I like cracking open a new order of ingots and seeing how many I can throw onto my forge without missing. (I like to think they're all meeting in a tavern somewhere, praising the way I craft my split-blade swords.)
Making up your own stories about the voiceless adventurers who visit. Preparing for a busy day by chopping down trees under the stars and balancing the logs near your woodworking bench, ready to be cut into shields when customers arrive. Organizing your workshop just how you like it, placing handles and guards on the most convenient shelves and stacking ingots next to your forge in neat rows. I've always enjoyed shop sims like Recettear, and if you give My Little Blacksmith Shop the time, it will scratch that same itch.
It's a lot to forgive, I know, but the fact it's both free and in an alpha stage of development means I don't mind putting myself through the bad bits to get to the good. And when you successfully build an item, the pop-up message overlays on top of your inventory in the bottom-right of the screen, creating an alphabetti spaghetti jumble of letters.
Your shop's ordering system looks like a computer, complete with scrolling bars, which feels out of place on the side of a wooden cabin. Your buyers' names-cribbed from YouTubers or donors-float above their heads in bawdy, colorful letters, and the countdown timer for their orders clips inside their skulls. Crawling back to my bed was a chore, and when I finally woke up and flung my door open, the best part of the next day and most of my customers had gone.Īnd while the art style is cute, the interface is a mess. Just when I'd worked that out I got tired and lost the ability to sprint. The path looked like it should lead somewhere, but it was a long walk to a dead end. After my first day I strolled towards the sunset, coming to a bridge with a sentry guard at either side. The west of town is similarly disappointing.