Merchant vs Merek's Market
Merchant
Merchant is a fun little idle game that's designed to be played on the side, while you're doing something else on the computer. In the game, you'll need to hire heroes who you will then send out on adventures to gather crafting materials. The materials obtained can then be turned into numerous types of armor and weapons, which you can in turn equip on your heroes or sell them off for a tidy profit. There are two main ways for you to sell your goods - you can either put it up for sale in your shop or you can fulfill the orders of passing merchants and heroes.Although the game starts out as pretty fun, the progression in this game gradually becomes rather grindy after a while - imagine: sending the same hero on the same quest will require the same amount of clicks as sending the hero on a new quest or even sending a new hero. Some automation would be great here, especially considering that the game's an idle game.
So, despite the fun concept and gameplay, its progression can truly kill your interest in the game. That being said, if you just want a simple game to play as you watch Netflix or YouTube on your computer, Merchant might just be the kind of game for you!
Merek's Market
Merek's Market is a whimsical shop simulation game with time management elements, putting you into the running shoes of a shopkeeper in a medieval fantasy period where adventurers are aplenty. Craft and sell a huge variety of useful items, be it armor, weapons, potions, or even… pottery, serve your customers as quickly as possible, and try to upsell your items whenever they decide to haggle!As you play, the levels get increasingly more difficult, making that shiny gold rating a real achievement to get. The game also comes with a host of twists to its gameplay, spicing up the typical time management levels with mini-games and funny dialogues.
If you’re a fan of time management games, Merek’s Market offers the kind of gameplay you seek with a couple of nice twists, slathered with enough tongue-in-cheek humor to make you bark out a laugh once or twice on every level. Although I’ve not tried the game’s co-op, its single-player mode is already very entertaining to play, and challenging too, if you’re aiming for that shiny gold rating. Highly recommended!