What Makes A Great In-Game Shop?

Comments · 868

• DE

  @DesignDoc · 2 years ago · pinned

  Click this link <a href="https://sponsr.is/DesignDoc">https://sponsr.is/DesignDoc</a> and use my code DESIGNDOC to get 25% off your first payment for <a href="http://boot.dev/">boot.dev</a>. That’s 25% your first month or your first year, depending on the subscription you choose.

  112

• PO

  @polifonikastudio · 2 years ago

  Gerson from Undertale plays with the fact that you <b>CAN&apos;T</b> start a battle while in a shop menu in such a cool way. If you&apos;re a relentless killer, he&apos;s not afraid of you, cause he <b>knows</b> you can&apos;t do anything while in here.

  3.1K

• XI

  @xiongray · 2 years ago (edited)

  A great shopkeeper: <br>Buy: &quot;What are you buying?&quot; <br>Sell: &quot;What are you selling?&quot;<br>Leave: &quot;Come back any time.&quot;

  2.2K

• AC

  @AceAttorny · 2 years ago (edited)

  I think Fawful&apos;s semi-secret shop in Mario and Luigi: &nbsp;Partners in Time is pretty fun.<br>He&apos;s the main villain&apos;s minion from the previous game, gone into hiding while plotting his comeback, which leads directly into him being the main villain in the next game. His shop can only be accessed by Baby Mario and &nbsp;Baby Luigi, who he doesn&apos;t recognize as the younger versions of the guys who beat him last game.<br>It&apos;s extra funny when you realize that by shopping there, you&apos;re basically directly funding the next game&apos;s conflict.

  905

• LO

  @LorenzoDePascali · 2 years ago

  As a long time Pokémon fan, I&apos;ll never forget the Kecleon shops in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.<br>You try and steal something from him, and he&apos;ll call his friends and simply destroy you and your team of legendary Pokémon with ease by moving faster and hitting harder than you.<br>On top of that, it was the ONLY way to even try and recruit him. I&apos;ve never managed to do that when I was a child of course, but it was memorable nonetheless.

  1.3K

• MY

  @MythlyInari · 2 years ago

  My favorite trope related to shopkeepers are those that are secret bosses that are (usually) unexplainably more powerful than the antagonist of the main story, or were retired heroes/villains and settled down, but provoking them brings their legend back to life and you get to fight them.

  561

• JO

  @joshhumphrey736 · 2 years ago

  I don’t know if I would call it a shop but villagers in Minecraft are quite interesting. They’re mobs so they can die and breed and stuff, but you can also trade with them. Optimising villagers can get quite complex with massive villager halls, zombie fixation and protecting them from raids. Piglins are nice too

  715

• IA

  @iamnoone21 · 2 years ago

  The unforgettable terror of accidentally shoplifting from the Keckleons in Pokemon Mystery dungeon (I accidentally picked up a berry he was selling and tried to put it back, but ended up moving off the blanket and was immediately murdered for stealing lol)

  313

• BE

  @bennettpalmer1741 · 2 years ago

  I&apos;m a big fan of Mount and Blade&apos;s shops - they all function off the economy of the towns and cities you find them in. If you go shopping at a city that has several villages dedicated to grain farming, you can expect to find cheap grain to feed your soldiers. If you go on a rampage looting those villages, intercepting caravans, etc., the price of grain goes up. If you take the cheap grain to a city that doesn&apos;t have easy access to grain, congratulations, you&apos;re a merchant.

  270

• KA

  @KARLOSPCgame · 2 years ago

  I like how Crazy Redd&apos;s bootlegs painting sometimes are haunted and some of them are sick looking, like looking at the other way at night or presing A and the sculpture will move

  295

• GO

  @Goomenstein · 2 years ago (edited)

  A great idea that I would love a game to implement is a supply and demand system.<br>Say you buy a bunch of health potions from the merchant. He&apos;s gonna take note. Next time you meet him, the potions are a little more expensive, since the bastard knows he can get away with it, however the antidotes which you bought none of last time are a little cheaper since hes trying to get get you to buy those as well. Or maybe the plot brings the protagonist into a town where a flu is going around, so naturally the health potions will cost a little more due to outside influences. <br>It would be interesting not just for the world building but because this would force the player to rely less on strategies they got comfortable with.

  296

• KO

  @Konyuna · 2 years ago

  The best shops are the ones where the shopkeepers has an unforgettable personality. A more recent example would be Spamton for obvious reasons, but Rodin from Bayonetta and Sheldon from Splatoon are also notable examples.

  195