Sticky Business has me dreaming of life as an Etsy entrepreneur.
I bloody love stickers. Granted, I have nowhere to put them, leaving me with an amassed pile of pretty-looking adhesive vinyls tucked away inside a drawer. But there’s nothing I love more than ordering something on the internet and having a few stickers thrown in as a free treat or securing some amazing hand-drawn ones at anime and gaming conventions.
I’ve always been envious of those who can draw—my talent lies more in the written word than illustrations—and I’ve spent several hours scrolling through numerous Etsy pages while admiring the sheer talent of its artists. I want that for me! I want to be a cool artsy queen, selling fun stickers of pandas drinking boba and capybaras wearing a tophat riding a witch’s broom around Earth. I want to intricately cram as many copies of my design on a single sheet of paper as possible, carefully cutting out each one and stowing them away in an organised office that would make cottagecore TikTok proud.
(Image credit: Spellgarden Games)
Sadly, I don’t think I’ll ever be artistically inclined enough to make that dream come true in the real world, but hey, that’s what videogames are for right? Escapism, living out your fantasies, all that jazz. So screw it, I’m gonna play Sticky Business and forget that I’m a journalist for a few hours. Why not?! Let me live vicariously through Spellgarden’s cosy creative management sim.
I don’t start out with much when I open my sticker shop to the masses—a couple of shapes, some cute animal faces, and a few phrases here and there. It’s a slow start as I scratch my head thinking about what to create. I shrink down a little tea graphic and position it next to a frog’s head. I call it Frogtea. Perfect. This is what true artistry is all about. I can give my sticker a coloured border of various thicknesses, rotate pieces around and layer them however I please. I can only print my stickers on plain old white paper right now, but I peep the upgrades store and see delightful holographic film of all shapes and sizes awaits me.
Despite me opening my store with approximately zero products, I already have a couple of kind folk willing to buy from me and share their stories. Some of them ask me to create specific designs once they’ve ordered from me a few times, like some prehistoric goodies for a father’s dino-mad son or a boba-themed sticker for two close friends.
I make a sticker of two dinosaurs smooching and finish it with the word “COOL” emblazoned underneath. I fulfil my boba-drinking panda vision. They’re not the best stickers by any stretch, but my newfound customer pals love them. I even throw in a few goodies because they’re so gosh darn sweet—I toss a few extra stickers I’m trying to shift to free up a design slot, and a lollipop and some dango as an extra thank you.
(Image credit: Spellgarden Games)
got quite the kick out of the entire sticker business workflow—designing, printing, and then packaging orders with careful delicacy. I can even choose the packaging of each parcel, mix-and-matching different coloured paper and confetti to best compliment the colour palette of each customer’s order.
Playing more and selling more stickers has given me access to even more shapes and doodads to mess around with and hodge-podge together into adorable or nonsense creations. I’ve been running my sticker shop for almost four hours now and I’m becoming a real master at the whole thing. Combine a cute animal, some food and a buzzword like “cute,” “YOU,” or “crunchy.” Throw a heart-shaped holographic film on top and watch everyone flock in. My tophat-wearing capybara is yet to prove popular, though. I might just start chucking them in for free and forcing people to witness its glory.
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