Overview
TCG Card Shop Simulator is a simulation game that lets players step into the role of a card shop owner, offering the chance to immerse themselves in the world of shop management, collecting cards, and spraying down smelly customers with deodorant. The game combines shop simulation mechanics with the passion for trading card games (TCGs), allowing players to buy, sell, and collect cards while managing the shop.

Gameplay
The core gameplay revolves around managing a shop dedicated to trading cards. Players start with a basic storefront and work their way up by buying booster packs, rare cards, and collectible items to resell at a profit. The game also incorporates elements like stock management, pricing strategy, and customer interaction to create an engaging business simulation. Some gameplay highlights include:

1. Inventory Management: Players can collect and store a wide variety of cards and items, from cheaper card sleeves to expensive collectible figurines to best card booster boxes, managing stock and curating collections.
2. Customer Interactions: Customers occasionally come in looking for specific items or just meander around until they find something at a reasonably set price. Setting prices for customers is usually the largest part on whether they purchase something or not. Often times my strategy for this was to simply round to the nearest dollar with the convenient “Round” button, all to make it easier for myself at checkout. If the player was sop inclined to raise prices you will often see remarks above the customers head on if it is a fair price or not. This mechanic offers a balance of customer service and sales strategy.
3. Event Management: The game includes opportunities to “host events” which in simple terms, let’s the player charge a different amount with positive and negative effects on card prices. For example, hosting a fire deck tournament increased the value of fire cards but decreases the value of earth cards. This changes the individual pricing of the cards and adds another layer of complexity to the setting prices mechanics.
4. The Cards: The most important part of the TCG Shop is obviously, the cards. The game does an overall good job with this, there are of course things that I would personally change to make my borderline card collecting addiction more engaging but it still does a fantastic job of it. Currently the game has eight different card packs across the two “expansions”. First being the base set cards with rarities of Basic, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. While the price of the packs go up with each rarity, the overall cards within all increase. The other expansion set of “Destiny” unfortunately are the same exact cards with a spacey background instead of the Basic set’s environmentally themed backgrounds. Would very much like to see some improved art on all of these cards or even more expansions. Opening packs is another lucrative way to further the player’s shop by selling the expensive collectible cards from these packs it is a viable way to get an easy jumpstart in the game. Selling the cards is not the only function in the game, much like myself, collecting was something I actively pursued in my shop. I refused to sell anything that I did not have doubles of, as I wanted to complete my binder and figuratively catch them all. Each card seems to have twelve different variations of borders, art, holo, etc. This makes collecting them all incredibly time consuming and a major pull to the game. The last thing I would like to mention is the Ghost cards. These are the rarest cards in the game and overall the most exciting to pull from a pack. Average odds from what I have seen has a Ghost card being pulled one out of every thousand packs opened in Base set. Destiny seems to have an increased chance, but with the grind to get to a higher level to open these packs, my main focus was on base set.

Graphics and Sound
Expectations of graphics were pretty low going into this. Even before I purchased the game, I instantly recognized re-used assets from similar games with little to no difference besides slightly different faces and clothing. Realistically, this is not a game where there is need for a high amount of detail. I believe the average player who is getting this game is here for one thing, and one thing only, the cards. The art on the cards is passable, in the future I would very much like to see more detailed or more variant card art. A great deal of the card art felt generic and designed somewhat quickly.

The music was mediocre. In the beginning it wasn’t too bad, felt like some elevator music, something generic to make the emptiness of the shop seem less apparent. This quickly faded, and started to feel annoying and repetitive after about 5 hours of gameplay. Definite room for improvement here. Would refer to PC Building Simulator for the ideal simulator music experience

Difficulty and Replayability
The game has an approachable difficulty curve, making it accessible to new players while still providing depth for those who enjoy strategy in business sims. Replayability isn’t really there at this time. There is no need for different save files or new shops as one shop seems to cover the whole experience. The only valid replayable part of the game is to continue to automate the shop with employees and spend the shop time opening packs to try to collect rare cards.

Pros

• Authentic TCG culture experience with a wide selection of card types
• Some depth in inventory management and pricing
• Opening un-ending packs and collecting cards
• Relaxing and casual gameplay suitable for all skill levels

Cons

• Eventual lack of change in gameplay loop, which may feel repetitive over time
• Graphics and music are simple and have no change besides the smelly cloud around the occasional customer
• Limited card variety and art, some much needed expansions and more unique card styles or art.

Verdict
TCG Card Shop Simulator delivers a fun, laid-back experience that celebrates the joy of collecting cards and managing a TCG store. It appeals to fans of TCGs and players who enjoy a solid simulator experience. While it may not offer high replayability for everyone, the game’s charm, strategic elements, and borderline gambling addictions for TCG enthusiasts make it a delightful choice for anyone interested in card games or simulation games. Would absolutely recommend to any one who can appreciate TCG or a simulator. Very excited to see what future updates bring.