The only person who reviewed happiness market recommends it — and had to write the manual himself

A shop-keeping sim that also hires hunters against monsters, with a single review on the whole planet: half recommendation, half instruction sheet full of question marks.

A little shop with thieves, monsters and critters that sniff out money

You build a little shop to sell anything to passersby and, before you know it, you have to strike deals with other shopping centers to lure in hunters to take down the monsters overrunning the place. happiness market is a 2D simulation and management game: put up shops, buy stock and earn money from the customers milling about, with up to 18 types of building to raise.

But it isn't a cash register and nothing more. Thieves and robbers turn up, and you hire staff — security guards — to keep order. You can breed little creatures: 22 types, each with its own ability; one of them sniffs out money on the floor. And then there are those monsters, which don't go down on their own and call for hunters brought in from outside.

The game was released on June 16, 2023 by the studio luolei, under the casual and simulation tags, for a single player and with family sharing. Outside of sales it costs US$0.99; this week it is being given away on Epic, at no cost, until August 14.

Made by a single person, who later opened a fundraiser

In the game's file, studio and publisher carry the same name: luolei — a single name filling both fields. The game's only review makes a point of noting that this was made by one person, and the rest of the track record fits that.

Months after the June launch, on September 7, 2023, came the studio's only post on the news page. In it, the author announces that he had signed up for a Chinese recurring-funding platform — the kind where the public backs the creator with a set amount each month — and posts the notice only to verify the account.

It's little, and it's all there is. No patch, no new level, no sequel on the way. The record tells a single story: once the launch was over, the author's next step wasn't to touch the game, it was to open a door for anyone willing to help fund it.

The only review in the world, and what makes it recommend the game

There is one review. One. Written on June 23, 2023, a week after the game reached stores, and it recommends the game. The author explains why without frills: it costs a dollar, it was made by someone, and he wants to play more. He played 3 hours and plans to come back, and he doesn't try to sell the game as anything grand — the way he sees it, you get what you paid for, and that's plenty. Seven people marked the text as helpful.

A heads-up before going on: happiness market is being given away on Epic, but the listing, the screenshots and this review come from the game's page on Steam — that is, from another store's audience.

Not even the one who recommended it came out unscathed: two bankruptcies and a half-finished manual

Not a single negative review has been filed — zero. But the positive one doesn't hide the stumbles. The same player recounts being kicked out and going bankrupt twice, and that the game isn't easy; he can't even say whether it was his own lack of skill or whether the game is unbalanced. He also wished the in-game clock ran a good deal faster.

What says the most about the game, though, is in what he did with the space of the review: he spent a good chunk of it teaching how to play — where to click, what each icon does, how to reach the shortcut for buying items — because the game teaches its rules to no one. And even while playing manual-writer, he got stuck: next to the crown and the red bar at the top of the screen, he wrote that he had no idea what they were for. The one player's instruction sheet has holes of its own.

Whoever will learn by feel stays; whoever wants the rules handed over gets stuck

Anyone who likes poking at a system until it clicks — clicking on everything, feeling out what the red bar is for — will find here a cheap sim, odd enough to hold you for a few hours. Anyone who needs the game to explain what's going on will hit a wall early: time crawls and no one lays out the rules. The giving-up point has an address — the second bankruptcy, without your understanding why you went broke.

And there's the silence all around. With one review in the entire world, there's no crowd to tell you whether a bankruptcy is your fault or the game's. Anyone who installs it now will be, more or less, the second person on the planet to form an opinion about it — and will form it alone.