Get the latest tech news
Tiny Bookshop is making me want to run away to the seaside, and judging by its popularity, everybody else is coming too
Steam and Nintendo eShop bestseller Tiny Bookshop is a runaway success for a reason - its lo-fi shopkeeper fantasy is a quiet joy.
Unusually for the genre, it's not a distant and suddenly, fortuitously dead relative that serves as a catalyst for Tiny Bookstore's Big Move, but rather a simple yearning for a better life - which, without wanting to state the blindingly obvious too much, is probably something plenty of people can identify with right now. And really it's got everything you might want from a fictional coastal retreat: gently sun-kissed beaches far from the tourist scrum, a picturesque sea view promenade with enough wandering sailors to satisfy even Ryo Hazuki, a cosmopolitan café quarter, a reputedly haunted lighthouse high on a hill, and even - something we'd all love in our lives - the kind of lilting, lo-fi musical accompaniment that lets you know everything's okay; the summer will last forever, and your troubles will bother you no more. It feels a bit like the cosy game ethos distilled to its absolute essence; every potential stress point swept away in favour of mind-cleansing tranquility and occasional affirmations through the sense of a job well done, all to those soothing guitars and breezy flutes.
Or read this on Eurogamer
