Publisher tinyBuild and developer Questing Goose Studio have announced Probably Stolen, a cyberpunk shopkeeping simulator headed to PC via Steam. No release date has been set, though a playtest is live on Steam now.
The setting is a dystopian space station sharply divided by wealth, where players play as a shopkeeper in the Lower Levels keeping the lights on by moving slightly shady inventory. The first real decision is what kind of business to run. Players can set up shop as a gunsmith, chemist, water merchant, fence, or farmer, or they can start with nothing and claw their way upward. Each path pays out differently, and each path blows up differently. Dealing in weapons means facing inspections, while dealing in contraband means facing raids. Some goods require expensive equipment and the right permits, while others just need a good place to stash them.
Much of the game happens at the counter, where players rarely know who just walked in. Customers could be Security hunting for evidence, revolutionaries seeking leverage, or strangers deciding if the player is worth using. Every transaction is a bet. Players can accept, reject, report, or ignore a deal, but someone is always keeping track. Guess wrong, and the loss comes straight out of their pocket. Players can skim extra profit by cutting product quality, but they risk retaliation from Security or the mob if they are caught. Meanwhile, rent keeps rising, and a single bad purchase or police bust can cost them the shop entirely. To complicate matters, rogue AI-augmented kidnappers roam the station. Every faction agrees they should be killed on sight, meaning players must constantly watch the queue for anyone who seems off.
Probably Stolen began as a solo project by Bei Ning Pan, who is now joined by four artists and three audio developers at Montreal-based Questing Goose Studio. It is published by tinyBuild, the Seattle-area publisher known for Graveyard Keeper and the Hello Neighbor series.
Probably Stolen is available to wishlist now on Steam, with the playtest open to join.
