Buy or Die

by cibums

co-authored: @pepparkakans

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.81

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.69

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.31

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.44

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.00

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.69

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.12

💰 Keep your pawn shop open, and keep yourself alive to do so...

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🎮 How to Play

- On Itch.io
- Click to answer customers
- Click items to use them
- Do not open Pandora's box

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✨ Features

- Reputation system – other trades depend on your relationships
- Item abilities
- Context-based trades

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📷 Screenshots

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🔧 Improvements

I would say that the biggest room for improvement is the gameplay loop itself.
We’d need more time to add and modify characters and items to make it more strategic and fun.

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🧰 Development Information

Development: Unity
Art: Aseprite
Music: Bandlab
Sound Effects: Some made with mouth, others taken from several Creative Commons sources

> We unfortunately had to opt out of the audio category, but all of the music is completely self-made and I’d love some feedback on it!

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👥 Credits

Lucas Fransson – Development / Audio / Music
Arvid Fransson – Art / UI

Tags: #2d, #atmospheric, #no ai, #pixel art, #singleplayer

Genres: adventure

Tools: Aseprite, Unity

Comments6

ZAZiOs7 Oct 2025, 00:23

Love the artstyle and overall vibe! We had some kind of similar idea.

FlyByBrucia7 Oct 2025, 17:26

very funny made me laugh :- )

gamebuilder8 Oct 2025, 01:41

An unusual concept. I like the artwork and the sound effects are well made/chosen. The music seems fitting, though it could use a bit more variation.

I was confused by some of the dialogue. A man asked me if I would mind if he took a document. I said "Yes" and he took it — but I did mind. Also, sometimes the same customer would arrive twice in a row with the same request (e.g., the man looking for food). However, with some adjustments, this could be a great game. I love the overall look and feel of this game.

Jonction10 Oct 2025, 00:08

The idea is excelent, and it lack just a bit to be perfect! But the little flaw of the game truly affect the player experience: - NPC coming multiple times in a row with the same request
- A unbalance in people coming to buy or to sell (way too much selling)
- The FBI coming while we didn't had interaction with the others NPCs yet
-I killed the sketchy guy hoping he wouldnt comeback and it only saved me 20 bucks in the end but he came two NPC after which was boring

csuth1710 Oct 2025, 22:42

Clever concept that's been pretty well executed on. Some feedback: the grammar of questions is quite important if you are restricted to yes no answers, being asked if you mind if someone does something flips the negative and affirmative in the response. Otherwise quite enjoyable

Daphnini13 Oct 2025, 00:47

For the first three times I played, I kept exploding after only a few customer interactions. I think I was just unlucky, but I think this game definitely has promise! I also kept getting people coming in asking for items I didn't have, or trying to sell me things I can't afford, and I kept getting robbed by the sketchy guy which means I'm not able to sell enough in time to pay the rent. I do like the gun mechanic but I think it might be nice if there was some way to either distract or scare away customers even without the gun, maybe determined by random luck. I really liked the premise, I think with some adjustments to how frequently certain interactions occur it could be even better!

Other games by @cibums

★3.09