Most people will admit that as children they were afraid of monsters -- the big, growling, hairy kind that hide under beds or lurk in closets, waiting to reveal themselves once the lights go out. As we grow up, our belief in these kinds of monsters begins to fade, as we realize they are simply creatures of our imagination. But in the real world monsters do exist -- many of them donning suits, ties and a toothy “you can trust me” grin. It’s something indie game dev, Rob Foor knows about firsthand.
“I live right near the North Carolina/South Carolina border, and during the Great Recession I watched a lot of small local businesses shut down. But instead of being replaced with restaurants or retail shops, these predatory title loan agencies started popping up everywhere -- many of them conveniently located at the state line. North Carolina has much stricter predatory lending laws in place, so this placement gave them quick access to all the North Carolina residents,” Foor told Player.One. “Every day I’d drive past 5-6 of these tacky buildings -- you can’t miss them because they all use the same ugly signs and colors.”
In his latest mobile game release, No Credit, No Problem , Foor explores what it means to be a “real-life monster,” by placing you in the shoes of an employee at a title loan agency on his first day of the job. After the boss shows you around, he sets you down at your desk and gives you a list of things you need to check before approving a loan. For example, you’ll check for things like ID expiration date, whether the names on the title and ID match, or if the car your customer is borrowing against is more valuable than the loan requested. You scrutinize the related materials, and if the customer seems legit, you can offer him or her a loan -- with an exorbitant interest rate, of course.
You have to be incredibly careful though. After a few successful rounds, your boss will require you to keep detailed paperwork on why a loan was denied. You’ll be given a checklist of reasons and you must mark off all the actual problems that caused the loan to be denied. If you miss documenting one or you document a reason that isn’t accurate, you’ll receive a warning for “sloppy” paperwork. You'll also receive a warning stickied to your desk if you grant a loan to someone ineligible or deny a loan to a legitimate prospect. Receive three of these warnings and the boss will let you know that “things aren’t working out” and hand you a pink slip -- along with a coupon to a local barbecue joint. The game ends and you have to begin again.
According to Foor, the idea for No Credit, No Problem came to life during a video game hackathon or “game jam,” where the theme was "You are the Monster." On the first evening, Foor toyed with a lot of different monster ideas such as skeleton armies and serial killers but none of them seemed to be exactly what he was looking for. It wasn't until the following morning that Foor finally hit upon the concept of a predatory lender game.
"My wife and I were eating at a pancake house with one of these loan places in full view, when the idea seemed to hit us both at the same time… Title Loans!"
Playing through the game, we found to be quite enjoyable. The main downside, however, is the lack of depth. In the game, you are on a probationary period. If you manage to approve 15 clients with less than three warnings, you’ve beaten the game, giving it a shelf life of about 1-2 hours. Due to the positive feedback received on the app store, however, Foor has been working on an expansion to the game, which he hopes to release near Christmas.
“One obvious thing the game needs is more challenge and different things to do,” said Foor. “Due to time constraint, a big gameplay aspect I cut was the use of the PC, which was meant to be a fully working PC which you could use to search for things and do 'office work' on. I also want to rework the story. I felt like I didn’t have enough time to fully nuance the fact that you were ‘becoming a monster’ so some dialogue and story flow changes are in the works.”
No Credit, No Problem is available now for free and can downloaded on both the Apple App and Google Play store or you can play the browser version, here. Be sure to check it out.
