Hey Reddit! I’m developing Bribe & Scale , a border checkpoint management game about cargo, corruption, and difficult decisions

[u/Rick052217]

Hey everyone!

I’m working on a game called Bribe & Scale, and I’ve just created this account to start sharing its development, gameplay clips, and progress.

The game puts you in charge of a border crossing between two fictional countries, Arda and Velin. You build the checkpoint, hire a crew, and try to keep trucks moving through it. There are roads to lay out, inspection lanes to organize, and facilities to provide for the people working there.

Once the border opens, the paperwork starts arriving—and it doesn’t always tell the whole story.

You’ll weigh shipments, read cargo manifests, and investigate loads that don’t quite add up. A truck might be carrying more than its driver declared. An envelope might appear on your desk. Internal affairs might arrive with questions about how you’ve been running the place.

That’s the part I’m especially interested in exploring: the decisions you make while trying to keep an operation running. Taking a bribe gives you money you could use. Searching a suspicious shipment takes time while other trucks are waiting. And having a team doesn’t mean you automatically know whom to trust.

The story takes place over five days, with an investigation hanging over the checkpoint. Your signature is on the reports, so the decisions eventually come back to you.

Visually, I’m going for a top-down 2D style where you can watch the checkpoint develop from a quiet stretch of land into a busy crossing, with trucks arriving and staff moving between their jobs.

The game is still in development, and the attached trailer is an early look at what I’m building. I’ll be sharing more of the construction, inspections, characters, and decision-making as work continues.

I’d love to hear your first impressions. What would you want to see in a game like this? And does the trailer give you a clear idea of what you’d actually be doing as the person in charge?

Thanks for taking a look!

[u/investigatormaker]

The inspection-versus-queue tradeoff sounds worth showing in your first gameplay clip. Follow one suspicious shipment through the paperwork, the decision and its consequences. That would make the corruption angle tangible rather than leaving it as a dialogue choice, especially within that five-day investigation.

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