From the creator of The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide comes Wanderstop, a narrative-centric cozy game about change and tea.
We live in an era of hustle culture that glorifies work over wellbeing. We are encouraged to put everything we have into everything we do. If we don’t achieve our goals, we must not have worked hard enough. If we managed to take breaks or have fun along the way, did we really work hard enough? Of course, not everyone actually believes this, but we certainly all have met people who do, and based on the reception to this game by both critics and gamers alike, I would say a lot of us have internalised this mindset somewhat, whether we want to have, agree with it, care to admit it, or not.
Wanderstop challenges this mindset in a way that only a game really could.
These are demo impressions only, so I have yet to experience any of the story beyond the intro, but this small taster had a big enough impact that it felt really important to sum up my experience.
So far, Wanderstop is a commentary on passion and obsession. Where is the line between those things and if we are walking it, would we even realise it? Say we do take a step back and recognise, “Yes. I have a passion about something (in our main character Alta’s case, it is fighting). I am so passionate that I am going to chase this dream, idea, goal, or whatever it may be. I am going to chase it so completely that no one could possibly question my passion.” Wanderstop asks the question, “at what cost?”
We meet Boro, the most gentle, content soul, and the game asks another question. “Are you ok?”. Then, gives you all the time you need – probably more time than you would usually give yourself – to ponder it.
As someone who is prone to going all in on things and has burnt myself out multiple times before, every cutscene and conversation in this demo had an impact that I did not anticipate would hit me so hard. Personally, I am at a time in my life, I’d say a little further on than Alta is currently, where I have started to recognise the need for – and desire – balance. The moment I met Boro, his energy felt like the end goal for me. While Alta is wrecking herself, living her life with one goal in mind, desperatly clutching at one potential outcome and tormenting herself for falling short of an almost impossible goal, Boro is living in the moment, enjoying the journey, the here and the now. Alta, and I can confidently say a lot of us too, could do with taking a leaf or two out of Boro’s book (or tea… hehe).
Perhaps, feeling a longing for a Boro to find you and give you this opportunity the way that I did is an indicator that you yourself should take some time to reflect, to have no schedule, and to be. Whether that is through getting out in nature, a duvet day, doing absolutely nothing, or through making tea in Wanderstop, that is up to you – although I’d say Wanderstop is a good place to start.
The action of playing this game forces the player to do the very thing the narrative is encouraging. Slow down. Potter around. Make some tea. No rush. No worries. This is our time. Rather than just telling you that you should do these things in a way that you have likely heard 100 times before, Wanderstop teaches you through showing and doing. This, along with some beautiful artwork, voice work and dialogue, is the reason this game stands out to me among a sea of cozy games, and I am really pleased to have it accompany me during my LudoNarraCon 2025 coverage. I am thrilled by the prospect of taking a break from my other IRL projects to go all in on game content for the month, but I am going to keep Wanderstop going on the side, reminding me to take a break and check in with myself every so often. And I am rooting for Alta to do the same.
Demo Length – 1+ hour At a glance + Writing – both conceptually and dialogue. + Beautiful cutscenes. + Heavy hitting package, relatable to many. + Meta in a way that only a game can be. + Voice acting is great. + Boro is precious. + Alta is imperfect in a very real way + Themes of tunnel vision, failure, sacrifice, exhaustion, burnout and the consequences of that have already been explored in the first hour. +/- I am anxious to see where the story goes and whether it continues to resonate. +/- I am also anxious to get further into the gameplay, to see whether it is therapeutic, or becomes tedious, boring or repetative.
Watch my playthrough and first impressions of the Wanderstop demo here!
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Fast is panic. Oops, let me repair that for you. Repeat.
Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop
Developer: Beard Envy
Release Date: November 2024
Come on down to Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, for all your roguelite spaceship repair simulation needs!
WARNING: Untested genre not suitable for people with tentacles for arms or an aversion to dying horrifically. Side effects include improved reading comprehension under pressure and a furry fetish.
Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is a roguelite puzzle game that is built around minigames. We have been soulbound tasked to run the local Rocket Shop, and not only do passers by need their ships fixing to the highest standard for you know, safety, we have rent to pay and the better job we do, the more sweet sweet space cash we earn.
This is a game about problem solving, following instructions and being strategic where it matters. In focused mode you can take your time, meticulously getting to know the machines you are repairing and the components within. In frantic mode, the more jobs that you get done within a certain timeframe, the more money you earn. Personally, I enjoyed the idea of frantic mode, feeling reminiscent of games like Among Us, Tin Can, Keep Talking and No One Explodes and Papers, Please. However, for me, focused mode was the way to go, feeling more akin to House Flipper or a building flat pack furniture situation, allowing me to take my time, dig deep into the detailed and amusing instruction manual, and still somehow manage to do something wrong.
Not only does the gameplay have a high concentration yet flow state inducing element to it, the entire design is great. Everything is simple enough and clear to read, while also being very distinct and colourful. Everything you click on is responsive and makes visual changes that communicate to the player clearly. The design of the different aliens arriving at the shop and the vehicles in tow are creative and fun, the dialogue is funny, the random events that occur always made me smirk and I continued to be surprised at the new things occurring each run.
