Market is Fine

The sign says "Market Is Fine". The till is five dollars short, the truck driver is leaning on the horn, the rival chain has left a letter saying "We'll drop by tomorrow at noon", and your friend in the red shirt has suspiciously full pockets. Take a deep breath: everything is fine.

Market Is Fine is a supermarket sim full of dark humour where the news moves your prices. You can run the store alone, but the real chaos is in 1-4 player online co-op: one store, one till, one pile of debt and four friends who should trust each other (and don't).



Design your own character, invite your friends and open the store together. Then watch everyone sign up as courier and leave the till empty.

• Your own character: face, hair, skin, apron, accessories. The person you build in the lobby is who you are in the store, right down to the arms you see in first person.
  
• Proximity voice chat: you only hear your friends when you're close. Walls muffle them, the casino echoes, and a courier pedalling away gets cut off mid-sentence.
  
• Shift board: cashier, stockroom, courier, security or free agent. Everyone gets the alerts for their own job.
  
• Dance and gesture wheel: horon, halay, zeybek, Robot Cashier, Breakdown, The Bill Came, Play Dead… Halay and horon dancers fall into line side by side, and customers stop to watch and heckle.
  
• The customers are cartoons with their own walks, their own problems and opinions about your prices.

MEGAFINE, the rival chain down the road, doesn't like how you're growing. First comes a letter, then a second one: "Close the store. Leave the key under the mat. We'll drop by tomorrow at noon. No need to make tea." At noon, the purple uniforms line up at your door.

• A cinematic standoff at the door: they trash-talk, you vote on the comeback. Provoke them, bluff, or go with "Come on, let's sit and talk. We made tea." If there's money in the till, a bribe is on the table too.
  
• When the talking stops, the fight starts: shelves get swept, products fly, someone grabs the bat, someone ends up on the pavement.
  
• That evening MIF NEWS airs the raid in slow motion, straight from the security camera. Congratulations, you're the news.

Turn on Zimmet mode in the lobby (3+ players) and on news days one of you secretly turns traitor: skimming the till, pocketing courier money, hiding boxes in the DEPO where no camera can see, cutting the lights, messing with prices.

• The cameras don't know names, only "someone in a red shirt". Customers talk too: "I paid! I gave the money to the courier in the red shirt! Why is it on my tab?"
  
• At closing time: WHO'S THE EMBEZZLER? An evidence board, accusations and voices rising on voice chat.
  
• If the traitor wins, the stolen cash goes to their wallet. If the crew wins, it goes back in the till. Either way, you all meet at the same till next morning.

Orders arrive by truck at the DEPO shutter in the back alley. The driver's patience is short: fall behind and he leans on the horn, shouts "Give me strength! The waiting fee has started." and eventually drives off with the rest.

• Boxes go hand to hand, and sometimes through the air. You can throw one to a friend. Or at a friend.
  
• Dying isn't the end: you drop into the dead chat. "Now only the dead can hear you." Yell at the living all you like. You'll be back at the door next morning.
  
• At closing time come TODAY'S AWARDS: Box Throwing Champion, Workplace Accident Specialist, King of the Till, Lightning Courier, the Casino's Most Loyal Customer… and the one everyone dreads, Slacker of the Day.

At six in the evening the Bailout Casino across the street opens: a blackjack table, slot machines and this month's rent. Bet big and the whole crew gets a notification.

• On stage, a tired dancer under a giant LED sign showing her debt. Tip five dollars and the debt drops by five; you get a reluctant jazz hand. If the till can't spare five dollars, she'll tell you what she thinks of that.
  
• The black-marketeer: in the morning a battered fruit truck reverses into the back alley. "Psst! Fresh headlines, cheap goods." The packaging's genuine; the inside is a matter of opinion.
  
• Courier and bike: pedal orders to DENIAL TOWERS, TOMORROW HOUSE and 60 other doors. Leave the bike unlocked and a thief rides off ringing your bell. Don't be surprised if the black-marketeer has one just like it tomorrow.
  
• The whole block is walkable: back alley, courtyard, shops you can see into, windows that light up at night.

Every morning MIF NEWS goes live. A strike, a scandal, "Giant gummy bear reserve discovered underground!"… and the wholesale price, shelf price and demand of whatever is in the story change on the spot.

• 15 crises × 10 languages: each language is written around its own country's headlines.
  
• Watch out for the yellow UNCONFIRMED badge: right after everyone has filled the stockroom, the DEBUNKED bulletin may air. The casino even takes bets on it.
  
• Open the Market Impact panel any time to see what spiked and how long it will last.

Under all the chaos runs a full supermarket sim:

• Stock the shelves, fill the fridges, lay out the store your way. 250+ products and 70+ parody brands: Keep Calm Gummies, Doomscroll Lime, Crisis Crisps, Panic Buy…
  
• A fully 3D checkout: scan the barcodes, count the change bill by bill, key in card payments.
  
• Credit tabs, bank loans, weekly bills, shoplifters, cleaning, and a cashier and cleaner to hire.
  
• MarketOS on the PC, the MIF Pad in your pocket and an end-of-day receipt stamped PROFIT or LOSS. Whatever the stamp says, everything is fine.

Solo or with up to four. Everything is fine.