Debtors' Club Launches on Steam

indie.io :

[Santo André, Brazil] August 26, 2024 — mecagames, in cooperation with independent publishing platform indie.io, is delighted to announce that Debtors’ Club has launched on Steam and is available to play. Debtors' Club mixes a branching narrative with resource management, set in the murky world of tax collection. Working at a corrupt city hall, players must fill their daily collection quota through any means necessary... And live with the consequences of their actions.

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The only thing that matters to the mayor is topping up the city's treasury every day, in any way. Beyond that, it's up to the player how to complete their job: Persuade, intimidate, bluff, dig up incriminating information, or send a goon squad to collect the dues by force. As long as the minimum amount of money ends up at the city hall by the day’s end, the player's tax collector gets to keep their job and spend another day convincing people to pay up.

Roguelite elements keep the gameplay fresh and engaging by introducing new combinations of cases and debtor interactions every time you play, adding a layer of unpredictability that blends with the game's branching narrative. Debtors' Club tracks every decision the player makes, whether they opt for a peaceful, ethical approach, or a more ruthless and pragmatic method to extract money-or anywhere in between. As the choices accumulate, players will experience a variety of stories, scenes, events, and mini-games guiding them through one of ten unique narrative paths. Each path reflects the consequences of their actions, with the city and its people responding to their choices.  The mayor may be indifferent, but the city and its people are not, and eventually, these ten arcs converge to one of 18 endings.

The moral ambiguity of tax collection is balanced by dark humor and a collection of additional scenes, and events centered around the mayor's favorite employee. These moments offer further insight into the collector's co-workers and allow diligent players to uncover the true scope of the corruption that festers at the heart of the city. However, they also differ between narrative paths, and the choices players make while within their current path may also affect the content, enhancing replayability.

The importance of choices to the story and gameplay of Debtors' Club led to the implementation of a Streamer Mode, seamlessly integrating the game with Twitch, so that the audience can participate directly in the decision-making. When the Mode is active and the tell-tale purple envelope appears, anyone present in the Twitch stream is eligible to vote on what choice the streamer should make. This collective decision-making builds on the unpredictable nature of Debtors' Club story, keeping both the streamer and their audience on the edge of their seats for every run.

“The idea is that every time a player starts a new session, their way of solving cases will automatically put them on a different narrative path than the last session, with a different story, scenes, events, and minigames,” says Caio Paifer, creator and lead developer at mecagames.  This unpredictability ensures that “watching the game through a stream wouldn't spoil the experience for those who want to play it solo later on—something that's particularly challenging with a narrative-driven game.” 

mecagames is an indie game studio founded by a solo developer in Brazil. Debtors’ Club is their second title, after the 2021 Karma City Police, which places players in the unenviable role of a police dispatcher. Both games tread the fine line between comedy and tragedy, merging unique art styles, black humor, and sober social commentary. "We enjoy working on games that emphasize narrative and moral dilemmas, approached with a humorous and creative touch.," says Paifer. 

Debtors’ Club is currently available on Steam. Follow mecagames for the latest updates and community support.

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ABOUT MECAGAMES

mecagames is an independent Brazilian studio founded in 2019, focused on games with an emphasis on narrative, management, and moral choices. In 2021, it released Karma City Police, a JRPG set within a police station, and has just launched Debtors' Club, a narrative roguelite centered on debt collection carried out by a corrupt city hall.

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