Happy Cafe vs Pixel Shopkeeper
Happy Cafe
Happy Cafe is a restaurant/cafe management sim that may bring to mind games like Restaurant City (R.I.P.). Unlike traditional cooking-themed sims, this game allows you to actually build your own restaurant from the starter restaurant that you get. Prepare and cook a wide variety of dishes from across countries and cultures, put them up on display counters, and serve them to your respective customers. Like most sims though, you can decorate your place to your liking, expand your cafe, upgrade your kitchen appliances and also, being a rather social game, invite your friends to help you out from time to time. Best yet, the game even has a nice eco garden where you can plant, grow and harvest your very own organic ingredients to be used at your cafe.So, if you're looking for a restaurant/cafe management sim that's more laidback and where its "cooking process" merely includes a waiting time, then Happy Cafe is the game for you. It may not be a time management game, which happens to be an area they are an expert in, but Nordcurrent manages to deliver a wonderful game nonetheless.
Pixel Shopkeeper
Pixel Shopkeeper is a fun, indie shop simulation and management game where you head out to raid dungeons just so you can gather items to sell and then sell them at your very own shop. The looting system in this game is immensely challenging. It has a bit of inventory management that may bring to mind dungeon crawlers like Diablo, but unlike those games, this one employs a tetris-like gameplay. So, basically, you'll be trying to bring back as many items as you can by fitting each oddly-shaped items (like tetris pieces) into your square-shaped bag. You can purchase other bags later on as well. Different bags have different grid shapes, making fitting those items a bit more challenging than usual. Some even have special grids that will double or triple the number of the item that is placed over it.Featuring nostalgic pixel graphics, this game also has a rather unique "crafting system" - if you even can call it that - whereby you can combine lower-level items to create a higher quality and hence, more valuable item. This also means that you may find yourself re-running lower level dungeons just so you can gather enough items to do your crafting.
Being a simulation game, your shop is upgradable too. You can purchase better furniture such as display shelves, tables, or cases to place more items on display. Note that only displayed items can be sold. You can also polish the items while waiting for customers just so you can get extra cash from the "Shiny" bonus. The adventurers you sell your items to may have special quests for you from time to time. Oh, and don't forget to tap on them as they pass by your shop to encourage them to check out your wares!
Despite its simple, pixel looks, Pixel Shopkeeper is a surprisingly in-depth shopkeeping simulation game with some elements of RPGs. It's very entertaining to be able to farm dungeons for the items you sell and even turn them into more profitable goods. If you enjoy a good shop simulation game and you like idle-like RPGs, then this is a game you don't want to miss!