Debt City

Welcome to Debt City.

10 Days to Pay. Unlimited Ways to Play.

Will you turn to a life of crime, or play as a normal citizen? The choice is yours.

ABOUT THE GAME

Debt City is a retro sandbox life sim. After things go horribly wrong on an island vacation, you find yourself indebted to one of the most powerful and notorious crime bosses in the seedy Debt City. Given just 10 days to pay off your debt of $10,000, you'll be given the choice: how do you attempt to repay that debt? Will you stay on the straight and narrow and work different jobs to make a living? How about stocking shelves at a convenience store? Or maybe you can be a school janitor? But if that line of work isn't exciting enough.. You can enter the criminal underworld of Debt City. Take assassination contracts to make citizens disappear, no questions asked. Craft and sell specialty (and highly illegal) substances on the black-market. Or maybe you'll become the monster hunter the city needs after a crazed doctor's failed invention goes haywire. But the best part of Debt City? You can do it all. Or none of it. That choice is up to you.

Debt City is all about freedom. With a limited story and a sandbox world to explore, you are able to live your virtual life. Well, at least for 10 days. Each day in Debt City consists of a limited number of actions you can take. Go over those actions, and you will find yourself passing out and ending up in the hospital. With a large medical bill as well, definitely a setback for someone in your situation. Debt City is also about choice. You'll choose from two different characters to play as, you'll choose your apartment style, and you'll also choose your difficulty level. So those number of actions can grow or lessen depending on how hard you'd like the journey to be. And if you die, you'll start over and get to do it all again. But maybe differently this time?

Aside from taking jobs and teetering between being a criminal or doing the right thing, you can also just live your virtual life. Play a minigame on your retro game console in your apartment. Go to the casino and try to win big in your quest to pay off your debt. Go for drinks at the bar. Or just travel back to the island and have a nice vacation. Just remember, you've got 10 days to pay. And there are 4 possible endings to discover.

The 10 day time frame makes the game strategic if you want it to be. But it's not a stressful game. I definitely want a chill vibe. Multiple endings allow you to play forever. And days only advance via certain actions you do in each in-game day. You can play it exactly the way you as the player chose to.

FROM THE DEVELOPER

The tone of the game is dark and mature, after all Debt City is a dangerous place. But there is also humor and different easter eggs to discover throughout. From tongue-in-cheek newspaper headlines, to a crime family that dresses up in football uniforms to conduct their business, to playing a minigame with... Santa Claus? I wanted to mix seriousness and adult themes with some humorous elements. My main inspirations are games from my childhood.

Debt City is a long time coming. It's the type of game I wanted to develop for years. But I never had the experience, until I released my prior games. Now I knew was the time to tackle it. A truly open world modern city game. A sandbox life sim. Debt City has the retro graphics and vibes of an old school game, with jazzy blues, rock, and contemporary music to set the mood. The goal of the game is to explore the city and work to pay off your debt, but how you do that is up to you. I didn't want to limit the player. You can be a criminal. You can be a hard working civilian. Or maybe you're a mix of both. And I wanted random elements to surprise the player when they are discovered.

FEATURES

• Huge open city to explore
• Two character options, with two different apartments
• Unique action based time system
• PC with job board, city news, and dark web
• Work jobs at stores and businesses
• Take criminal jobs for different crime families
• Retro graphics and contemporary soundtrack
• Life sim elements like drinking, eating, etc
• Different difficulty options
• High replayability
• Steam Deck support

Back the game now on Kickstarter to preorder!

Coming Q1 2025!