Image via PQube
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Discounty is Crinkle Cut Games and PQube’s latest store management sim, and it also happens to be the name of the tiny supermarket off the highway in a town that’s seen better days. However, the goal is of course for your efforts improving it to also help build up the community too. Given I’ve only played a handful of hours, I’m not exactly sure how good we’ll all be at accomplishing those larger goals. But when it comes to just getting started, it seems like it attempts to get everyone off on the right foot as a new store manager.
Blomkest is a small town that… doesn’t leave a good impression. A lot of stores are closed and dilapidated. You can tell it was once a relatively major hub, due to being just off the highway and having a harbor nearby. But now, there’s just so little there. A small supermarket is nearby, but even it is barebones. Players’ aunts invited them to run it, calling in a favor, in the hopes of rejuvenating the area. It’s up to someone to start small, then build up what you can offer, how big your store is, and your customer base.
Discounty does start out simply. You get a few shelves and stock essentials like soda, apples, milk, and toilet paper. Each shelf up front can hold five of each item, but the back storeroom can hold boxes of additional stock. Since you’re it when it begins, that means you do it all. Handle the checkout (complete with hand-entering and adding up totals), clean up messes, restock, reorganize, and address any issues. Things are fairly simple to accomplish, though at the start you’re naturally limited by how many items you can stock, what you can carry, and so on.
I do appreciate that, while Discounty is a store management simulation, the game has you work in town and outside the supermarket to handle business and build up something of a life. You have your home in a trailer near your aunt’s house. Early on, you’re introduced to placing up advertisements in order to spread the word about your place. You’re encouraged to interact with the people who are in Blomkest, and assisting opens up more. The most obvious situation involves a man named Karl. If you find his missing sheep, then there’s the promise of opening up access to a new area past the park.
The only thing I don’t like about Discounty after playing the demo is that it isn’t always optimized. Since this is an earlier build, maybe things could change or be improved in patches? Handling the checkout on a Lenovo Legion Go handheld gaming PC like a Steam Deck isn’t really comfortable. (I didn’t mind the math element, since it’s light and easy stuff.) It means it can take a while to enter everything and get it done correctly, which can be frustrating when multiple customers are waiting. When placing an order for the next day, you can also only do one. Forget to order an item? You can’t place a second order and also have it arrive. It’s little things that could add up the more people play. It would also be nice if the hotbar that holds all of our items was a bit easy to navigate. I didn’t expect to need to go back and forth with the shoulder buttons, rather than just have it cycle, but again that could eventually be changed. (Hopefully!)
But in general, Discounty seems rather sound. It’s an easy to adjust to supermarket management simulation. You get a lot of control over how your store looks, what you stock, and running the place. There are a few comfort issues and I could see room for some quality adjustments along the way. Hopefully, we’ll see patches for those. But the early impression is a pleasant one.
Discounty will come to the Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on August 21, 2025.
