Finally, a shopkeeping sim where I can live out my dreams as a goblin merchant in an RPG like Baldur's Gate 3

If you've ever wished that you could be a goblin and spend all day tinkering with trinkets for the residents of an RPG-style world, then do I have the game for you.

Trash Goblin, which is currently in development with Spilt Milk Studios, is a cozy shopkeeping sim that will have players uncovering, collecting, and customizing unique ornaments. Described as "Powerwash Sim for the RPG crowd," the game will have players chipping away dirt off of a variety of treasures with satisfying tools and reselling them to the local townsfolk - who are eager to stop by and chat.

Although cleaning up lost trinkets looks like the highlight of this upcoming indie, there are actually a lot of other things our little goblin friend can do. Set in the backroom of an antique store in the middle of a busy fantasy town, players can take the cleaned-up items they've found and combine them with other pieces to make unique products for their store.

Some of Trash Goblin's other features include: Endless hours of gameplay, 50+ trinkets and accessories to uncover (as well as over 1,000 combinations to create), over nine tools and contraptions that can be used to upcycle items, over 40 customers to serve, more than two districts to sell in, plus so much more to experience in over 10 hours of story content.

Trash Goblin looks like the perfect cozy clean-up game, especially if you're a fan of sims like House Flipper and or RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3. The good news is that, once the project is funded, its developers are aiming to release it via early access sometime in 2024. The plan is for it to go to PC first but eventually also make its way to consoles and even mobile. If you can't wait until then, you can play a demo for Trash Goblin via Steam right now.

The project is already live on Kickstarter but there's still plenty of time to help get it off the ground. You can also support the project by following the devs on Twitter, joining its Discord, and even watching its very satisfying clips on TikTok.

For other hidden gems to look forward to, take a look at our upcoming indie games list.

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.