I’m not totally sure how I feel about Grift: Scam Tycoon, the new game coming later this month from Chief Emoji Officer developer Bodeville. I mean the premise is kinda… messed up? But also awesome? You play as a goat named Henry Horns, which right off the bat is a strong start, and you’ve fallen in love with your soulmate online named Gwendolyn Goat. After doing the online courting thing for some time tragedy strikes and Gwendolyn needs some cash, fast! Being that she’s the love of your life you happily oblige, only to find her entire online presence wiped shortly after you send the dough. You have been scammed, my friend, and it turns your world upside down. Now here is the kind of messed up part: You will do anything to enact revenge on the one who grifted you out of your money and emotions, so in order to find her you turn into a grifter yourself, creating online personas or “bots" to try and swindle some other marks over the internet. It’s like Death Wish and you’re Charles Bronson, except replace all the murdering with catfishing. Check out the trailer.
Grift: Scam Tycoon features more than 40 characters to interact with (read: try to scam) and tons of different items to outfit and customize your online bots as you try to scam your way to the top while also seeking out your mortal enemy Gwendolyn Goat. Yes, it’s kind of weird to be rooting for a character who is doing scumbag things, but I have a feeling there’s more to this story and that becoming the world’s best online scammer isn’t going to end up being the fulfilling life Henry Horns thinks it is. After all, the game description teases that “Maybe you’ll discover something new about yourself along the way?" which means there’s bound to be some moral lessons to be learned in all this online chicanery. Or perhaps not. We’ll find out for ourselves when Grift: Scam Tycoon launches on January 17th. You can pre-order it on iOS here or Android here, and if you’re in New Zealand the game is already launched there so you can get a jump start on your online scamming ahead of the rest of the world.