There have been plenty of simulator games over the past few years, but one that might have slipped under your radar is TCG Card Shop Simulator. Now, the game itself isn’t exactly new. It’s been floating around the Steam Store and popping up in YouTube Let’s Plays since 2024. However, with the game having recently reached its 1.0 release, I got the opportunity to give it a go ahead of the full launch.
Right off the bat, as an avid TCG enjoyer myself, I have to say that this game scratches all the right itches. From the thrill of collecting cards to managing your own shop, and even the in-game TCG system itself, there’s plenty to like about what turns out to be a surprisingly addictive gameplay loop.
Like many shop simulators before it, you start with a relatively small space, a shelf or two, a checkout counter, and some cash to get things going. Your job is to grow both your store and your bank balance by selling sealed card packs and other TCG-related products. Make enough money, and you’ll be able to stock up on more expensive and lucrative items. Rinse and repeat. Simple enough on paper, but damn, is it satisfying. If you need another reason to check it out, you should know that its developer, OPNeon Games, is based in Selangor, which adds a little more local pride to the experience.
Turning A Monotonous Process Into A Well-Oiled Machine
While the gameplay is satisfying, I have to admit that TCG Card Shop Simulator can feel like a slog, especially for some players. This is par for the course with shop simulators, but the early game here is particularly slow and tedious.
In my experience, there isn’t much to do beyond processing purchases and restocking inventory, and that’s pretty much what I spent the first 20 in-game days doing. There was even a point where I found myself staring at the cash register for an entire day, counting money. It didn’t help that each day felt like it dragged on forever, and by the time it was over, I was practically bored out of my mind.
Thankfully, things start to pick up once you can afford to hire staff. They take over some of the more mundane tasks, making the day-to-day grind of running the shop a lot more bearable. More importantly, the game gradually shifts your focus away from serving individual customers and towards managing the overall flow of products as your business grows. Instead of having to do everything yourself, you can start looking at ways to optimise your operations and make the shop run more efficiently. Hiring staff also opens up opportunities to explore other aspects of the game, which I’ll get into later.
If I had to describe the experience using an analogy, it’s like driving an old but reliable manual car. Getting it started can be a bit of a pain, but once you’re up and running, things become a lot smoother, with only the occasional adjustment needed along the way.
Unlike other shop-management games, progress here doesn’t come easy or happen overnight. Growth is slow, no doubt about it. While I did find this frustrating at first, I’ve come to appreciate that it’s also part of TCG Card Shop Simulator’s charm. Every little improvement feels earned, and each milestone gives you a genuine sense of progress rather than simply throwing rewards at you for a quick dopamine hit. Of course, this slower pace won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
The fun really starts to pick up in the mid-game, when your shop finally begins to run like a well-oiled machine. Or at least, that’s the idea. As business picks up, running the store becomes a delicate balancing act. You’ve got to keep your shelves stocked, manage the flow of products, and deal with events while hordes of customers flood your shop. And just when you think you’ve got everything under control, you realise you still can’t afford to hire more staff. Before you know it, you’re running from one end of the store to the other, trying to keep everything from falling apart. It’s this fun sense of chaos that kept me hooked long enough into the late game.
The Thrill Of The Pack (And The Pain Of Grading)
You could always stick to the basics, sell your products as they are, and grow your business from there. But where’s the fun in that? After all, one of the biggest draws of running a TCG shop is the opportunity to crack open some packs yourself. And since you’re the owner, you can help yourself to your own stock and enjoy the thrill of ripping open a few packs whenever the urge strikes.
Of course, much like opening actual TCG packs, there’s no guarantee you’ll pull anything worthwhile. Sometimes, you’ll end up with a bunch of cards that aren’t worth much, leaving you wondering why you even bothered. But every now and then, you might land a big hit that could fetch a pretty penny on the market. Get lucky enough, and a single pull could bring in enough cash to cover your store’s operating expenses for an entire week. It’s that familiar rush of gambling on a pack and hoping for something valuable that makes this mechanic so addictive, even if your wallet takes a hit along the way.
Once you’ve pulled something worthwhile, you have a couple of options. You can sell the card as-is or send it off for grading in the hopes of fetching a better price. Depending on the grade it receives, the card could sell for significantly more than its original market value, making this a potentially lucrative way to earn some extra cash. When money is tight and your business expenses are piling up, a well-timed pull and a favourable grade can make all the difference.
However, there’s one aspect of this system that I find rather frustrating: the grading process itself. From my experience, the grades often feel almost random, making it difficult to tell whether sending a card in for grading is actually worth the investment. You could have a card you reckon is in great condition, only for it to come back with a disappointing grade that does little to improve its value.
