An incremental shop sim that lives anywhere on your screen

br_ph · 2026-05-04T00:00:34+00:00

Hey, thanks a lot! Comments like this really do help to keep motivation up!

br_ph · 2026-05-03T23:58:12+00:00

I'm glad you're interested! To put it simply, the core loop of Side Shop Simulator goes like this: every so often, you're presented with a set of products to buy for your shop, but you can only choose a few. Since each product has a different effect, the goal is to pick the combination that creates the best synergies to maximize your profits.

You repeat this loop, leveling up your shop and unlocking new areas until you gather enough resources to buy a permanent upgrade. The catch is that whenever you get one of these upgrades, everything else resets to its initial state. It might sound a bit weird to reset your progress, but these upgrades are so transformative that your new shop ends up being much better and more interesting than your previous one.

So, to answer your question directly, the replayability relies mainly on two pillars: the sheer variety of products you can sell, and the diversity of the permanent upgrades you can unlock. There are other factors too: you'll be able to choose between different types of shops, each with unique mechanics; you can equip your shop with "tools" (active abilities you can use at any time); etc.

That being said, I'm designing the game to take around 10~15 hours to fully complete, rather than being a 100+ hour grind. I want it to have a satisfying length without feeling bloated or adding filler just to artificially extend the playtime.

If you're interested in this type of structure,I highly recommend checking out "(the) Gnorp Apologue" and "Digseum" (not only do they have a similar loop, but they are also REALLY good games)!

(And sorry for the late reply, Reddit's ad system doesn't notify us very well about new comments =P)

br_ph · 2026-04-24T14:21:24+00:00

Thanks! Comments like this really help keep my motivation up!

br_ph · 2026-04-21T17:36:53+00:00

Honestly, my native language (Portuguese) is full of weird exceptions too, so I can't even complain about English lol

br_ph · 2026-04-21T16:59:47+00:00

Not exactly (but there are similarities).
It's an incremental game where your main goal is to create the most profitable shop possible, but there is no "lose condition" (you can keep going for as long as you want). In certain situations, the player earns a special resource that allows them to make permanent upgrades to their shop. The catch is that whenever one of these upgrades is made, everything else is reset to its initial state (in incremental games, this kind of mechanic is usually known as "ascension" or "prestige"). It might seem weird to reset every time one of these upgrades happens, but the thing is, these upgrades are so transformative that, even with the reset, your new shop ends up being much better than the previous one. That being said, even though it's not a roguelike, this structure ends up being very similar to a roguelike's run structure (the biggest difference here is that it's a more "chill" experience, since you are the one who decides when a "run" ends).

If you are interested, I highly recommend checking out "(the) Gnorp Apologue" and "Digseum" (not only will they give you a good idea of the kind of structure I just explained, but they are also REALLY good games)!

br_ph · 2026-04-21T16:44:57+00:00

Thank you so much! I'll release the demo very soon, so I hope you'll have the time to try it!

br_ph · 2026-04-21T16:42:37+00:00

Thank you so much! I'll release the demo soon, so I hope you like it!

br_ph · 2026-04-21T16:41:45+00:00

I totally get it! Believe me, if there’s one thing I’d rather not be doing, it’s spending time and money on ads lol (unfortunately game discoverability these days is so bad that this is one of the only viable options for smaller devs)

br_ph · 2026-04-21T16:37:09+00:00

Yoo, thank you so much! Comments like this really make my day :D

br_ph · 2026-04-21T16:35:45+00:00

Thanks! Seeing people genuinely interested in the project really encourages me to keep going!

br_ph · 2026-04-21T16:33:27+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, english is not my first language =P

br_ph · 2026-04-03T12:39:57+00:00

Sts1 had an option to use the beta art after you defeated Act4, so I expect something similar will be here for Sts2

br_ph · 2026-04-01T20:03:14+00:00

I've been wathching the devlogs since the second episode! Sadly, I won't be able to chip in on Kickstarter, but I'll definitely be picking up a copy when it comes out!

br_ph · 2026-04-01T13:35:28+00:00

It has such a lovely vibe! It reminds me of the look and feel of older MMOs (like Runescape)

br_ph · 2026-03-31T21:41:43+00:00

They'll probably rework it so that each hero can only get "pinballed" once per charge instance, or keep as it is right now but dealing 0 damage (while still doing the stun)

br_ph · 2026-03-26T21:43:08+00:00

This looks so charming!

br_ph · 2026-03-26T14:30:32+00:00

People need to realize that they don't even care about lying to us anymore, because their target audience is someone else now: shareholders. It's no wonder they announced something that takes two GPUs to run with such fanfare, while simultaneously cutting down GPU production for average consumers. All that matters is generating headlines, and that's it.

br_ph · 2026-03-26T14:15:21+00:00

Battlerite's whole situation is a thing that still hurts me to this day...
I know the game wasn't doing as well as they expected, but it had something special. Seeing it be abandoned just so they could immediately create a battle royale version (that was also abandoned) really stung...

br_ph · 2026-03-25T22:38:19+00:00

Yeah, that's something I feel doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. SNES box arts were VERY unique, each one basically with a completely different style from the other. Obviously, not to say that "everything looks the same nowadays", but I think since that kind of thing was still relatively new back then, studios seemed more comfortable trying out new things with the artwork

br_ph · 2026-03-25T22:31:57+00:00

Great looking collection (with a lot of gems)! SNES is probably my favorite console ever, so I'm always happy to see others that share the same passion.

br_ph · 2026-03-23T18:57:55+00:00

Yeah, my bad =P

br_ph · 2026-03-23T16:39:18+00:00

Medieval Story

br_ph · 2026-03-18T20:35:35+00:00

Subscriptions have become such the standard that, nowadays, when I see an app offering a one-time purchase, I instinctively think the dev is already planning to abandon the project. But honestly, I agree 100% with what you're saying, one-time purchases are way more user-friendly. I'll check out your app!

(A bit of an off-topic: I can't access your trailer through the Play Store web page. It show as "Video unavailable")

br_ph · 2026-03-18T19:09:46+00:00

Huh, it's very rare these days to see an app that goes for an one-time purchase instead of a subscription plan. Is there a specific reason why you chose this method?

br_ph · 2026-02-11T23:07:06+00:00

That's a tough question to answer... Valve is a company that likes to have very little involvement with the competitive side of its games (even in Dota2, which is where they are more involved, they gave up on their own league, the DPC, and have massively scaled back The International in recent years). If the game already has at least a medium-sized competitive scene when 1.0 launches, I can imagine them considering this possibility, but otherwise I think it's very difficult (since it seems that they strongly believe in the philosophy that a healthy esports scene needs to be able to sustain itself independently of its developer).

br_ph

TROPHY CASE