Review - TCG Card Shop Simulator

Michael Stern

7 hours ago

8 min read

https://youtu.be/hYyZVRpRnKc?si=A9UhWPqr8j0DA-64

Developer: OPNeon Games

Publisher: OPNeon Games

Available on: PC (Steam), Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PlayStation 5

Reviewed on: PC

TCG Card Shop Simulator: Build Your Dream Card Shop

Are you a cozy gamer? Do you love TCGs, collecting cards, or spending time browsing your local game store? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to run one yourself?

TCG Card Shop Simulator puts you behind the counter and gives you the keys to your very own trading card shop. From setting up your store and stocking shelves to buying individual cards, watching market prices, managing inventory, and eventually hiring employees, the game lets you experience nearly every part of running a TCG shop.

What makes it particularly interesting is the combination of several popular gaming experiences. It takes the relaxing, low-pressure gameplay of a cozy shop simulator, mixes it with the excitement of collecting trading cards, and even lets you play the card game itself.

It sounds like a pretty great combination, but how does it actually play? Let’s dive in!

Just Another Simulator Game?

When you first open your shop, things are about as humble—and basic—as they can get.

You start with $1,000 to spend, a handful of shelves, a cash register, and a very small store. The game initially walks you through several basic tasks, giving you a gentle introduction to running your business. These include ordering merchandise, stocking your shelves, checking customers out, and handling the other fundamentals of running the shop. And then... the guidance stops. This was probably my biggest issue with the game.

Once those introductory tasks are finished, there aren't many more objectives telling you exactly what to work toward. There are no continuing quests or clearly defined missions pushing you toward the next big milestone. Instead, you're left to figure things out for yourself.

For some players, that freedom will be part of the fun. There’s something satisfying about experimenting, making mistakes, figuring out what works, and gradually turning a tiny shop into something much bigger. For others, however, the lack of direction may feel a little frustrating. Personally, I found myself clicking through various menus and icons, struggling to figure out what I was supposed to do next. Eventually, I discovered the upgrade system, which unlocks additional products, shop expansions, shelving, and other features as you progress.

New products can be unlocked through licenses, which cost money and therefore eat into your shop's profits. This creates a simple but surprisingly effective gameplay loop: Buy stock, sell it for a profit, upgrade your shop, unlock new products, sell more, and repeat. It sounds complicated when you break it down, but in practice, it's actually quite straightforward. Find products that sell well. Work out profitable prices. Save your money. Expand the shop. Unlock new merchandise. Then do it all over again. In other words, it's the familiar cozy shop-simulator formula, with the added bonus of collecting, trading, and playing a new TCG!

Relaxing, Simple, and Surprisingly Addictive

At its core, TCG Card Shop Simulator is a relaxing game. There’s no constant countdown forcing you to work faster. There is no pressure to accomplish everything immediately. This means you can take your time organizing your shop, experiment with pricing, and really decide what you want to focus on, instead of being told what to work toward by the game. That freedom is one of the game's biggest strengths.

You can play conservatively, slowly building a small and manageable card shop, or you can keep expanding until you're running a much larger operation with additional employees, shelves, products, and customers. The game doesn't constantly demand your attention; instead, it gives you a sandbox and lets you decide what you want to do with it. That freedom makes it easy to pick up when you want something relaxing to play after a long day.

The Technical Side

So, how does the game actually run? In my experience, TCG Card Shop Simulator performed very well. I played it on a relatively simple laptop and didn't encounter any major performance problems. The game ran smoothly without any noticeable stuttering, crashes, or other issues that interfered with my experience.

The graphics are relatively simple, with a visual style that reminded me of games such as Abiotic Factor and Half-Life. They aren't trying to compete with the latest AAA releases, but that simplicity actually works in the game's favor. There's a certain charm to the presentation that fits the cozy nature of the genre.

The gameplay mechanics are also fairly easy to understand. There is plenty to learn as you progress, but nothing felt overwhelmingly complicated to me. The controls are simple, straightforward, at times a bit clunky, and there are things that the tutorial does not cover, which I only found out after playing the game and testing things. A good example is stocking inventory: the tutorial shows you how to do one item at a time, taking them from the boxes on the floor, into your hand, then placing items on the shelves. However, if you are holding a closed box of products that can fill a shelf, you can directly stock the shelves from that box! This would have been helpful to have as part of the tutorial, but it also gave me a proud moment when I discovered this myself! Hopefully the devs will improve the tutorial to include this ability in future updates.

