- New Trailer just dropped today - 19 August 2026
Dear players,We are happy to present to you the new Shop Crush trailer. The latest trailer showcases the shop management mechanics, client interactions, and the unique illusion mode that unveils secrets woven into the shop and its visitors.Shop Crush blends Visual novel, Shop Simulator, and Psychological Horror elements with economic strategy, where every decision matters and every customer holds their secrets.We are now sharing it on YouTube for everyone.
- Our Playtest will end August 1st. (+ New Steam Capsule Update!) - 26 July 2026
Hi, dear players!We will shut down this playtest on August 1st. Thanks to your help, we got enough feedback to consider further improvements to the game. If someone hasn't tried the game yet but is interested, they still have 1 week to join.After August 1st, we will incorporate the feedback from the recent playtest. If you still have feedback you want to include, please do so on our Steam Community.A short recap of how this playtest went: we had many more people joining than we expected, and we are also really impressed with the playtime metric. We also got useful feedback from players - we of course want more (you can't have enough feedback, I think).But that's enough to start work. As a bonus, we would like to show you the upcoming Key Art we will use in the game soon. All art assets would be updated to this new identity to better illustrate the game loop and meaning.Art made by our w…
- How the Content in Shop Crush Is Made - 4 July 2026
How the Content in Shop Crush Is MadeShop Crush is a story-driven game, which means a lot of development time goes into refining the visuals, audio, and writing so everything supports a single, consistent vision.That vision, however, wasn't there from the beginning.The game has gone through several major iterations. Originally, it leaned much more into sarcasm and irony. It had a cartoony art style, and I believed the depth of the trading mechanics would carry the experience. In those early versions, the real stars of the game were the groceries themselves and the different ways customers tried to get them.But playtesting showed something unexpected.Players weren't connecting with the products - they were connecting with the people. The most memorable part of the game wasn't the trading system itself, but the relationships between the shopkeeper and the customers. That changed how I app…
- New trailer just dropped - 26 April 2026
Dear players,We are happy to present to you the new Shop Crush trailer. The latest trailer showcases the shop management mechanics, client interactions, and the unique illusion mode that unveils secrets woven into the shop and its visitors.Shop Crush blends Visual novel, Shop Simulator, and Psychological Horror elements with economic strategy, where every decision matters and every customer holds their secrets.We are only sharing this full trailer on the Steam Page exclusively, at the moment.
- Playtest had started! - 17 April 2026
Hi friends!Awesome news! We had started our playtest.It will last for about a month, maybe more, depending on the demand for it. The goal of this playtest is to check the game from Chapter 1 to Chapter 3, and collect your feedback.Please write all your thoughts in the game's community hub.You can playtest Shop Crush on the game's Steam page:
- The Playtest will start on Friday - 11 April 2026
Good morning, friends!Over the past couple of weeks, we've been busy working on a playtest build for everyone interested. So far, we've added great improvements to the game: Updated the character arts - added more details, shadows, and improved their designsImproved the UX and UI for better readability and clarityImproved the character and game balancing to remove dominant strategiesAdded customer fatalities - they do it to the player nowFull rework of illusions - now all illusion images are replaced with those made with AI to human-made art!Made characters more alive - improved their bios, added reactions, and new details to their traitsFully reworked the chapters in the storyThe playtest will start next Friday evening EST. See you there! (Image of the new chapter system)You can join the playtest on our Steam Page.
- We had removed all AI art from the game. - 20 March 2026
Hi, dear players!We have removed all AI from our game. It has been in Illusion's mechanics previously, but right now it's not. We have asked our artist to recreate all the illusion images by hand. We kept the original puzzles of images, but all execution is now fully humane.However, we will keep the label until we replace the trailer, which had an AI asset in it (Illusions). But the game itself does not contain any AI content now.This concludes our game, now fully free from AI art. We heard the players and are committed to bringing them the best game. We also notified Think Diffusion about it. They were great helper for our game, and we are thankful for everything to them, but now we are only having human art in the game.
- We're on Women’s Day Sale. Sign up to playtest Shop Crush! - 6 March 2026
We're on the Women's Day Sale!To celebrate it, we are conducting a playtest for Shop Crush. Sign up if you are interested. We are preparing a game demo and would be more than happy to have you try it.You can sign up for the paytest on our Steam Page:We will update with further details of the playtest soon.
