Fettle

Fettle is a prototype of the game of my dreams. 

It has bugs, and it is incomplete.

If you want to support me and the future of this and other projects, the best thing you can do is play it and tell me what you think, from inside the game. Press F1 at any time, or choose Write a note on the left, and type a sentence. Something broke, something confused you, an idea, something you liked: all of it helps.

If you enjoyed it and want to go above and beyond, please consider donating. The game is free and will stay free to play here.

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What Fettle is so far

You keep a small shop in a strange town, with a wizard in the back room who is not sure how you got here either. You buy old arms and armour, work out what they really are, bring them back into good condition, and sell them for more than you paid.

• A market that changes every morning. Stalls run by townsfolk who each talk about what they are selling in their own way. Buy single pieces, or take a chance on a whole crate.
• Reading a piece before you buy. Weigh it, check its balance, look at how it sits. What you learn narrows your guess at its worth, and you only get so many looks.
• The bench. Clean, polish and mend by hand, each its own small activity. Polish rewards care, and a mend can go wrong.
• The moment of truth. After every purchase the piece goes under the lamp and you find out what it was actually worth.
• A shop window. Set your own prices and watch who bites. Ask too much and it sits there; ask too little and it is gone in a minute.
• People at the counter. Customers, walk-in sellers to haggle with, and neighbours who drop off repair jobs.
• A town that gets to know you. Deal with someone often enough and they become a friend who brings better pieces, tells you more, and may ask a favour.
• The notice board and the guild. Take on requests for particular pieces, and send your best work away to be graded.
• Crane, the wizard. He can read what is bound into a piece, lay a working into it, and teach you things, for a fee. You also owe him money.
• Fifteen kinds of piece in ten metals, with rarity that has to be earned.
• An original soundtrack of fourteen tracks that follows the time of day.
• Your pace. A trading day lasts between 6 and 30 minutes, your choice, and you can hold the clock whenever you like.

Good to know

• It plays in your browser, and works best in fullscreen. Settings, at the foot of the left-hand column, has a slider for how large everything is drawn.
• Esc leaves fullscreen here. It also opens Settings, so in fullscreen use the Settings button on the left instead, and press the fullscreen button again if you get dropped out.
• Your shop is saved in your browser. Some browsers do not keep saves for games embedded in a page, so use Settings → Save a copy now and then to keep a file of your own.
• This copy sends me what gets clicked in the shop each day, and any crash, so I can see where the game goes wrong. No name and no account are involved, and Settings has the switch to turn it off. A note you write is only sent when you send it.

Ideas for the future

None of this is promised. It is where I would like the game to go.

• Pieces you can turn over in your hands, modelled in three dimensions and showing their real wear, dirt and shine.
• The town as a place you can see beside your shop, lit by the time of day, filling up as new residents move in and bring new trades with them.
• Real conversations with the people who come by, and things you can ask them.
• Adventurers and expeditions: kit out people you trust, send them out, and see what they bring home.
• A deeper bench, with enchantments and modifications that are worth agonising over.
• Names and histories for pieces, so the sword you sold last week can come back with a story.
• Weather, more kinds of goods such as jewellery and staves, a skill tree, and more than one shop on the go.
• The story of the place: who Crane is, what he is looking for, and whether you can get home.

Thank you

Thank you for playing something unfinished. Every note gets read.