The game has run based progression that is erased when you die/lose, as well as a classic meta progression system that ticks over with you onto your next run. Dialogue and scenareos are slightly altered each run, adding more elements and allowing forward momentum as you get more familiar with the loop. It is the type of game where familiarity is going to help you improve equally as much as the upgrades.
The attention to detail is fantastic, the game play is silky smooth and my time with the demo was an absolute joy. I am going to be keeping an eye on this one for sure.
Demo Length – 2+ Hours At a glance + High concentration yet flow state gameplay. + Funny. + Polished. + Two key options for gameplay offer different experiences. + Keeps on giving. + The roguelite aspects feel seamless.
Resisting the urge to buy a trailer and a bunch of books irl as we speak.
Tiny Bookshop
Developer: Neoludic games
Release Date: To be announced
Leave everything behind and open a tiny bookshop by the sea in this cozy narrative management game. Stock your tiny bookshop with different books and items, set up shop in scenic locations, and run your cozy second-hand bookshop while getting to know the locals.
Tiny Bookshop is a cozy management sim about running your own portable bookshop from a trailer on the back of your car. I can’t express how pleased I was that the peaceful atmosphere was complimented by engaging systems, allowing me to live a fantasy that I never knew I had.
The game is not heavy on the management systems, or at least not from my time in the demo. This, in my opinion, is a good choice, allowing the player to fully absorb into the relaxing vibes. I didn’t feel the need to min-max everything, optimising my shelves in an attempt to wring my customers dry. Instead, experimentation felt key in these early stages.
On a daily basis you are able to manage your inventory, decor and location in order to sell as many books as you can in the most aethetically pleasing way posible. The books that you place on your shelves determine the chance that a customer will find a book that they like in the given genre they are looking for. If they successfully find one, they will continue looking, picking up books until they find no more that they like. While this is of course RNG, it feels so clever and realistic to the shopping experience. Sometimes you will go into a shop with something in mind and nothing speaks to you, or sometimes, you will find way more than you expected. Throughout the day as your shelves get depleted, it will naturally be less likely that your customer will find the book that they are after, but there is still always a chance.
Although it is RNG, we can affect the outcome somewhat with the choices we make and it still feels very nice when you succeed. In my case, one lady picked up 10 books. That was 10 coin flips in a row, except luckier as the 50% chance got lower every single purchase.
If the pleasing aethetic and breezy management wasn’t enough, there are more mechanics to the game. Visiting different locations is essential to build up your knowledge of the area. Meeting people will give you leads on new areas and events in the town. Reading the paper will allow you to buy more books as your stock runs dry, as well as decorations. I love the inclusion of the paper, not only as it narratively makes a lot of sense but it is also, on purpose or not, makes the game even more ‘feel good’ by being an eco-friendly business.
Finally, every book you have on your shelf is an actual book, written in real life. Chances are, you have read some of them. One fun way that the game plays with this is that throughout the day, customers will ask you for recommendations. They will tell you a genre, mood, preference, or specific things that they want or don’t want from a book. Then, it is up to you to scour your shelves, reading the descriptions to find a good match. Of course once you sell the book it is gone, so if you think that you have the perfect match for some one, you ought to hope no one has snatched it up in the meantime.
I went into the Tiny Bookshop demo expecting a pleasant way to pass half an hour but I got a lot more than I expected. It is an instant wishlist from me while I look up the price of trailers and have a peak at Facebook Market Place for book bundles, contemplating a pivot to a travelling librarian.
Demo Length – 30 mins At a glance + More to this game than I expected, while not being too complicated. + Aesthetically pleasing. + Lo-fi vibes. + Especially fun for book lovers. + Recycling. + Bookshop fashion.
Moonlighter is a game in which you hunt for treasures by night, and sell them by day. Both of these jobs create two different modes which construct the daily flow of the game. The dungeons you pillage are randomized in a rogue-like fashion. The further you get into a dungeon, the more valuable loot you will find. Kill the main boss to complete the dungeon and unlock the next one, with a new biome and new loot. Throughout the journey you will be fighting creatures, finding notes and organizing your bag in order to maximize your haul. What is the catch here you may be wondering? Well.. If you die you lose the majority of the loot that you have collected that night. It becomes a game of deciding whether you dare go into the next room. There may be enemies that could kill you, but there also may be a healing pool or something worth everything you have already collected combined. Do you want to risk it all? Or are you satisfied to come back another day.
The second half of this game is managing your shop. Almost everything that you find is sellable. Your job is to figure out the optimal price to sell these items. Price them too low and you are missing out on valuable cash, but price them too high and they will not sell or customer demand for said item will plummet. The game kindly provides you with a book that updates automatically to allow you to focus on pricing up the new goods while quickly selling old ones. Another catch? A lot of what you find are also materials that you will need to upgrade your equipment, so you have to make some decisions – managing money vs benefit when it comes to what you sell. My advice? Prioritize upgrading every time. It makes a huge difference as you can spend longer in the dungeons, allowing you to bring even more valuable loot home. And thus, the loop continues.
