The demo for Piece By Piece is a lovely, slow-paced shop experience. It adds 3D puzzle elements to the mix and has great graphics to boot! I hope you try it.
The Backstory of Piece By Piece
The game opened with me on a fantastic-looking train full of woodland creature passengers. Turns out I was going to visit my Grandfather so I could learn how to take over his repair shop.
The Look and Feel of Piece By Piece
The graphics are low-poly, bright and colorful! Piece By Piece is a 3D open-world game, one of my favorite types! I could walk anywhere I wanted, at any time. But there really weren’t a lot of places to go in the demo. I could basically just go to the area surrounding my shop. That’s ok though, there was plenty to do there!
Most of the activity took place inside my shop. My grandfather told me it was very important to keep the shop clean, so he pointed me to a broom and taught me how to keep my floors clean. Because acorns were the currency in Piece By Piece, when the floors were totally clean, I received some acorns as a bonus. Sweeping is satisfying, I could see the floor getting cleaner and receiving acorns too was nice! And here’s something special: all of my customers are really adorable forest friends!
I have a mailbox outside my shop where I receive letters. They are presented in a spectacular fashion in Piece By Piece! I actually opened each envelope and withdrew each page of paper to read it. When I was done, the envelope was sealed and filed away to be re-read later if I wanted. Pretty neat!
The Gameplay of Piece By Piece
The gameplay revolved around operating my Grandfather’s repair shop, and the basic mechanic was solving a 3D jigsaw puzzle. Customers dropped by and explained to me how their items got broken. Then they left and I got to work repairing them. The mechanic took me a minute to get used to. I was given a set of broken pieces and a slightly shaded outline of the broken item. I had to put the pieces back together, very much like a jigsaw puzzle. What made it interesting (but confusing to me at first) was the fact that I could rotate the outline as well as the pieces. Once I learned that, it was a lot more fun!
There was another thing that helped me a lot, too. When I was close to putting a broken piece in the right place, I realized that the outline of the broken object got larger. If I moved the broken piece too far from where it needed to go, the outline got smaller again. That was a great signal! I thought it felt a lot like the old “hot and cold” game we played as kids. Once I had fine-tuned my outline and broken piece, I just had to figure out the exact placement. It was a very addictive mechanic, and the demo gave me lots of time to get good at it. I played the Piece By Piece for 2 hours. I was very glad it had an autosave feature!
Every time I repaired an item, my journal would open up and record it. That was gratifying to me. In my 2 hours of playtime, I repaired 15 items. Every customer paid me some acorns, so I was building up my bank account. Good thing, because there were items I needed to purchase!
There are Other Activities Besides Just Repairing Items
Early in the game, a traveling merchant set up shop near me. In the entire demo, he did not leave, so I’m not sure how much traveling he does!! But no matter – he sold things that I needed! I purchased a chimney build kit, which allowed me to chop logs and use them in my fireplace.
The cozier I kept my shop, the happier my customers, and the more acorns I earned! After I purchased the chimney kit, I was able to open a wood chopping mini game, which was fun to play. Next, I purchased a sponge, which allowed me to clean some of the dirty items I repaired. Last, I purchased a toolbox, but I did not use it in the demo.
As the demo progressed, I had to maintain the fire in the fireplace, keep the floors clean, fix my customer’s items and man the front desk to take in new items. But it didn’t feel rushed, and I enjoyed the pace. I understand there will be more tasks to do in the full version of the gam,e but I feel there will still be a relaxed pace.
Final Thoughts
I don’t generally enjoy shopkeeping games because sometimes, when I play them, I am pressured to move quickly and get a lot done in a certain time period. For me, that’s not fun. But I tried Piece By Piece mainly because I loved the graphics! I’m so glad I did. As far as I can tell, there is no penalty for taking my time! Sometimes I was busy sweeping when a customer came in. I continued to sweep until I was done, and they did not leave or seem annoyed. Sometimes, as I began a repair job, I could see a customer enter my shop, but I kept on with my work. When I was done, they were still there, waiting for me. I liked that a lot. It was very chill and low-key. I also liked that it’s the type of game that I can pick up and put down; there’s not a huge storyline to keep track of. It’s just repairing the items as they come in. Again, chill!!
The demo for Piece By Piece is available now on Steam, and the full game is scheduled to release on March 11. Looking at the Steam page, I can see the full game will have a lot more content than the demo, so it will be even more fun! You should give this demo a try!
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