‘Sticky Business’ review: couldn’t peel myself away

Googly-eyed anything.

Frog on a pride flag.

Flowers absolutely everywhere.

And you know what?

Let’s have a stack of cute dinosaurs.

Yes, alternate the colours. And the direction they’re facing! Even better.

Amazing.

Hmm… maybe it’s missing something, though.

Okay, I’ve got it – hear me out.

What if they’re all wearing little bowties?

Now, that’s what I call sensational imagery.

Get them to a printer, stat!

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It’s a light and cheerful title that will let you work away with ease and freedom

In Sticky Business, almost anything that you’d like to make out of some adorable pixel art is a possibility. You can use simple shapes, animals, food – the categories allow for a great many themes and combinations. As the title suggests, the game will let you play out your aesthetic dreams of running a small business without any of the real life hassle. And it’s quite frankly very addictive.

All in all, it’s a very simple affair that Sticky Business has going for it – yet that’s all that it needs. The game introduces itself to you in a smooth, comfortable manner that will have you becoming a sticker-making master in no time. You’ll create them, arrange them for printing, pack orders, send orders, and buy more designs or packaging to use from the shop. I found myself very much in a “gotta catch ’em all” type of situation with all the upgrades you can get – who needs a completed Pokédex when you can have a frog in an alien spaceship? Drinking bubble tea. With sparkles. And a mushroom friend. And –

Sticker design made, I get to pick the type of paper it gets printed onto.

Making a sticker – since this screenshot was taken, a whole rainbow of colour options have been added in a great quality of life update.

Some of the actions you can do will take up an allotted amount of time from your day, so you’ll have to balance them carefully if you don’t want anyone’s order to be late and are wanting to keep your shop fresh with new creations every now and then. It’s a light and cheerful title that will let you work away with ease and freedom. Spend as long as you like perfectly arranging this heart here, or that flower there. As you do so, there’s relaxing but fun music playing on a loop (with some slight changes for different sections) as a perfect, catchy complement to the activities you’re doing and overall art style.

Arranging the first ever sticker I made onto a printing sheet – the more you can fit on, the more money you’ll save.

The shop screen, open to the animal tab. The stars under each design will go up each time you send it in an order, and allow you to buy more designs!

Creating my very own sticker empire … I fell in love

There’ll be randomly generated orders for the stickers that you add to your website, and some will sell better than others (choosing to retire my ‘googly-eyed things’ collection for profit purposes was a little heart-breaking, I admit). To vary up the gameplay and provide a very loose guide for your creative freedom, you’ll receive messages from customers when you create stickers they like, usually asking for more within the same theme – plants or animals, for example. I found myself delighting in getting the challenge of a new request, and it always felt like such a compliment to my efforts to see an order come in for what I made just for them. In your inbox you’ll find hints for unlocking more regulars, whilst others simply have question marks under where their name will be, encouraging you to try out new things or purchase different kinds of images for future stickers. Continuing to fulfil a customer’s wishes will reward you with something cute, and the different achievements for plugging away at your Sticky Business are great, too. ‘I give tons of sheets’ for creating several sticker sheets was one that I was very amused to see pop up in the corner of my screen.

Packing a general order for a customer – flowers are in fashion with this one.

The most recent messages I received from my regular customers, and one that I haven’t unlocked yet…

As soon as I started to play Sticky Business, I sent screenshots and videos to my friends of what I was doing and essentially recommended that they try it for themselves. It’s likely that the game might only appeal to particular players, such as those that already enjoy pixelated adventures or activities provided by titles like Stardew Valley or Unpacking – players that are very much settled into the ‘cosy gaming’ community. Or perhaps if you’re looking for something to dip in and out of that isn’t too complex, this title’s ideal for you.

Regardless, it’s no surprise that my verdict is: go for it. From its ‘punny’ title, completely charming visual style, and effective simplicity, to the hours I’ve whiled away chilling out and creating my very own sticker empire – it’s beyond safe to say that I really enjoyed this game. Whilst fairly straightforward, it doesn’t feel like there’s a shortage of content or enjoyment to get out of Sticky Business. I was instantly captured by the premise, and then I fell in love with the execution. So if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ve got some more animals to dress up in bowties.

A code for Sticky Business on Steam was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

All images in this article were made with or are screenshots of Sticky Business.

The website for my sticker shop, and the listings of some of my first sticker designs. Of course, I was clearly well on my way to becoming the sticker-making master that I talked about.