Build your own toy empire with Toy Shop DS

Making children's toys is one of those things that sounds very easy. Surely anyone could come up with the next Furby or (just to show our age) Cabbage Patch doll? You know, just as we could have easily written a book about wizards and made ourselves millions of pounds richer. Possibly.

Well, we're about to find out just how easy it is because publisher Lexicon has announced Toy Shop, a game that enables players to create toys and sell them in their own toy shop. Frankly, what could be better? (Aside from maybe managing a chocolate factory or a brewery, depending on your poison.)

Utilising a management style of gameplay, Toy Shop has three play modes. In Store Management, players build and design their shop, then flog as many toys as they can to their customers. There will even be special themed events at Christmas and Halloween, when the shop can be decorated accordingly to lure in more customers. (A process that is likely to be infinitely more enjoyable on DS than it proved in the real-life birthday card shop we once worked in.)

If that sounds too much like serious business, then Toy R&D mode makes it possible to build you own toys, balancing resources and catering to children's demands as best you can. Finally, there's an Explore the Town mode, where you can visit rival shops and interact with other characters.

Toy Shop has been designed with younger gamers in mind, so expect more emphasis on the toys than on boring spreadsheets. Which is a good thing, regardless of your age.

There is currently no set release date for the game but you should use the time to think up the next big toy – how about a dinosaur in Heelys with a built-in MP3 player?

Like we said, it's not as easy as it sounds.