‘Gratis’ Sees You Selling Magically Monstrous Wares

Gratis sees you twisting what people want when they come to your shop, selling them unsettling horrors under the guise of helping them.

You’ve set up shop in a new town. I’m not quite sure who or what you are, but you definitely excel at having just the right thing your customer thinks they need. Or at least something that seems like what they need. Each day, a series of unique, colorful people will walk through your doors. Jesters, knights, children, guardians, workers – every person thinks they need something, don’t they? And they all eventually make their way to your shop to see what you have for them. Especially as word of mouth spreads early on.

You will have an array of items to offer each day, although there is a specific item for each person. This narrative horror game won’t let you giving that cackling skull to just anyone. Still, you can practically feel who each item is meant for, so you won’t take long finding what they need. As the days progress, the items will gain more sinister abilities (although even the more-innocent ones on the early days feel like the have a darker side to them), but you’ll pluck them from your shelf and offer them all the same. As the Jester’s laughter spreads, you almost can’t help to hand them something else that will make the mirth more and more uncontrollable. Whether you do it from compulsion, malice, or cruel curiosity, you’ll keep giving these folks what they want if they dare to step through your door.

Gratis offers a handful of different storylines based on the random people you serve each time you play it, giving you an array of grim stories each time you work through it’s fifteen to twenty minute play time. It’s worth coming back to feel out how these various stories play out, although you might not feel too good about yourself once you close up shop on the final day.

Gratis is available now (for whatever you wish to pay for it) on itch.io.

About The Author

Joel Couture

Joel has been covering indie games for various sites including IndieGames.com, Siliconera, Gamasutra, Warp Door, CG Magazine, and more over the past seven years, and has written book-length studies on Undertale and P.T.. Joel is constantly on the lookout for digital experiences that push the boundaries of what games can be, and seeks to delve into the creative process, meanings, and emotion labor that goes into the work of artists worldwide.