Indie game Schedule I counts nearly half a million players – but what’s it about?
Schedule I has only been available on Steam for a week, but it’s already attracting hundreds of thousands of players. What’s behind the indie title?
The new indie game Schedule I has achieved player numbers that most triple-A studios dream of. On Sunday, 414,000 players were simultaneously playing the game, putting Schedule I in fourth place in the Steam charts – right behind perennial favourites Counter-Strike 2, PUBG and Dota 2. On sales charts, it’s in first place.
The game was released on Steam on 24 March in early access. The ratings also speak volumes: 98 per cent of the current 30,000 ratings are positive – dream results.
What’s Schedule I about?
If you’re not into living out your latent criminality in the virtual world, Schedule I isn’t for you. Your goal in the game is to build up a drug empire in the fictitious town of Hyland Point («high» land? Pun certainly intended!) Starting out as a penniless street thug, you borrow 300 dollars to buy a grow box for your first cannabis plant. But where do you get the seeds? You order them on your in-game smartphone, after which your contact leaves them in a secret stop, and you pay them via a dead letter box. Congratulations, the foundation for your business has been laid!
Once the plant is fully grown, you’ll need a packing table and plastic bags to portion out your harvest. You can then put it up for sale using the «Products» app on your in-game phone. You negotiate prices and the drop-off time with your customers via text message. You can win new customers by handing out free samples.
It’s not long before you get to expand your business and hire dealers to take the time-consuming task of selling your products off your hands. You then also gain access to new plant species, and later to hard drugs.
Side note: «Schedule I» is a term used by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) which refers to substances that are considered particularly dangerous. In addition to marijuana, LSD and heroin also fall into this category.
Who’s behind the game?
The developer and publisher behind Schedule I is TVGS, which stands for Tyler’s Video Game Studio, and may lead you to believe this is a one-man show. Tyler, who lives in Sydney, Australia, is indeed involved in the game. However, the credits reveal a trio: Tyler, his buddy Kaesul, who did the soundtrack, and Cody To, who designed the graffiti scattered around the city. The latter two are also listed as voice actors along with five other people. And that’s where the credits end.
In August 2024, Tyler first announced his game on Reddit, terming it an open-world co-op game that he’d been working on solo for the past several years, and releasing a trailer for it. The post has only received 414 upvotes to date.
On December 10, TVGS released a demo, fittingly titled Free Sample. According to SteamDB, it generally reached only double-digit player numbers until late January. From February onwards, the numbers went solidly into the triple digits – and have exploded since March. On 9 March, more than 30,000 people were hooked on the demo, before the full version was even released. The demo is playable to this day. It offers access to a limited city area and gives you a first look at the game.
The demo’s success explains why Schedule I launched with 68,000 simultaneous players. Since then, the numbers have continued to grow steadily.
1 month ago, Tyler teased the possibility of an Xbox and PlayStation release in a Reddit comment – «if the game goes well enough on Steam». And it clearly is going very well. Asked by a user how he felt about the game’s immense success, Tyler replied that he was quite overwhelmed and surprised by the success. He stated he’s currently trying to release patches as quickly as possible, planning content updates once all major bugs are patched.
According to App2Top magazine, the game might have generated sales of between nine and 62 million US dollars to date. The wide range of the estimate is due to the fact that the purchase price of the game varies from country to country.
GTA for drug dealers – with rudimentary graphics
Schedule I is by no means a simple cultivate-your-goods-and-pack-them simulator that basically just consists of mini-games. Despite the simple (or, according to my colleague Phil, «eye-offending») graphics, the game does give off GTA vibes. After all, it’s filled with people walking around the open world, cars driving by every now and then and police patrols doing their rounds. If you get caught with drugs or dealing them, you’re in trouble. And although the city’s population is sparse, it has a detailed design.
There are numerous stores, some of which you can buy. You explore Hyland Point using different means of transportation and, fittingly, deal with the inevitable violence that comes with the drug trade. As seen in the reveal trailer, the game features the infamous mobile home from the TV show Breaking Bad. Like GTA, Schedule I is filled with funny plays on brand-name products, for example «Cuke» instead of «Coke».
I tried the demo and was surprised at how well the game works and how sophisticated it is. It’s quite an achievement for a one-man project. The popularity of the game makes sense given its simple mechanics and accessibility. It’s probably also quite a hoot to play in multiplayer with up to four people.
Another game with a similar theme is Drug Dealer Simulator. Thanks to Unreal Engine, it offers significantly better graphics, but even at peak times shortly after its release in 2020, it was unable to attract more than around 7,500 gamers.
Header image: Debora Pape
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Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
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