Sticky Business Review (Switch & PC)

It wasn't all that long ago that I found myself sitting in the reception of an escape room, watching one of its game masters embellish numerous portraits of Harry Houdini with a flip book of googly eye stickers. I never quite understood why she wanted to deface the harrowing pupils of a former Hungarian escapologist, or even why Houdini himself wasn't turning in his grave at the mere thought of such an invasive act. According to her, though, such an action would bring a certain sense of “character” to the room. Again, I couldn’t say that I understood it, but I did, weirdly enough, realize that the stickers, of all things, had soon become the elephants in the room. It’s possible, then, that Spellgarden Games’ Sticky Business had instilled this idea into the game master’s mind; if in doubt, lather a sticker over it, for, you know, reasons.

While on the subject of Sticky Business, the game has just popped up over on the Nintendo Switch eStore, and so, naturally, I thought it best to abandon my hopes of ever escaping Alcatraz (the escape room, for the record), and commit to another venture—a slightly less daring exploit that wouldn’t involve me having to break a few prison walls or, in one particular case, electrocute a mannequin for a belt. Don’t ask.

As the title implies, Sticky Business is all about, well, stickers, as well as the art of not only creating them, but distributing them to a vast open network of clients and other avid collectors. If that’s the sort of business venture you wouldn’t mind tackling at some point this week, then be sure to read on for a few pre-purchase pointers. Let’s jump right in.

Stick Around

Sticky Business revolves around one thing, and if you haven’t managed to put two and two together yet — it’s stickers. Go figure. The game, which essentially serves as a bog-standard business simulation game with a “cozy” aesthetic, invites you to take on the role of a shopkeeper—specifically, the owner of an up-and-coming sticker store, of which you must develop into a cozy haven for local collectors and enthusiasts. To do this, you must set out to fulfill orders as they stroll through the door, and use your profits to obtain even better materials, effects, and goodies for your bags. Sure enough, it isn’t a tough game, and it isn’t exactly crammed to the brim with relentlessly competitive chore core mechanics, either; on the contrary, it’s really just about creating sticker sheets, and occasionally unlocking new upgrades to, you know, make better sticker sheets with a little more pizzazz.

A typical day in your cozy quarters sees you taking on orders—a job that requires simply glossing over the criteria, and creating themed sticker sheets to then bundle into a box and pass over to a client. If that sounds almost too easy, well, that’s because it is — and it has no shame in that. Rather wholesomely, the game does make a genuine effort to overshadow the fact that the gameplay isn’t overly demanding by adding in a few stories and interactions that further enhance the client’s personality traits, too. And to be fair, that’s sort of where the heart and soul of Sticky Business is: encased within the heartwarming conversations and backstories of the customers who walk through your door. It’s simple, elegant, and consistently adorable—three pylons that pretty much support the entire product, all things considered.

*Insert Sticker Pun Here*

As far as gameplay goes, your main objective is to design stickers—a process that sees you selecting several items from a number of categories, and arranging them on a canvas to create some kind of collectible. For example, you could create a bouquet of flowers, which would, of course, mean having to start with a pot, and then adding ferns, flowers, and other colorful items to further embellish the product. And, to be fair, this is an incredibly easy thing to create, as each item on the canvas can be manipulated to create some sense of multi-tiered illusion. As luck would have it, this essentially goes for everything that you decide to bring to the board; its creation suite is simple to use, and made all the more useful thanks to its short but surprisingly digestible mechanics and text overlays.

Of course, there’s a little bit more to the process of shipping stickers than simply designing and shoving them into a series of boxes. Like a great portion of business management games, certain tasks also involve earning cash and making various changes to your studio—a feat that can only be accomplished by balancing your printing costs, and fulfilling a set amount of orders without breaking the bank or using one too many accessories for your projects. Again, there’s nothing particularly overbearing about any of these things, minus the fact that you do, on occasion, have to think a little outside the box, if only to keep the designs fresh and appealing to your clientele. With that said, as the design presets and stickers in your portfolio constantly evolve, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll run short on ideas — and even when they do, a bouquet or two will surely suffice.

Cute, Cozy, and Comfortable

The art style that Sticky Business opts for is arguably its greatest feature; it’s unbelievably vibrant and squeaky clean, and not to mention bursting with colorful characters, themes, and set pieces. Suffice it to say that, it sports a sense of innocence in its borders, and it makes no effort to spoil it by overcomplicating designs or utilizing clutter to flesh out the screen. Instead, it keeps everything all rather simple and to the point, which is undeniably perfect for those in the mood to just create without limits, and not having to endure seemingly endless tutorials or contextless jargon about what’s what and who’s who.

Weirdly enough, the thing that I found myself excited about the most was the process of physically wrapping and boxing the products. Thankfully, the game did allow for me to flex my creativity a smidgen by granting me control over the contents in each package, such as the tissue paper, filling, and exclusive goodies that would go on to net me a bit of extra pocket change. It wasn’t anything overly fancy, but the fact that the devs went through the effort to make even the most basic and, let’s face it, depressing jobs all the less, well, depressing, was commendable in my books. The fact that they also made just enough room to grant me exclusive access to a hearty amount of customizable stickers and upgrades, too, was yet another reason for me to sing its praises, if only in short verses.

Verdict

If we had to staple any one word in particular to the canvas, it would be—you guessed it—cozy. Truth is, there isn’t any other description for it, as it more or less meets the exact criteria for the word and, rather surprisingly, elevates it to even greater heights. Sure, it has a few relatively stressful moments—satisfying requests, balancing financial obligations, and rustling up fresh designs to keep up with an ever-evolving market, to list but a few—but in no way shape, or form, are any of these objects worth closing up shop over. It’s an easy game, clear as day, and what’s more, it doesn’t exactly take a creative genius to enjoy just about everything that it peels out of its book and glues to your forehead. Naturally, it is a sticky business — but hardly one that’s competitive or monotonous.

I’m just going to come out and say it: if you adore stickers—to the point of wanting to make your own pamphlets and fill them right up to the margins with the darn things—then I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll fall head over heels in love with Sticky Business. However, if you’re looking to plunge into something of a traditional business simulation game, and one that features an enormous array of upgrades and other intricate components, then you might be disappointed with how little of it there is in these waters. It’s a beginner-friendly game, and therefore, a clean starting point for those with an interest in the genre, but little else for those who happen to fall into the other end of the spectrum. But creative types, on the other hand, now that’s another story — and one that any fledgling crafter should definitely read.