Review Haxiel 3/5 · May 30, 2026
Trash Goblin is a shopkeeping game with a simple gameplay loop. You start with a trash bag and chisel away the dirt until you uncover an artifact. You then clean it up using a sponge, and sell it to a customer who wants that particular item. The customer orders and the uncovered artifacts are both randomly generated, so it's a …
Trash Goblin is a shopkeeping game with a simple gameplay loop. You start with a trash bag and chisel away the dirt until you uncover an artifact. You then clean it up using a sponge, and sell it to a customer who wants that particular item. The customer orders and the uncovered artifacts are both randomly generated, so it's a game about maximizing the selling value of the things you get rather can carefully crafting a complex artifact.
The game does expand as you put more hours into it - equipment upgrades, more artifacts, additional locations etc. However, the core gameplay loop of chisel-clean-sell stays pretty consistent, so your enjoyment of the game depends on how much you enjoy it. I personally enjoyed the artwork, the lore and the gameplay for some time, but the expansions didn't feel quite meaningful to me.
After a few hours with this game, I've decided to move on. Some folks have described this game as a no-pressure, chill-out type of game, something that you can play while you listen to music or a podcast or something like that. I like a bit more involvement and agency in my games, so this simply didn't work for me. There's a demo available for the game on Steam, so you can give it a try to see if the game works for you.