The game also doesn't continue running while you're away, like some idle mobile games will, so that when you close it, your shop isn't secretly carrying on without you. When you return, you pick up exactly from where you left off. The only difference is that you start in the street outside of your shop, rather than wherever you were standing when you saved and ended the session. This is not a huge issue, but I found that when I was doing something or had an idea that I did not want to dive into because I needed to sleep, it was hard to remember when going back into the game. For example, when stocking shelves, I would forget what items I needed to purchase, or what I was stocking, or even what my plan was for the shop’s inventory, and when I came back, I could not remember since I started outside of the shop.

Saving in this game is actually quite different than most cozy games, because you can save at any point, not just at the end of the day, even if you are then placed outside when you reload. There are three save slots, along with an autosave slot. I particularly appreciated having multiple save options because it allowed me to experiment with different strategies and see what happened when I made different decisions. This means I could save right before purchasing a new product or expansion to my store, see if it worked for my business, and then either overwrite the saved game with the new improvements or reload and revert to before I purchased to try a different tactic.

What is There to Look Forward to?

One of the most exciting things about TCG Card Shop Simulator is the potential for expansion. There are already plenty of ways to customize and grow your store, and players can choose how ambitious they want to be. Want to keep things small and simple? You can. Want to build an enormous card shop packed with merchandise, customers, employees, and shelves? You can do that too.

That flexibility gives the game some longevity because you're not necessarily playing toward one specific version of the "perfect" shop. You can build the store you want. There are also additional features and content planned for the game, which makes the future particularly interesting. The developer has discussed potential additions such as customer voice-overs and more interactive ways for players to engage with their patrons. But perhaps the most interesting development is the addition of an entirely new TCG created specifically for the game. That means you're not simply selling fictional cards to customers. You can actually collect the cards and play the associated card game yourself. For TCG fans, that's a pretty exciting addition.

Why TCG Card Shop Simulator Stands Out

What I found particularly interesting about TCG Card Shop Simulator is the story behind its development. According to Ding Shen Sia, founder of O.P. Neon Games and creator of the game, TCG Card Shop Simulator started as something of a passion project after experiencing burnout from solo mobile game development. Here are his words on the game, its development, and how the game has exploded past any of his original aspirations:

TCG Card Shop Simulator was made because I was bored out of my mind after burning out from solo mobile game development back in 2023. I felt aimless and wasn't sure what to do with my life. I'm not sure if I hit some kind of boredom limit, but one day I thought to myself, ‘Let's see if I can publish a PC game on Steam and make some cool Steam Trading Cards. I have always wanted to try it. And it would be nice if I can open an infinite amount of TCG card packs in the game, real ones are so expensive!’ I had no big expectations or plans for it other than making the Steam Trading Cards work, but I would have been really happy if it sold 100,000 copies in a year (it somehow sold that amount in just 3 days!). Fast forward to now, I still cannot believe TCG Card Shop Simulator is actually going 1.0 on Steam and launching on all console platforms! A big THANK YOU to every player who played TCG Card Shop Simulator. Your support made this entire journey possible!

As you can see, the original goal wasn't necessarily to create a massive hit. It was simply an opportunity to try something new, including creating Steam Trading Cards and, as Sia put it, opening an "infinite amount" of TCG card packs without paying real-world prices.

Now, the game has reached its 1.0 release on Steam and has expanded toward console platforms for early access across most consoles, along with a huge following in a Discord community that is constantly making suggestions, helping find bugs to be fixed, and allowing the creator to monitor for any issues, positive or negative feedback, and keep in touch with the community. It has been quite a journey for what began as a passion project. And importantly, the developer has indicated that reaching version 1.0 isn't the end of development. Future updates, bug fixes, and additional content are planned, meaning there is still plenty of room for the game to grow.

The Verdict

TCG Card Shop Simulator isn't perfect. But the charm of building a shop, playing this new TCG developed by the creator, and the huge community involvement does make for a really fun and engaging experience that most games lack.

The lack of long-term quests or clear objectives after the introductory tasks can leave you wondering what you're supposed to be working toward. Some systems could also benefit from additional polish and explanation, but once you settle into the gameplay loop, there's something genuinely satisfying about watching your little shop grow. Ordering products, filling shelves, watching customers come through the door, adjusting prices, opening card packs, unlocking new merchandise, and gradually expanding your business can be surprisingly addictive.

It's the kind of game where you can sit down intending to play for 20 minutes and suddenly realize you've spent several hours reorganizing your shelves and wondering why you absolutely need one more upgrade. If you're a fan of cozy games, shop simulators, trading card games, or simply enjoy watching something grow from a tiny operation into a thriving business, TCG Card Shop Simulator is definitely worth checking out. With the developer continuing to work on new content, I'm genuinely interested to see where the game goes next.