Geeky Nerd

If you have been following any major YouTubers lately, chances are you’ve seen them play a game called “Supermarket Simulator“. The game was developed by Nokta Games and published on Steam in February 2024 for early access. This game took gamers by storm and many became practically addicted to it. What made them so attached to a game that practically makes you work a retail job? I will try to answer this question in this post.

Gameplay Loop

Let’s start with the basics, what are you even supposed to do in this game? To put it simply, you run a little store in a calm neighbourhood. I will point out again that the game is in early access and some of its features are missing but what there is now is enough for a decent gameplay loop. It can be viewed as such:

1. You buy goods and place them on the shelves.
2. You open the store and check out the customers.
3. Your resupply and pay taxes.

Then, the cycle repeat itself as you resupply your stock by the end of the day and prepare for the next day.

One may ask, how can this be entertaining as it’s simply a job that you basically have to previously pay for to even have?! To that I shall say that the devil is in the details and there are many to mind here.

Comparison to a real supermarket

This game takes the best from running a store but leaves some details, at least for now, that make the process actually enjoyable. Let’s discuss this in more detail.

Similarities

There is a simple list of traits that the game takes from running an actual store:

• Buying stock items and storing them;
• Serving customers and having a reputation based on their satisfaction;
• Paying taxes;
• Prices on products change over time.

The list is not full but these are the points that stay out the most and exactly why the game feels like a simulation of a real store management, however, the detail that distinguish it from reality have far more weight behind them. Some of them could improve the engagement of the players but most of them either cannot be translated into a game mechanic properly or would take the enjoyment out of the process.

Differences

This list is far larger than that of similarities, so I shall mostly repeat it and add only a few important ones:

• You don’t feel the weight of the stock items, which doesn’t leave you exhausted. It also means that you don’t need special equipment to carry the items around;
• Having a bad reputation doesn’t mean that you won’t have fewer customers;
• The products don’t need special storage conditions, nor do they have an expiration date;
• Infinite change – yes, it’s a silly thing to put here, but this is one of the most unrealistic and also the greatest part of this game;
• You don’t really need to interact with the customers.

I could also talk here about how you don’t need to fill out tax forms, there is no shop lifting, your shop doesn’t get dirty, and there are no emergencies, but since it’s an early access, it cannot be judged as a full game. Some of the mentioned features may appear in future updates, thus I won’t talk about them.

So, as you can see, the game looks like a simulation of a store business but at the same time it distils the experience, so you cannot go bankrupt or have any sort of trouble that shakes your business. Of course, the game doesn’t need to have those situations to be a good simulation or if it want to remain casual, but an option of such events to occur might as well shake up the player and inspire one’s interest.

What is “the best part”

The best part of it all is that it’s your business. You don’t work for some hypermarket chain, you are fully independent and you can make a shop of your dreams where everything will be exactly the way you want it. Since full customization is very popular right now, this aspect of the game caters to players who are found of customization.

The gameplay loop that it provides is also very satisfying. I haven’t spoken of this before but the sound design of putting everything on the shelves and the visuals of neatly placed lines of products has an audio and visual appeal that touches the perfectionist corner of every heart. It’s simply pleasing to put everything in order in this game.

As I have previously mentioned, this game also lacks the annoying or demanding parts of reality of running a store, thus, the process remains smooth and easy to follow turning it into a very casual game with mechanics that everyone can understand and make sense of since it’s an action known to everyone from their daily lives.