Crinkle Cut Games’ Ian Stewart Talks Discounty – Interview Series

Crinkle Cut Games’ chaotically lovable supermarket simulation game Discounty is freshening up to serve its initial wave of first-time customers on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC on August 21, 2025 with an all-new campaign that’ll keep you eating out of the palm of its hand.

“Step into the quirky harbour town of Blomkest, where your aunt has entrusted you with managing its only supermarket,” the game’s description reads in part. “Design and organise your shop, manage stock levels, work the checkout, and strike trade deals. Build relationships with the charming locals, and grow your business empire while navigating community dynamics. Use every tool at your disposal to expand your business, but be mindful: rapid growth might ruffle a few feathers in this tight-knit community. Will you pursue endless profits, or find a way to benefit everyone in Blomkest?”

In an effort to learn more about the bizarre yet oh-so-wholesome supermarket management game ahead of its debut on consoles and PC, we decided to reach out to the folks over at Crinkle Cut Games to talk turkey, or, you know, groceries?

Firstly, it’s great to hear from you — we’re excited to delve even deeper into Discounty and all the details ahead of its August launch. Before we touch base on all of that, though, would you mind introducing yourself to our readers and telling us a bit about Crinkle Cut Games?

Ian: Thanks for speaking with us! My name is Ian, community manager for Crinkle Cut Games. Discounty has been in full-time development since 2022, and the studio was founded to develop Discounty from a thesis project into a fully-fledged game.

Let’s open the book up on Discounty. How would you best describe the game to a complete stranger, and, if applicable, how would you compare it against other games of its kind?

Ian: Discounty is a game about moving to a small rural town to take over your aunt’s market and build it into a successful superstore. Outside of the shop, you’ll experience a substantial story as you get to know the residents of Blomkest better and get sucked into their drama. Compared to other games, well, there are lots of games about moving to a village in the country to take over a farm or small business. We really wanted to subvert these genre tropes in our game, while also offering different types of gameplay. That means there’s no farming, no fishing, no mining, no dating or marriage, and so on. Instead, the gameplay revolves around running your store, striking trade deals to offer profitable local items, and continually optimizing your setup.

Would you mind setting the scene for us? Who are we in this cozy world of yours, and how exactly will we fit into the communal boroughs of Blomkest?

Ian: You enter Blomkest as an outsider, and you aren’t immediately welcomed in. Some of the residents are friendly and chatty, but others are skeptical about you and your intentions in opening a big chain discount supermarket in their quiet harbor town. You quickly come to realize that your aunt might not have been entirely honest with you, and you discover she has quite a history with some of the residents in town. All that makes it even harder for you to make a good first impression. And over time, these divisions only grow as you continually expand and make an indelible mark on the town.

Could you tell us a bit more about the day-to-day duties that will come with the job? Walk us through the nine-to-five, if you’d be so kind. How will our day begin, and what sorts of challenges will we have to overcome over the course of a shift?

Ian: Before you open your store in the morning, you should make sure all your shelves are stocked and the floors are clean. This is also a good time to check if you have enough backup stock in your warehouse, and order more if needed. I also like to check the daily challenges – you’ll get mini daily goals, like selling 5 rolls of toilet paper, and completing these can help you unlock upgrades for your shop. When you’re ready, or when 9:00 a.m. rolls around, you can open your store and customers will start flowing in. They’ll go from shelf to shelf trying to buy everything on their shopping lists, and then go to the cash register to check out. Enter the price of each item as it comes down the belt, and you’ll earn the cash plus a performance bonus based on how satisfied the customer was. You’ll want to make sure all your shelves stay stocked with items, and to clean up any dirt your customers track in, and eventually, you’ll reach the end of the day and can clock out.

You’ve mentioned that there’ll be certain role-playing elements to explore, too. Would you mind telling us a bit more about that?

Ian: When you’re not on the clock, there is a deep and lengthy story to explore, which is structured as a series of quests. You’ll always have a goal to work towards, and many of these quests unlock major additions or upgrades to your store. And through the main quest you can also unlock and level up trade deals with local vendors, and also get to know the residents better by unlocking special friendship events.

To be entrusted with the upkeep of the only supermarket in the district is one thing, but to elevate its reputation to an extravagant status is a whole different ballgame. Tell us, how can we ensure that our business stays afloat during these teething periods? Do you have any useful tips that you wouldn’t mind sharing with us?

Ian: Of course! We designed Discounty to be approachable for casual players, but also provided tools for advanced players to optimize the heck out of their store to earn massive profits. You can purchase booster decorations and shelves that can make certain items more appealing, print ads to get more customers or promote products, and even upgrade your checkout to use a highly efficient barcode scanner. You’ll learn about most of these things while playing the game, but here are a couple more hidden tips: first, your store’s layout really matters. Shoppers can be tempted to buy items that aren’t on their shopping lists, but they have to be nearby to see them, so make sure your best items are front and center. And finally, keep an eye on the rats in town…it sure seems like they’re up to something.

With the blueprint for a business management simulator having already been established, could it be that you use these ideas to create another simulation-type game a little further down the road?

Ian: It’s very possible! We’re still so focused on Discounty, it’s a bit hard to think of the next game already. We might try something totally different. But we’re really proud of the systems we created for Discounty, so if there’s enough desire from our community, we’d love to offer some updates or even DLC to expand its gameplay even further.

Please could you tell us where we might be able to find some more information on Discounty? Are there any important social channels, newsletters, or avenues of communication that we could possibly share with our readers?

Ian: Absolutely! We do have a monthly newsletter (Newsletter Signup) and an active community on Discord (Discord Invite Link), and you can find us on most social networks as @discountygame (Smartlink). Definitely checkout our TikTok, I’m always making silly little videos.

Would you like to add any final touches to this story before we begin to wrap things up on our end?

Ian: I just want to thank everyone in our community for being so supportive while we’ve been developing the game. We’ve been promoting the game for over two years on social media, and we truly wouldn’t have gotten many of the opportunities we did without their enthusiastic support and shares online. We hope Discounty is everything you dreamed it would be!

Thanks again for taking the time to speak with us about your upcoming game — we can’t wait to see more of it!

You can find more information on Crinkle Cut Games’ Discounty by following the official X handle here. For additional updates and pre-launch coverage, be sure to add the game to your wishlist on Steam here.