+ A Good Podcast Game
My favourite thing about this game is that it is a great podcast game. By which I mean, once you are used to the mechanics and know what you are doing, you can easily put on your favourite podcast and listen away.
– The Combat
I am so hit and miss with combat that anyone would be forgiven for taking my opinion with a grain of salt. However, I found the combat to feel really clunky. Hitboxes were strange, it didn’t feel super responsive and I never really got the hang of it. The first thing that I did was rebound the controls (excellent feature I am always happy to see) to feel more familiar which helped some, but the further I got it never felt better. The only thing that helped me make progress was upgrading my equipment. Of course, that is to be expected, but I never felt like I was improving as a player. I was still feeling as frustrated by the end as I was at the beginning. By the fourth dungeon I ended up turning down the difficulty because I just wasn’t having fun with it. Granted, I am used to playing The Binding of Isaac where you can attack in a different direction than you are facing. You can’t do that here and I felt it a lot. It resulted in lots of running into enemies while trying to face them, taking damage in the process.
+/- The Progression
This being a pro or a con really depends on how much you enjoy the core loop. I did enjoy the loop, but I was excited to see how it was going to progress as I unlocked new areas and facilities in the town. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t enjoy the direction it took. The best way that I can describe it is – more of the same but with a few added annoyances. The dungeons and your gear upgrades all follow the same patterns with a couple of changes here and there. That was fine. It was the shop progression that I had a bit of an issue with. As an example, the larger your shop grows, new mechanics are introduced. One of them is a bird flying into your shop. You have to chase it around and catch it by pressing X. It startles the customers and everyone freezes until you catch it. The first time this happened was fine, but it happened around the same time every single day, with the bird flying in the same predictable pattern. It wasn’t a challenge or a delight. It was just a thing that happened to give you something to do and it didn’t add anything. In fact the opposite, it developed to be quite annoying. I do enjoy how the variety of customers grows as your shop does, but I hoped for more in the shop itself.
+ The Ease of Use Features
Simple mechanics such as moving everything to and from chests, easily being able to pick up individual items or stacks, sorting via price, getting rid of items mid dungeon, automatically updating my price book, being able to see my price book easily mid looting, and having a wish list option that highlights crafting materials you need as you find them, were all very gratefully received by me. Often when I thought ‘I wish I could do this’ my thought was cut short because the game had already given me a way to do it.
– Valuing items becomes finicky
To create more challenge and variety, your book doesn’t store item price data if the item is in high demand when it is sold. That means that you can charge more than normal for profit, but the number doesn’t get saved. I wish there was a separate section for recording this data. In addition, it doesn’t save the price for certain customers. This can result in an attempt to figure out the best price of a particular item thwarted because some rich or interested dude bought it. This then gets frustrating becasue you not only have to remember the item and price range that you were working with, but find it again and try another day where it is just as likely to happen again. By the third dungeon I would say around 95% of my prices were not getting recorded and it was really frustrating because figuring out the price boundaries was my favourite part of the game. I loved testing the boundaries, slowly testing the maximum I could get without being too cheeky. This aspect was completely taken away due to the progression of the mechanics and instead turned into annoying robbers and just trying to sell everything as fast as I could. It improved slightly in the fourth dungeon but by then I felt defeated. It had me questioning whether my game was bugged, a question I still don’t know the answer to.
– Some Minor Technical Issues
Every time I pressed X – from entering a dungeon to reading a note – the game would switch my weapons. Which would mean I would run up to punch an enemy only to slowly shoot an arrow in their face because I didn’t realise it had switched. This isn’t game ruining at all, but it was an annoyance that added onto previous ones. I also had some chugging and framerate drops occasionally which felt a little strange in a 2D top down game like this.
+ The Familiars
You can happen upon eggs in the dungeons that after a few days hatch into little friends that aid you during your dungeoneering. I loved this addition. They were cute and had some legitimately interesting perks.
– The Notes
There are notes you can find throughout the dungeons and every time I found one I felt excited. They are there to give the player some hints and add some flavour. I just wish they were a bit more interesting. It didn’t take long at all for them to start repeating and I found them to be quite generic. Occasionally it would be a hint for something that I figured out 2 dungeons ago, and it just ended up feeling very disappointing.
Ultimately, the first couple of hours of was my favourite part of the time that I spent with this game. Where I thought it was going based on those first hours and where it actually went turned out to be a little different, which was unfortunate for me. My favourite part of the game was gradually made worse by strange mechanics rather than staying the same or improving, to the point that I pretty much gave up on it. I started my first few hours wanting to craft every weapon to the highest level, but by the end I was just trying to finish the game. It could be that it is just not for me, but what I really think happened is the niggles that I mentioned above wore me down. The later the game, the more niggly mechanics were added which added to the wear down. I think it is a fantastic, fun core concept for a game that was brought down by a few small things. That all being said, if you go in with the expectations set by everything written above then it is a nice game to keep your hands busy while you listen to podcasts.
+ A Good Podcast Game
– The Combat
+/- The Progression
+ The ease of use features
– Valuing items becomes finicky
– Some minor technical issues
+ The Familiars
– The Notes
If you would like to see my first few hours with the game then you can here!
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