Probably Stolen - Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim underwent a publisher-backed makeover, with tinyBuild working with developer Questing Goose Studio to reinvent the visuals and focus the design.
“We loved the concept and gameplay, and worked with the dev to reinvent the visuals and focus on what works design wise,” tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik said on October 29.
The September demo found a much bigger audience
Probably Stolen launched on October 28, but its reworked demo had already reached substantially more players before release:
- The September demo was played by more than 700,000 people in the month before launch.
- On release day, the full game reached 112,000 concurrent players, placing it among Steam’s 15 most-played games.
Rent keeps the shady deals moving
Probably Stolen puts you behind the counter as a former scavenger trying to earn a living and pay rent. Buying stock cheaply and keeping enough money for those obligations sit at the center of its shop economy, while fluctuating market conditions complicate the buying and selling.
A cheap item is only useful if you understand what you’re buying. The appraisal system lets you authenticate goods, including inspecting cigarette packets for fake watermarks, and haggling gives those inspections a practical purpose at the counter.
Checking goods before a deal
The stock itself can include rat corpses, tins of caviar, robotic hands, scavenged shotguns, and purple tubers. It’s a distinctly less glamorous side of space-station commerce.
Customers complicate the job further. One client could be a former elite looking to test your usefulness, while another could be a revolutionary seeking information about their enemies. Choosing whose deals to accept changes your reputation with competing factions, giving transactions consequences beyond the cash register.
Specializations change what lands on the counter
Starting specializations include gunsmith, chemist, water merchant, fence, and farmer, alongside the option to build a business from rock bottom. These choices affect the products you stock and come with different advantages and disadvantages, rather than simply changing the name above your storefront.
Probably Stolen also includes machine and production-chain management, plus licenses that grant access to an underground market. The cyberpunk presentation surrounds a shopkeeping game with more to manage than the next customer’s asking price.
Probably Stolen is available on Windows through Steam. Players opening their first storefront can find more on its business systems in the Probably Stolen guide collection.
