Curbside

The curb is calling.

We were somewhere around the redemption center, on the edge of the block, when the cans began to take hold.

Somebody threw out a perfectly good Broken iCall. You're gonna need that Broken iCall.

Curbside is a pixel game about walking the block, grabbing cans and bottles, digging through what the neighbors left out, and cashing it in at a recycling center run by a retired bowler. Then you buy better gear and do it all again. Faster. Bigger. Shinier.

How it works

The rules are simple. The rules are always simple. That's how they get you.

• Grab it. Cans, bottles, milk jugs, cardboard. A gold can if you're lucky. An old sock if you're not.
• Dig for it. Trash cans, bushes, dumpsters. Don't take too long. Somebody's watching.
• Sell it. Curbside Redemption, sponsored by nobody, on purpose. Otis runs it like a bowling lane. Toss your cans at the intake. Three strikes in a row is a turkey. "Gobble gobble, kid. Corporate can't score that."
• Upgrade. Hands ("Ten fingers. Zero overhead."). Grocery Bag. Backpack. A Shopping Cart, "borrowed indefinitely, one bad wheel." Golden Cart. And yes, a Diamond Cart.
• Sweep it. A dead salesman gives you a broom. From there it's a whole ladder of brooms. Bigger broom, bigger pile.

Climb from Curb Rookie to Bin Whisperer to Dumpster Duke. Nights pay double.

The neighborhood

The block is alive. It is also deeply, gloriously weird, and it does not care what you think about that. The Association runs things. The Association is, according to the mailman, "three people and a clipboard."

• Dale "Two-Stroke" Pruitt mows in stripes and fears nothing but crabgrass. "Crabgrass. Nineteen eighty-seven. It knows what it did." He once filed a complaint about the sun.
• Lenny the mailman. "Twenty-seven years. Never lost a letter. Lost some dignity." The beagle chasing him is named Senator. Senator now sits on the Association board.
• Mrs. K runs the porch. "Lemonade's fresh. Gossip's fresher."
• Chip Fairweather plays catch with his son Bucky. "Bucky's got an arm. He does not yet have aim."
• Kimber-Lee jogs past, protecting her peace. Can't stop. Hydrate or die-drate.
• Ol' Gus haunts Peaceful Acres and still sells vacuums. "I'm not a ghost. I'm a salesman. That's worse."
• Rusty "Doorknob" Malone is not a burglar. "Shh. I'm auditing. It's a free audit. Nobody asked for it."
• Sal "Two Bags" Pacheco works the same curbs you do. Leave your cart alone and it gets a little lighter. Those cans? "Community cans."

Every character is drawn and animated right on the pixel grid, and every line is voiced.

Try the free demo

The demo is the original neighborhood, fenced off with a big "under construction" sign. Everybody above lives in there. It's an early slice, rougher and smaller than where the game is now. Bring a bag. Trust nobody in a red cap.

Play it here: https://r0b0t0s.itch.io/curbside

The full game

The screenshots on this page are from the full game as it is now, still in development. Past the fence, things get stranger:

• More town. A dusty Southside with a McDumpsters ("Billions served. Some on purpose.") and a beekeeper whose bees unionized. Plus a downtown East side full of shops and very particular buyers.
• A robot arm that bolts onto your cart and sorts your haul while you work. Sorted loads sell for way more. The money counts up. It feels illegal. It isn't.
• A fresh coat of paint. New light from dawn to night, a river, bridges, and a billboard for luxury living, coming soon, since 1987.

What's coming

We're not gonna tell you everything. Some of it is still being argued about at 2 a.m. But.

• A river town is waking up. Somebody booked a band.
• When the music stops, somebody has to clean up. The night shift pays.
• The neighbors have secrets. One of them might follow you home.
• Scrapped Together. That's what we're calling 1.0.

Oh, and one more thing.

Someone's been going through your trash. We have reason to believe they have very small hands.

Where to play

Grab the cart. Take the ride.

• Free demo: https://r0b0t0s.itch.io/curbside
• Full game: right here on itch and on Steam Early Access. Coming soon.

Who made this

Curbside is made by jupitersoftco and r0b0t0s.

• r0b0t0s on itch: https://r0b0t0s.itch.io/
• More Curbside videos: https://www.youtube.com/@R0B0T0S
• Follow along: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jupitersoftco and X https://x.com/jupitersoftco