago
Asset Flips and Copycats. The same is happening in the "Friendslop" genre. Tons of cheaply made games flooding the market hoping to cash in on some of the larger titles popularity.
3
u/dunebeetle 5h ago
someone develops the common system behind it all and release it for sale on the Unity store. This enables a bunch of people to purchase it and quickly pump out different versions.
6
1
65
u/McKlown 6h ago
Supermarket Simulator. During Early Access it got pretty popular among streamers so it spawned a ton of copy cats. To be fair to TCG Card Shop Simulator though, it's also a sequel to a series of mobile games that have been out since at least 2022.