Personally, I wish the game offered a way to inspect cards before submitting them for grading. Even something as simple as checking their condition for visible flaws would give players a better idea of what to expect. It would also introduce an extra layer of decision-making, forcing you to weigh the potential cost of grading against the likelihood of getting a worthwhile return. As it stands, the process feels a little too dependent on luck, which is a shame considering how satisfying the rest of the card-collecting experience can be.
A TCG Within A TCG Simulator
The game’s 1.0 release marks a significant milestone. Not only does it signify the game’s full launch, but it also introduces one of its most anticipated features: the ability to actually play the card game using the cards you’ve collected.
Who would’ve thunk that TCGs are meant to be played, rather than treated as mere assets? Snide remarks aside, this is easily the biggest and best addition to the game. As I mentioned earlier, things can get a little boring once your store is up and running (somewhat), and one of my favourite ways to pass the time was to build a deck and challenge the customers who walked through my doors.
The Tetramon TCG, the card game within TCG Card Shop Simulator, is fairly easy to pick up and, unsurprisingly, bears a strong resemblance to the Pokémon TCG. If you’re unfamiliar with the latter, the closest comparisons I can think of are Gwent from The Witcher 3 or the card game in the indie title Inscryption. What surprised me most, however, was just how much depth and strategic potential Tetramon has to offer, particularly when it comes to experimenting with different cards and their interactions.
As embarrassing as it is to admit, this was actually the part of the game that hooked me the most, particularly the deck building aspect of it. If you’ll indulge me for a moment, my current favourite deck revolves around discarding cards from my hand into the graveyard to gain a temporary power boost, before retrieving them and repeating the process. Finding these niche interactions and discovering potentially broken combos is an absolute blast. If you’re tempted to dismiss the card game as a mere side activity, I’d highly recommend giving it a few rounds first. You might just find yourself spending more time playing Tetramon than actually running your shop.
That said, the card game isn’t without its problems. In fact, it’s easily the buggiest part of the entire experience. I’ve encountered several instances where the game would prevent me from selecting cards or performing other actions, leaving me unable to progress with the match. In some cases, the only way out was to forfeit the match entirely.
Worse still, it doesn’t take much to trigger these issues. During my playthrough, simply opening the graveyard while my opponent was passing the turn back to me, or selecting a card at seemingly random points during a match, was enough to cause the system to bug out. I can cut the developers some slack here, given that this is a newly introduced feature, but these issues can quickly sour the game’s most anticipated addition.
Perfection Is Stagnation: The Problematic Endgame
Like many shop simulators before it, TCG Card Shop Simulator is ultimately about building a business that can sustain itself. Once you’ve reached that point, however, your options become rather limited. You can work towards completing your card collections, replace the basic cards in your deck with their pricier alternate-art variants, or simply play more games of Tetramon.
To be fair, this isn’t an uncommon problem for the genre. However, at least at the time of writing, TCG Card Shop Simulator doesn’t have much of an endgame to speak of. Once your store is running smoothly and you’ve accumulated enough money to comfortably sustain the business, there’s little incentive to keep playing beyond collecting things you haven’t unlocked yet. The sense of progression that makes the early and mid-game so satisfying eventually gives way to a rather uneventful routine. That’s why, in my test, I wiped my save file and started back at the beginning for some fun.
One way the developers could address this is by introducing special events and random occurrences that throw a spanner in the works. Unexpected changes in demand or limited-time promotions, for instance, could force players to rethink their strategies instead of relying on the same tried-and-tested routine.
Alternatively, a New Game+ mode could let players expand into a new region by opening a franchise branch, carrying over some of their hard-earned progress in the process. This would provide a fresh challenge without making them start from square one.
Ultimately, TCG Card Shop Simulator has a solid foundation, but it needs more reasons for players to keep coming back once they’ve built their dream store.
In Need Of Optimisation
Generally speaking, indie games shouldn’t be too demanding on your PC, but TCG Card Shop Simulator does have some performance hiccups. As your business grows and more customers start flooding your store, performance begins to take a noticeable hit. By the time you’ve expanded your shop into a full-fledged retail empire, the sheer number of customers on the premises can cause the game to struggle.
Sure, having a packed store is great for business, but there’s little satisfaction in running a successful shop when the game itself starts chugging along. The game could definitely use some further optimisation, particularly for players who’ve invested the time and effort into building massive stores.
Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, TCG Card Shop Simulator is a game that might easily fly under your radar, but it’s one I’d wholeheartedly recommend, even if you’re not particularly invested in the TCG hobby itself. There’s something genuinely satisfying about watching your little shop grow into a thriving business, with plenty of fun to be had along the way.
Of course, the game isn’t without its flaws. Performance issues and a lack of meaningful endgame content remain its biggest drawbacks, but there’s plenty of potential here for the developers to build upon. With the game having only recently reached version 1.0, I’m hopeful that future updates will address these shortcomings and give players even more reasons to keep coming back.
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