- We are improving characters. Here's the full story - 16 February 2026
The character evolution in Shop CrushAt the beginning, the game had a different tone and was more of an ironic/comic game. Therefore, we wanted the characters to be cartoonish and caricatured. They were supposed to be a reflection of the game mechanics they represented.This is the first iteration of the game. Character was simple and didn't have any backgroundord shading.The Second IterationI was doing a redesign of the game the other day. The goal was to improve the readability of the game rules, so I changed the appearance of the character, too. Since the character background became wide, I painted them a background myself, with what I had at my disposal.The second iteration of the game design. Characters are now wider and more readable. This appearance allowed for characters' emotions and speech bubbles, too.The Big LeapHowever, during the playtests on different conventions, I still…
- Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Thanks for Being Here - 2025 Recap - 26 December 2025
Dear players,As we approach the end of the year, we’re getting ready to step into a new one. Hopefully, it will bring new achievements, fresh hopes, and ideas that feel worth chasing. We genuinely hope 2026 will be better than the year before - for all of us.As for Shop Crush, development continues steadily toward Early Access. What started as a small, relatively unknown project some time ago has grown into something much bigger than we expected. The game has found its audience, and seeing genuine interest from players has been incredibly motivating for us.This year, we released several new trailers - including this one. If you haven’t seen it yet, we highly recommend giving it a watch:We also participated in multiple game development conventions throughout the year. These events were invaluable, giving us direct feedback from players. If you compare Shop Crush at the beginning of 2025…
- Announcing new trailer recap: how did it go? - 23 November 2025
Shop Crush is a complex game. I plan to show more gameplay in the coming trailer we're announcing. I already had 3 trailers before, and they were better each time.The latest trailer was okay, but some people said it's too unclear:Action frames were not specific and didn't carry enough attention.Despite my best efforts, the trading gameplay became unclear to players.Overall, the video feels a bit like a mix of too much stuff together.The next Shop Crush trailer would probably be more gameplay-focused so that people could see all the loops of the game.That trailer was a predecessor of our announcement trailer:I still wanted to build on top of that. You can see that the game's style is clearly moving from like blurry and foggy one to a more meme-inspired but mysterious game, cause people seem to connect with it more.I heard the narrator is a powerful tool for trailers, too. Well, let's try…
- Shop Crush characters - a Deep Dive (With new art) - 27 October 2025
Meet the Customers!Leslie, a Poor CustomerA poor customer who usually buys trash. Sometimes, you may get a good offer from them. You will always have a small profit if you sell them cheap stuff for a tiny margin.Likes: Rubber Ducks, Bananas, Mushrooms.Hates: Daily Care.Chelsea, a Rich CustomerThis customer likes shiny stuff and may overpay for it. If you balance profit and reputation, you may succeed. If you decline to serve Chelsea, your shop's reputation will improve.Likes: Brand Clothes, Vegan Products, Animals.Hates: Empty Shelves.Brinley, a Coupon CollectorA Coupon Hunter customer. Likes good deals and cheap items. Brinley guarantees you a small margin of income.Likes: Discounted Groceries.Hates: Full-Priced Arrivals.Zoe, an Authentic CustomerA highly passionate customer with unique values. Zoe likes people who agree with them. If you agree, Zoe might give you generous payback rega…
- Shop Crush on Haunted House Fearfest 2025 - 8 October 2025
Hello players!We are thrilled to announce that Shop Crush has won the 2025 Creepy Cool Showcase award for the Haunted House Fear Fest.The festival is running now, so don't forget to check the rest of the awesome games here!https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45703068/sale/HauntedHouseFestival
- New trailer just dropped - 14 August 2025
Dear players,We are happy to present to you the new Shop Crush trailer. The latest trailer showcases the shop management mechanics, client interactions, and the unique illusion mode that unveils secrets woven into the shop and its visitors.Shop Crush blends Visual novel, Shop Simulator, and Psychological Horror elements with economic strategy, where every decision matters and every customer holds their secrets.What do you think?
- Steam Deck Support - 29 January 2025
Yes, we plan to add Steam Deck support for the game! We are looking for ways to implement the native Steam Deck support for Shop Crush. We believe the game would work great on a portable device, so we hope it will be possible. We won't be bringing the game to Steam Deck for the Demo, but we will try to add a Game Pad support, which will be a decent first step in that direction. Thank you for your attention.
- Check out our New Shop Crush Trailer - 24 November 2024
Hey friends! We have added a new game trailer for Shop Crush. Explore the game concept and live the life of the Shopkeep as you manage your shop, clients, and, most importantly, your expectations. Something weird is happening in the world, and the Shop will soon open. Stock up your items and prepare to greet your customers!
- Shop Crush - A shop simulator and hacker horror based on Negative Space. - 16 September 2024
Hey friends, We are delighted to announce our second game, Shop Crush, as listed on Steam. Shop Crush is a shop simulator and hacker horror game based on Negative Space. As you look for clients, strange things happen. Be it shady or fair, deal with client tastes and preferences in a choice-based game. But, each client has seek rates too high. You must make a profit to survive the business! Buy diverse and exotic products and sell them with a crazy margin. But beware: Dealing with suspicious clients might increase your sales, but it will also lower the shop's reputation. If either Income or Reputation is zero, the shop will be closed... The game is in the active development stage and is expected to be released within the next six months. We are so happy with this game and would like to hear your feedback and opinions about it! Bsl Team
