BLUB EMPORIUM
DEVELOPER Riley Gray PRICE $23.95 AVAILABILITY Released WEBSITE https://store.steampowered.com/app/1592530/Blub_Emporium/
Yes, I play videogames with my kids. Surely every gamer-parent does. We’ve puzzled over pixel art adventures, and murdered each other across a wacky landscape of party games. When we’re not playing together, my kids play stuff I’m not interested in; usually whatever daft shooter their friends are playing. Strangely, I’ve only recently discovered how fun it is to play the same game, even in the same room, but separately. I’m shocked by my 12 year old’s colourful Blub Emporium. It’s quite different to mine, but I can absolutely appreciate his approach.
Our experience was of an initially slow progression, where I imagined everything long before I could build it, but (as I’ll explain) this may not, ultimately, be yours. It helps that everything is excessively cute. You’ll start by learning how to sell rubber ducks from the rubber duck bush, then how to grow latex sap producing trees for the purpose of building a rubber duck factory. You’ll apply this knowledge to manufacturing everything from prickle pets, made from cacti and coconuts, to strawberry milk. Blubs like to buy adorable things. And spanners, for some reason.
You’re managing the farm, factory and emporium. The way clicks can eventually become automated reminds me of the train dispatcher simulator, RailRoute. Initially, you’re picking every bunch of flowers for the flower stand, stocked manually, hoping to pick, or stock, extra by hitting the boost region, on release. Later, you can employ harvesters and automatic hoppers that will immediately source items from your inventory, where you would usually have to load them yourself, on click. I enjoyed the clicks but was immensely satisfied by automation, too.
The factory forms the puzzle, being exasperating, fascinating and rewarding, in equal measure. It’s surprising how challenging it can be to effectively arrange hoppers, machines, wiring, conveyor belts, electrical pulses and containers, within the space available. My son (Lyndon) laid down a structure for one, two and (various) three step processes, using interchangeable pieces, in an arrangement that made my head spin. I had to close my emporium when I tried to manufacture something new, just for the sheer amount of time I needed to stare at the problem.
I found pacing slow, but was never bored, due to the glut of challenges, missions and events, leading to content unlocks. Although this is a full release, developers have been making significant and flexible changes to core systems to address community feedback. Probably the most interesting is that you can now level faster, yet the game feels thoughtfully balanced both ways, so it’s not as if they’re “fixing it”, more “experimenting”. My son and I loved reading the Discord and you will find community screenshots published here, as well as our own.
I have to say that Lyndon’s tangential “YouTuber patter” was quite annoying. But also, I’m touched that Blub Emporium has inspired him to game with me like he games with his friends on Discord; by talking exclusively about his game, not theirs, while they do the same. Although, it’s not so bad listening to him, really. He figured out how to structure the mind-boggling book factory and had some clever ideas about managing the rubber duck convention. If this sounds like your kind of experience, gift an extra copy to a friend and share ideas, for sure.