Blackwater Exchange

Blackwater Exchange is a 2D black-market pawn shop management game set in a gritty 1990s city. You run a legal-looking exchange upstairs while conducting the real business below, dealing in stolen watches, forged documents, suspicious electronics and cursed relics.

Assess each item

Customers bring goods to your counter, but their value and risks are uncertain. An item may be genuine or fake, damaged, stolen, traceable or underpriced. You inspect visible clues, use tools, read the seller and decide whether the potential reward is worth the risk.

Negotiate and resell

Sellers have moods, patience, lies and limits. Push too hard and they may walk; pressure the wrong person and they may report you. You weigh profit against speed and exposure, then decide what to store, stash or sell through contacts with their own prices, risks and availability. The right buyer can turn a dirty item into clean profit, while the wrong one can leave you with a problem.

Manage the business

Limited inventory means you have to make choices about what to keep and where to stash it. You can use tools, upgrade the shop and work with shady contacts. Legal deals keep the lights on, while dirty deals grow the business; hot goods pay more but raise heat.

Heat and consequences

Bills, raids, fines, confiscation, suspicious customers, rival pressure and corrupt enforcement keep success from being safe. Shortcuts leave a mark, and the business can face pressure from both its illicit trade and the attention it attracts.

Key features

• 2D shop management focused on appraisal, negotiation and resale.
• Questionable goods with uncertain value, condition, authenticity and risk.
• Customer moods, lies, scams, walkouts and the risk of being reported.
• Limited inventory, stash decisions, tools, upgrades and shady contacts.
• A heat system involving raids, fines, confiscation and pressure from corrupt enforcement.
• A gritty 1990s crime atmosphere.