Bribes & Stamps

Prospectus

A pixel-art attention game: you are the guard at the gate of a fantasy town. Compare each visitor's face with the portrait on their papers, catch changelings and forgers, and turn away the frauds. Every honest traveler you let in grows the town behind you - from a muddy village to a shining capital. Some visitors offer a bribe... take it, and you must let them in.

How it plays

Click or tap to play. Compare the visitor in the window with the portrait on their papers: face, name, age, sex, marks and document number. Everything matches - press the green stamp. Found a difference - press the red stamp. A mistake costs a heart, you have three per day. Not sure? Use Instinct (the eye button) to reveal a lie. Click the portrait on the papers to zoom in. At the end of the day collect your wages and spend coins to build the town, open chests and decorate your booth.

Opening an account with this game takes one press: Open the holding, above, and it loads on this page itself — nothing downloads and no form stands between you and the first decision. It is drawn for a landscape (wide) screen and takes its instructions from mouse, keyboard or touch, as the game prefers. The file is drawn wide, for a landscape screen — turn a phone sideways, or let a tablet or desktop give it room to breathe. If a fullscreen control is offered, take it — a growing enterprise deserves the whole desk.

Analyst's notes for simulation holdings

• Learn the loop before optimising it. Every simulation is a circle — earn, spend, expand, earn more — and the players who last are the ones who found the circle's slow point early.
• Watch one full cycle without touching anything. A simulation confesses its priorities when left alone: whatever runs out first is what the designer wants you managing.
• Small inefficiencies compound faster than big ones. A route that wastes ten seconds every cycle costs more than a disaster that happens once, so audit the routine before the dramatic.

Bribes & Stamps — questions from the readership

What does it cost to open Bribes & Stamps?

Nothing, at any point. The holding is free from the first click to the last upgrade — no account to open, no download to wait for, no paywall filed anywhere in its pages. The advertising around this page is what pays the bookkeeping.

What kind of game is Bribes & Stamps, exactly?

We file it on the Simulation shelf of the ledger. It is a browser game through and through — the prospectus above is the publisher's own summary of what the game asks of you and what it gives back.

Can I play Bribes & Stamps on a phone or tablet?

Yes — it runs in the browser on phones and tablets just as it does on a computer. The file is drawn wide, for a landscape screen — turn a phone sideways, or let a tablet or desktop give it room to breathe.

Is there anything to download or install first?

Nothing at all. Bribes & Stamps is an HTML5 game: press the open button and it loads on this very page, and closing the tab leaves nothing behind on your device.

Closing entry

Finished the audit, or still mid-season? The full Simulation shelf is one click away — The ledger's main hall: 302 simulations of everything from bus routes to burger counters to entire small lives. If it can be run, staffed, watered or worried over, somebody has simulated it and filed it here.