Bookshop Simulator's 1.0 Update is Out!

Developed and published by Bleo Games, Bookshop Simulator is an Early Access title that has just fully released! Here's everything that's new in update 1.0 in this cosy job sim.

The game can now be played in multiplayer! Up to four friends can run the shop together, and it is done via Steam's API, meaning anyone can join or invite through the friend list. To make sure the experience feels smooth and balanced, certain benchmarks and features have been reworked in co-op.

A new location is available: The Cotswolds, England. The area is cosy and snowy, and the shop's layout will offer two stories, a balcony that overlooks the first floor, and a decently sized storage room. Similarly to Paris and Yamanashi, players can choose the order they purchase the stores.

The Lyon and Yamanashi stores have been expanded! The former has one more store upgrade and three more storage room spaces at the back. The latter also received a storage upgrade, which happens in the outbuilding to the left and offers six new spaces.

A new item is also available — magazines! These will unlock once the Cotswolds store reaches store level 12. Five new magazines and a bookshelf will be added then; the former will work like licensed products.

Players can use flyers to entice more customers to come into the store! This also works in co-op. Once the store reaches level five, players can purchase them through the DepotMax app and hand them out to passersby; not all of them will go inside, but there's a high chance they will.

Recommendations have been reworked to be easier. Now, instead of players chasing clients down, they can purchase a customer service desk and place it anywhere once any of their owned shops reaches level eight. Once bought, it can be placed anywhere in the shop, and a file of up to five clients will form! This can be closed at any time.

Mythical books are available now, and they're more powerful than legendary ones! These can be displayed for benefits too, and they're only available in specific Mythical used boxes that can be purchased via the BooksNMore app. Similarly to others, these can only be gained when the player reaches level 50! To accommodate their arrival, players can now have six different power-ups active at a time.

New content has also been added in update 1.0: five new books, two board games, and a new cafe! Aside from that, there is a myriad of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes; if you'd like to see the specifics, we recommend checking out the Steam post!

Lastly, the game's price will be raised to $19.99 USD. Due to the inability to raise the price and also provide a discount at the same time, Blep Games has decided to follow Valve's advice and instead launch the game with a discount and raise the price 30 days after.

The team had the following to say about the journey,

“Finally, we want to thank all of you that have joined us through the Early Access journey. It's been a wonderful (if incredibly stressful sometimes) experience. For those that are just joining in, welcome! As we said in the last update, this is not the end of updates for Bookshop Simulator. Future updates will be coming down the pipeline including more items, expanding workshop support, another new location, and more. We look forward to what you all will create and share and we'll be back with the next update!”

Bookshop Simulator's 1.0 is out now on Steam! Get the title at a 15% discount until the 3rd of August, which drops the price to £11.46. There's also a demo available!