Cozy games are spoiling me lately because there is now not just one, but a second little management game combining my two loves: books and little shop simulators. There may be nothing cozy about working retail in real life, but Book Bound boils the task of slinging paperbacks down to a pleasant little sim, with a demo that you can play right now.
Book Bound begins with taking over an empty shop by setting up a register, some shelves, and stocking them with a few books to attract customers. When you open the shop, passersby will wander in and peruse the selection, and apparently they appreciate thoroughness and organization. You get bonuses when you've stocked shelves dedicated to a single genre—Fantasy and Romance so far in the demo. You'll quickly make cash change for their purchases and then end the day by buying new furniture to decorate with and stocking the shelves with new books.
What I enjoyed is how realistically infuriating customers can be, even with a pretty small set of interactions. They'll often leave books in the wrong place (on the ground) and leave behind trash for you to clean. They'll also sometimes ask if you have a particular book in stock, meaning you've got to learn the pixelated covers for each title by sight, and of course they'll sometimes ask while standing directly in front of a shelf full of the book in question. Typical customers.
Unlike the other adorable book shop sim in the works, Tiny Bookshop, which uses real classic book titles as its store stock, Book Bound goes for made-up (but totally believable) titles like The Dark Queen's Secret, Nasty Creature, Dogs of Mystery, and Hot Ring. And yes, Hot Ring is in fact a fantasy book, not a romance. Maybe it's secretly a romantasy.
That's about all there is to Book Bound for now. Its developer Bit66 tells me that decorating the shop is the main goal—which as a decor and building fan in most games is totally good with me. There are different sized shelves to try out, plants and other comfy decor, and more. I was pretty pleased with my little fantasy-focused shop after about an hour.
Book Bound is planning a full launch in the first quarter of 2025 and will be participating in the Steam Next Fest at the end of February—but of course the demo's available now anyhow.
As for the future, there will be five total genres of books to stock and some additional features for the demo over time. Bit66 says "Players can expect post-launch free updates until I believe that Book Bound is complete." You can find it to wishlist and keep track of on Steam.
